Ethical Jeans

Finding an ethical and sustainable pair of jeans

This guide to sustainable jeans rates over 50 brands, from some of the biggest names like Levi and Diesel to high street staples like H&M and Primark; from new online ultra-fast fashion challengers like Temu and Shein to small specialist independent brands like BAM and Lucy and Yak. Plus we've included some secondhand retailers as well. 

We look at the materials and chemicals used to make jeans, review options for recycling and buying secondhand jeans, as well workers' rights, including some good news about new ways of working. We also look at price and quality. 

With many of the brands failing to score more than 25 (out of 100), and some scoring way over 75, there's plenty of options to find an ethical pair of jeans. 

Which are the biggest brands of jeans?

The most commonly owned jeans brand in the UK is Primark, followed in order by M&S, Next, Levi’s, H&M, Zara, Diesel, Wrangler, Calvin Klein, and Gap. 

Sustainability issues for denim and jeans 

The environmental impact of jeans can vary significantly depending on the materials and processes used. We look at some of the key sustainability issues like water use, chemicals and the materials themselves.

Water usage and cotton

Cotton is the primary fibre used to make denim, and requires a lot of water to grow.

Some sources say producing a typical pair of jeans requires 1,800 gallons of water, others 7,600 gallons. One thing that’s agreed is that it’s a lot. But it’s too complex to put a simple figure on.

Usually the figure for water usage for a pair of jeans comes from one or a mixture of these:

• Blue water – groundwater or surface water (the sensitive type that we need to carefully manage)
• Green water – this is rainwater that feeds cotton, and would fall anyway
• Grey water – water needed to return polluted water back to a safe, usable condition

These figures can vary drastically from one pair of jeans to another. For example, cotton produced in Brazil requires 17 litres of blue water per kg of land, versus 13,696 litres in Turkmenistan.

Some growers use regenerative cotton growing practices, which could reduce the overall amount of water needed, but this isn’t industry norm. Gucci has for example used a small amount of regenerative cotton, but the top scorers in the guide seem to be opting for organic and recycled.

Chemicals used for dyeing materials

Indigo may be the oldest natural dye in the world, and it exists in different plant species worldwide, in varying strengths. The oldest material dyed with indigo is 6,200 years old from Peru.

However, today synthetic dyes are cheaper and quicker to produce, and require smaller amounts to dye cotton than natural indigo. But synthetic dyes can be environmentally damaging.

Pollution has been reported near many jeans manufacturing sites worldwide, for example in Bangladesh, which can affect crop fields, and in Lesotho where denim production visibly polluted some waterways with blue dye. Some researchers suspect it could negatively affect fish populations, too.

The problems with creating a ‘worn jeans' look

Obviously, we love our jeans to look old and battered like we’ve been on very important adventures! So how is that ‘worn’ look created?

Workers used to fire sand at high speed at jeans to create the effect, which was very harmful to their respiration. Fortunately, due to campaigning supported by Ethical Consumer and many others, this is not widely practised any more.

Chemicals, such as bleach and potassium permanganate, can also create a similar effect. However, these can contaminate water and affect respiration if mishandled.

One increasingly common method for creating the ‘worn’ look involves laser technology. Lasers heat the dye in fabrics up to 600°C, apparently evaporating it in a process called ‘sublimation’ and revealing the undyed cotton beneath. Many brands use this technique, including Nudie, MUD, H&M, and Levi’s.

Sustainable materials in denim

At Ethical Consumer, when we say a company uses the most ‘sustainable’ materials we mean at least 95% of the materials it uses are organic, recycled, reused, or other major environmental alternative materials like hemp. Kuyichi, Living Crafts, MUD, and Nudie use the most sustainable materials, alongside second-hand brands Beyond Retro, Depop, Preworn, Thrifted and Vinted.

Some brands have a much lower bar for what ‘sustainable’ means, for example Wrangler defines cotton as ‘sustainable’ as long as it’s grown in the US, Africa, or Australia.

Brands might also describe jeans as ‘recycled’ without specifying percentages. Boohoo for example sells “PETITE RECYCLED HIGH WAIST SKINNY JEANS”, but provides no information about how much of the material is actually recycled, so it could be a negligible amount. While 40% is really high for recycled content in jeans, 15% is quite good and 1% pretty meaningless. 

How do jeans brands rate for climate actions? 

15% of brands received full marks for their approach to carbon, compared to 24% that received zero marks. Some brands have stringent policies and science-based targets, but campaigners have revealed that they are not on track to deliver their promises, including Fast Retailing (Uniqlo), Gap, H&M, Inditex (Zara), and Kering (Gucci). Levi’s was the only brand rated by Stand.earth as being on track to meet its public target.

