The Tamesis
Sustainability teams are fragmented. From reporting and compliance to developing responsible sourcing strategies to ingesting data from hundreds, if not thousands, of sources, everything happens at their desks. Even within multi-million dollar brands, these teams tend to be a handful of people, forced to spend more time buried in spreadsheets rather than driving the agenda-setting sustainability strategies they implement in this work. It’s no surprise that the prospect of ultra-efficient artificial intelligence is so tantalizing.
Industry insiders say AI can ease the pressure on sustainability teams and their supply chain partners by automating environmental reporting, improving data quality, repackaging data for different sources and verifying traceability. There are also potential efficiency gains in the supply chain itself through smarter use of materials and more accurate demand planning. “There are definitely a lot of positive outcomes in terms of helping sustainability teams [carry out] “Reporting allows them to focus more on planning rather than compliance,” said Annie Agle, vice president of impact and sustainability at American outdoor brand Cotopaxi.
But there’s a problem. The true impact of organizations using AI remains largely uncertain. Without careful tracking and measurement, brands may be unknowingly increasing their footprint through the technology they rely on to help reduce it.
“The benefits are very clear, but we also know there are negative impacts that are not yet understood,” Ager said. “We don’t know the impact of our digital footprint on our greenhouse gas emissions [greenhouse gas] Measurement. “
To learn how sustainability teams are embedding AI into their operations and how they are navigating these unknowns, fashion business Interviews were conducted with a small sample of brands representing different sizes and market segments. While some companies have been using AI for years, others are still in the experimental stages, but it’s clear that all believe AI has a role to play in growing their businesses.
How sustainability teams use artificial intelligence
H&M said it uses artificial intelligence in its supply chain, logistics, marketing, sales and customer experience, and that artificial intelligence is supporting its commitment to only make the products it sells. The company says it does this by increasingly harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to optimize how much of its products are produced, where and when they are sold. “It has a positive impact not only on resource consumption, but also on stocks, raw materials and emissions,” the brand explains.
Kering, the luxury goods group that owns brands such as Gucci and Balenciaga, appointed Pierre Houlès as chief digital, artificial intelligence and IT officer in March 2026. The group has been deploying artificial intelligence in selected brands for several years. Marie-Claire Daveu, chief sustainability and institutional affairs officer, said that like H&M, the company is using analytical artificial intelligence to help predict demand and optimize inventory levels for each product. Like Cotopaxi, it uses artificial intelligence to automate and improve the reliability of reporting, using tools that automatically collect data from Kering websites and intelligently correct the data. At the product development level, its materials innovation laboratory in Italy is dedicated to researching and incubating more sustainable materials and has developed an eco-design artificial intelligence agent to provide technical guidance to its design team. This helps build bridges between often siled design and sustainability teams to ensure one team’s output doesn’t compromise the goals of the other.
While H&M and Kering have integrated AI into key parts of their operations over the years, for other brands it’s mainly about lightening the load. “We are still in the early stages of exploration when it comes to artificial intelligence,” Everlane CEO Alfred Chang said in a statement. fashion business. “We focus on how it supports day-to-day internal processes and time-consuming administrative tasks.”
