3.6 million trees: Passenger's benchmark for fashion sustainability

Passenger's sustainability journey

is leading the way amid the fashion and clothing industry's growing focus on climate action. Initiatives such as Textile Exchange's Climate+ strategy are bringing brands together around a shared goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by

45%

by 2030. Passenger has followed its own path, growing a simple promise - planting a tree for every order - into a broader sustainability strategy that has helped restore 3.6 million trees, protect more than 259 million square metres of rainforest, and strengthen transparency across its business and supply chain.

We caught up with Passenger to talk about what these milestones really means; how they are navigating disclosure frameworks and greenwashing scrutiny; and where their environmental journey goes from here.

While sustainable practices are growing across the clothing industry, global fibre production reached an estimated

132 million tonnes

in 2024, equivalent to four tonnes of material entering the market every second! This scale continues to strain environmental resources. 

Passenger's journey to 3.6 million trees planted deserves to be celebrated for helping reduce this impact. They have built their business around planting a tree for every order, and grown that into a wider programme of reforestation, rainforest protection, and long-term environmental stewardship.

When we first began planting trees, it was with the environment and carbon in mind, but since working with a number of tree planting partners around the world, we soon came to realise that it was much more than that, and there is a significant impact on communities, and the health and livelihoods of people living in them. We saw this firsthand when some of the team travelled to Uganda with long-term conservation partner Trees for the Future, to see the impact our tree planting has had on many communities there.

We have a broad sustainability strategy that covers our environmental and social impact, mostly related to our product supply chain: 

We’ve been really surprised by and pleased with the employment data that Earthly can provide, and the overall impact of the planting on local communities. We knew that there would be a long-term benefit to planting mangroves, especially when it comes to protecting homes from storms and improving livelihoods for coastal communities, but we hadn’t appreciated that there would be such a big and immediate impact on local employment through the planting itself. It’s great to see these numbers on our impact dashboard. 

Environmental reporting is becoming more structured across the apparel sector.

Sustainability disclosures and frameworks

such as TNFD, CSRD, ESRS, SBTi, SBTN, the GHG Protocol and CDP are giving businesses a common language for measuring and reporting their environmental impact. While each serves a different purpose, they all point to the same outcome: sustainability claims need to be backed by credible, transparent and independently verified data.

We’re working with industry partners

Fairly Made

to complete

Product Environmental Footprints

for all of our products. They’ve undertaken full life cycle assessments, taking into account the materials we’ve used, product weights, our supply chain and our shipping methods to create a detailed picture of our impact. This forms the bulk of our Scope 3 (indirect) Greenhouse Gas footprint, and we’ve used this information to set decarbonisation targets as well. In doing so we’ve achieved a 2x increase in transparency across our supply chain, ensuring verified, data-driven reporting and product claims. 

Ahead of mandatory regulations, Passenger is launching Digital Product Passports across much of our Autumn/Winter 2026 collection, giving our customers and retail partners complete data on garment lifecycles.

We’re assessed by

EcoVadis

and achieved a Bronze rating in our first year. We’re hoping to improve on that and utilise the standard to highlight areas where we can make improvements. We’re also rated ‘Good’ on the sustainable fashion rating site

Good On You

, having made some improvements in our rating this year. We’re using these frameworks to support our strategy and also inform the kind of information we make available publicly as they’re a great gauge of what our customers want to know more about. 

Yes, fashion and clothing brands can be responsile, by using lower-impact materials, adopting circular business models, having supply chain transparency and investing in nature-based projects.

The fashion industry accounts for an estimated

2% to 10%

of global carbon emissions and generates around 92 million tonnes of textile waste every year. At the same time, less than 1% of textiles are recycled back into new clothing, highlighting the scale of the industry's resource and waste challenges.

While no clothing brand can claim to have eliminated its environmental impact, Passenger is demonstrating that progress is possible through long-term commitments, measurable action and continuous improvement.

The outdoor sector is pretty advanced when it comes to sustainability innovation, using more responsible materials and setting challenging targets to reduce our impact. The most meaningful thing that we can do is keep going, spearheading changes and leading the overall apparel sector to do more. 

For meaningful reductions in impact, we have to focus our efforts on decarbonisation, reducing heat stress for workers, increasing the take-up of repair services and using post-consumer materials for our recycled inputs. 

Most of our decisions include some balance between the environmental impact of our business and commercial success, but we’re lucky that all of our people are committed to reducing our impact on the environment so we can usually find an agreement that tackles the sustainability concern whilst also meeting the needs of our customers. 