Repair and recycling schemes for jeans 

Some of the brands in this guide offer repair and recycling services. 

Nudie offers free repairs for life, and returning an old pair of Nudie’s for recycling gets you 20% off a new purchase. Kuyichi will also recycle your old jeans.

For other repair and recycling options, read our feature article on upcycling, repairing and recycling clothing, to save worn out jeans going to landfill. 

Sustainability schemes and certifications for cotton and materials

There are several different schemes available which seek to certify cotton and other materials used in clothing. 

GOTS, BCI and Bluesign 

GOTS shows that jeans are organic and Better Cotton Initiative is reasonably good too (see p.25 for more).

Bluesign only addresses a small stage of jeans manufacture – focusing on chemical management – but it’s a positive step. Patagonia is a Bluesign member.

Jeans Redesign project

Changing Markets Foundation claims the Jeans Redesign project logo gave Primark “licence to greenwash”, because the brand used it to promote its ‘circular denim’ products that contained synthetic elastane blended fabrics make recycling difficult.

Participating in this initiative is supposed to signal that a product meets several minimum sustainability requirements, but the Foundation says repercussions for brands failing to meet the requirements are unclear.

Cradle to Cradle (C2C)

Brand members of the Cradle to Cradle scheme are apparently able to “cherry-pick which issues to tackle” under this scheme according to Changing Markets. It says Primark heavily promoted its C2C jeans, which amounted to just two of its 540 women’s clothing products.

Fairtrade cotton

Regarding workers’ rights, Fairtrade cotton is used by some brands (such as Nudie which uses it for cotton products).

We have further articles on organic clothing and fair trade clothing where you can explore these topics in more detail.

Animal-friendly jeans

Are jeans vegan? 

The leather patch on jeans is the most common animal rights issue associated with jeans. Some companies use replacement materials for the patch, such as Jacron (a faux-suede material).

Beyond Retro, Preworn, Thrifted, and Vinted only use second-hand animal materials (so are ethical enough for a freegan, but not someone who wishes to avoid all animal products).

Lucy & Yak and MUD are the only completely vegan companies in this guide.

Take action on Levi’s! PETA is campaigning to get Levi’s to become a trendsetter for popular brands by switching to vegan leather patches. Sign the PETA petition.

Are jeans brands exploiting animals elsewhere in their business?

Among Gucci's animal-sourced offerings are a lizard bag and a python card case. Gucci’s small light blue crocodile tote bag is available for just £28,990. PETA claims a Gucci supplier in Indonesia "plunged conscious and struggling lizards into buckets of water before beheading them", pointing out how lizards can remain alive for up to 30 minutes in pain after being beheaded.

H&M has been criticised by PETA for ‘cutting up’ goats for mohair and cashmere, after it reversed its bans of these materials (you can sign a petition asking for the ban’s reinstatement).

Find out more about the use of animal products in clothing in our separate feature article.

Ethical jeans for every budget

We looked at the cost of typical jeans for a range of our Best Buys and Recommended brands to find options for all budgets.

We capped the range at £120, but there’s one pair on Vinted for £4,540 if you want to splash out!

High price tags don’t automatically mean jeans will last you longer: some cheap fast-fashion jeans (like H&M) are, according to Which?, more durable than expensive brands like Levi’s. But Which? hasn't assessed all our top ethical brands for durability unfortunately.

Prices based on brand websites in January 2024 (excluding postage). 

Workers: brands are paying poverty wages

A third of brands received 0 points under our Workers’ Rights category, and several brands lost marks for not asking suppliers to pay a living wage. Boohoo, Gap, Levi’s, and M&S are among the brands that only expect workers to receive the legal minimum wage in their country – rarely enough for workers to live on.

Jeans brands have been asked to used to use their leverage to increase wages

The new minimum wage introduced in November 2023 by the Bangladeshi government is well below inflation, and it’s dangerous for workers to speak out – at least three have been killed for protesting against it. Clean Clothes Campaign is calling on fashion brands to use their influence to pressure the Bangladeshi government to increase wages to a fair rate. But it’s hard to imagine brands would do this because they’re not renowned for putting much effort in to ensure workers get fair pay.

For example, Clean Clothes also criticises H&M because, in 2013, it said it would pay all supply chain workers a living wage by the deadline of 2018. Now it allegedly tries to “cover up that commitment, pretending they have been saying something else all along”.