One of the things we’ve been working on recently is a reduction in the % of recycled content in our 50/50 recycled/organic cotton tees to improve their durability and longevity. It means a higher manufacturing impact because there’s more virgin material in the mix, but if we can make them more durable and last for longer, the overall impact will be lower and our customers will be even happier. 

Probably to look around their sector at other businesses, competitors or similar industries and see what they can learn from them. There is so much data, insight and guidance out there that businesses are rarely starting from scratch when it comes to reducing their impact these days. 

That might mean failing to measure all of the early improvements that you’ve made, but the earlier you start the better for everyone, even if you can’t take the credit or add it to your annual report. And don’t underestimate the benefit of simple actions like funding environmental causes and planting trees, for both the planet and your stakeholders. 

We’ve been planting trees since the early days; it’s something that’s at the core of Passenger so that won’t change. In total we’ve planted over 3.6million trees around the world with our long-term conservation partners Trees for the Future, One Tree Planted and now Earthly too. We also protect rainforest in partnership with Rainforest Trust and have protected over 259million sqm. 

We’ll continue to plant and protect, and may look to expand our partnerships or work with new partners. We’re hoping to scope out projects around water and nature in the near future. 

In the next few years, we’ll hopefully be well on our way through a meaningful climate transition plan that includes supply chain partnerships and be communicating this with our customers. We’ll be focusing on our supply chain as this is where most of our emissions are, and we’re also keen to ensure that the environmental benefits can also be felt in the communities affected by our business. Those might be workers in factories or the communities they live in. We’re keen to direct our efforts where we have the greatest influence and impact.

Passenger

is an outdoor clothing brand built around its "Made to Roam" philosophy - creating apparel for meaningful escapism, travel and life outdoors while encouraging people to reconnect with nature.

Responsibility has been central to the brand. Alongside investments in nature restoration, Passenger uses lower-impact materials, and works to extend the life of its products through circular initiatives.

Today, the brand's commitments include:

Passenger has been an

Earthly partner

since 2024. As a direct-to-consumer brand, they needed a partner that could help diversify its planting beyond East Africa while giving it the transparency and reliable impact data to keep customers engaged in its

Plant & Protect

story. Through Earthly, Passenger has planted over 1.5 million trees, expanding its planting footprint globally and strengthening its wider Plant & Protect commitment. 

Earthly's support helped Passenger scale their impact without locking into rigid forecasts or minimum volumes, which proved especially valuable during a year of US tariff disruption. That partnership supports the

mangrove regeneration project in Maroalika, Madagascar

, chosen for its dual role in long-term carbon storage and coastal community protection. Their positive impact so far includes:

Businesses that make sustainability claims without credible evidence risk greenwashing allegations from regulators, retail partners and customers. As frameworks such as TNFD, CSRD and SBTi become more widely adopted, businesses need robust data to support claims about climate, nature and biodiversity. 

Earthly helps businesses do that through:

Get in touch with Earthly

If your business is ready to turn nature investment into verified, reportable impact your customers and regulators expect.

How many trees has Passenger planted?

Passenger has planted over 3.6 million trees globally through partnerships with Earthly, Trees for the Future, and One Tree Planted, alongside protecting more than 259 million square metres of rainforest with Rainforest Trust.

What is a Digital Product Passport?

A Digital Product Passport is a digital record attached to a product that gives customers and retail partners visibility into a garment's full life cycle, including materials, care, repair, and resale options. Passenger is launching these across much of its Autumn/Winter 2026 collection ahead of mandatory EU regulation.

Why does tree planting create local employment?

Reforestation and mangrove regeneration projects typically employ local communities directly in planting, nursery management, and ongoing site protection, which is why nature investment partnerships like Passenger's with Earthly can generate measurable employment alongside carbon removal.

What does sustainability mean for a clothing brand?

For a clothing brand, sustainability typically covers reducing supply chain emissions, using recycled or responsibly sourced materials, improving factory working conditions, extending garment lifespan through repair and resale, and reporting progress against recognised frameworks such as TNFD, CSRD, and SBTi.

Jane Blacklock joined Passenger in 2023 as Head of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). She's been working in sustainability and ethical trade for over 18 years looking at working conditions in supply chains, responsible purchasing practices, marketing and sustainable raw materials.

Before joining Passenger she held roles at B&Q, FatFace, and Mothercare, as well as volunteering as a Trustee or Non-Executive Director for civil society organisations such as Women Working Worldwide and the Ethical Trading Initiative.