Groundbreaking worker-led rights programme in jeans supply chains bears fruit

A specific type of workers’ rights programme, called ‘Worker-driven Social Responsibility’ (WSR), has proven successful at addressing systemic and widespread workers’ rights abuses in different sectors worldwide.

One WSR programme exists in the Levi’s supply chain in Lesotho, South Africa, known as the ‘Lesotho Agreement’.

Constant sexual harassment at Lesotho denim factories

Lesotho is Africa’s second-largest exporter of clothing (after Kenya), and approximately 80% of Lesotho's garment workers are female, while most supervisors are male. A 2019 investigation by the NGO Worker Rights Consortium exposed severe and extensive sexual violence, coercion and abuse affecting workers at three garment factories in Lesotho, which collectively employed 10,000 workers. This violated the country’s labour laws, international standards, and the codes of conducts of the brands to whom they were major suppliers, including Levi’s.

Damning investigation forces brands to the table WRC’s damning investigation created very bad publicity for brands sourcing from these factories, including Levi’s, Wrangler, and Lee, where workers were being abused. Rola Abimourched, Deputy Director of Investigations and Gender Equity at Worker Rights Consortium, says: “It was the combination of brands feeling like their reputation was coming under fire, combined with unions and NGOs presenting a solution that would work, that led to brands taking action.”

How does the WSR programme work?

WSR programmes can look very different to each other because they are hand-tailored to the unique needs of workers in that specific sector and location. But all of them involve a big brand becoming legally responsible for suspending orders with a supplier if the programme requirements are violated.

Here are four of the key elements of the Lesotho WSR programme:

1. It established an independent complaints investigation body which decides whether, and what, disciplinary action must be taken when a worker speaks out against the supplier. (Usually, complaints mechanisms are run by brands or suppliers… Who came up with that daft idea?)
2. It got brands (Levi’s, Kontoor brands which owns Lee and Wrangler, and The Children’s Place) to sign a legally binding agreement. This is what ensures that the disciplinary action decided by the complaints body actually happens – because if the supplier fails to act, brands must legally reduce orders with it.
3. A massive worker education programme in which all workers receive paid training on what their rights are and how to complain.
4. Brands were obliged to provide funding for the first two years of the programme.

What’s the impact of the WSR programme?

Today, most workers have a basic level of trust in the complaint mechanism and a willingness toreport abuse through it – a major transformation from the previous attitudes to reporting genderbased violence and harassment at the factories.

Reversing the race to the bottom

WSR is a fascinating model because it turns the usual relationship between brands and suppliers on its head. Usually, big brands scour the globe to find the cheapest suppliers, then try to pressure them into lowering costs further. Suppliers therefore cut costs more and workers pay the price. WSR programmes show how brands’ buying power can be used to pressure suppliers to improve conditions for workers instead.

First WSR programme in apparel

The first WSR programme in apparel is the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (now the International Accord). This legally binding agreement saw virtually undisputed improvements in health and safety conditions in factories in Bangladesh that supply major fashion brands, with brands originally being pressured to sign the agreement after the collapse of the eight-story Rana Plaza garment factory in 2013, killing over 1000 people.

Unravelling secretive supply chains

As WSR programmes demonstrate, when connections are exposed between big brands and suppliers it’s much easier to force them to take responsibility and use their power for good. But often brands don’t make it easy for us to make that link.

Here we celebrate brands trying to boost transparency in the world of jeans supply chains (and name and shame those that are secretive about suppliers).

Super transparent supply chain: Nudie Jeans

Nudie’s website has a downloadable spreadsheet naming all worldwide suppliers and much more detail too, including:

• When the supplier started producing for them.
• How much of that supplier’s products are destined for Nudie’s. This is useful information because if Nudie’s only buys 1% of a supplier’s products, it probably can’t influence the supplier much. But if everything the supplier makes ends up at Nudie’s, Nudie’s has huge power to ask the supplier to make changes.
• How many workers are at the supplier, broken down by gender.
• When the last audits and visits from Nudie’s to the supplier were.

This goes well beyond the detail of any large jeans brand. Of the big brands, Mango has the most in-depth and accessible supplier list.

How transparent are denim brands’ supply chains?

In the table below we list the levels of transparency in jean supply chains for the brands in this guide.

Directors of big brands paid over £10m

In contrast to the poverty wages and workers' rights abuses, the directors of several of the big brands in this guide are very well paid.

Directors at Amazon, Etsy (Depop), Gap, Kering, Levi's, PVH, and TJX received total annual compensation above £10m.

Amazon’s executive Andrew Jassy topped the pile in 2021 with £167m. Points were lost for these companies in the Company Ethos category.