Last month, Tapestry, the parent company of Coach and Kate Spade, signed a 10-year partnership with Swiss carbon removal startup Climeworks. This is a bold move. Such long-term support is something most climate solutions can only dream of, and sustainability has become an increasingly sensitive issue for U.S. businesses. The Trump administration is systematically cracking down on climate action, rewriting or removing critical climate databases, cutting funding for scientific research, and fostering a culture of fear for companies that are publicly committed to the cause.
“This was an opportunity for us to establish a long-term partnership and send market signals that this type of innovation is needed,” says Logan Duran, Tapestry’s global head of ESG and sustainability, in an exclusive interview with Vogue Business. “There are going to be emissions that we’re unable to address, and we need credible, long-term, durable carbon removal solutions to address them.”
There are several reasons why this is not a perfect solution: the partnership is designed to offset Tapestry’s Scope 1 emissions, but most of fashion’s emissions fall under Scope 3. Carbon removal is also a new and relatively controversial approach to offsetting emissions, and carbon offsetting itself is generally seen as a last resort.
Still, it represents rare progress for a U.S. fashion company in the current climate. Duran explains that Tapestry is able to make investments like this because his team has strengthened the business case for sustainability. It’s a complex process, and every brand seems to take a different approach. Tapestry’s strategy focuses on quantifying climate risks, highlighting the cost of inaction—a topic covered in a recent Apparel Impact Institute report—and positioning sustainability as central to both present and future business resilience. Here’s how they did it.
The Tapestry Foundation has a multi-year, $3 million partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) aimed at advancing more sustainable leather production and biodiversity protection. This includes projects that prevent deforestation, restore degraded landscapes, and create sustainable livelihoods for local communities, addressing key climate risks identified in their scenario analysis.
Mapping climate risks
In 2022, Duran’s team completed its first climate risk scenario analysis—a dynamic process designed to help Tapestry understand how climate change will impact its business in the future. It’s a multi-year effort, and its accuracy has improved over time.
For the second iteration, completed at the end of 2025, the team focused on two types of risk: physical risks and transition risks. “The physical risks are generally more straightforward,” Duran explains. “We identified around 250 sites across the organization, from corporate offices and retail stores to fulfillment centers and Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers. We looked for risks like potential flooding, droughts, and extreme heat, and how these issues might impact the organization in the long run.”
Measuring transition risks is more complex. Instead of just identifying climate risks, the team modeled how certain challenges and opportunities would affect Tapestry’s bottom line in a low-carbon economy—assuming the industry acts quickly and comprehensively to meet sustainability targets—versus a high-carbon economy, where progress continues to lag. These factors include regulation, the cost of raw materials, and the revenue potential of circular solutions like upcycling, which has shown strong results for Tapestry’s Coachtopia sub-brand.
Based on the analysis, the most significant risks are the cost of complying with upcoming regulations—often borne by suppliers, despite frequent pressure from brands—and the consequences of changing weather patterns. The latter risk is a double-edged sword.Climate change presents a double-edged sword for supply chains. Workers face growing dangers like extreme heat in factories, which harms both their health and the quality of their work. At the same time, more frequent and severe weather events—such as hurricanes and floods—disrupt how safely employees can reach factories and stores, and how efficiently products can be shipped worldwide.
“The cost of doing nothing is significant, and we will keep seeing the consequences,” says Duran. “At Tapestry, we don’t want to wait. We must keep investing in solutions and prepare both ourselves and our suppliers to meet these challenges.”
Integrating Sustainability into Strategy
The first step is mapping these risks, Duran explains. Equally important is sharing this analysis with key internal stakeholders, securing support from executives and the board, and using the insights to guide strategic decisions across the company—not just within the sustainability team.
“Scenario analysis shows that ESG, climate resilience, and managing climate risk are deeply tied to creating value and running the company effectively,” says Duran. “What’s exciting is that we’ve integrated this analysis into our broader enterprise risk management. That means it has wider support and is presented to our board. It lets us make strategic supply chain decisions not just for the next year or two, but for the next 10 to 15 years.”
This climate risk analysis is helping Duran’s team advocate for more investment in circular business models. One success story is Coachtopia, a Coach sub-brand that upcycles leather scraps.
For colleagues outside the sustainability team, the analysis makes it clear that climate change is not a distant issue—it’s happening now.
There is also growing pressure for boards to consider climate risks. In 2015, the Financial Stability Board created the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to standardize how companies report these risks. Although the task force ended in 2023, its recommendations now inform several global regulations. For example, California’s Climate-Related Financial Risk Act (SB261) will require companies operating in the state with over $500 million in annual revenue to report climate-related financial risks every two years. Investors are also increasingly interested in how climate change will affect company profits.
Next, Duran plans to undertake a comprehensive true cost accounting exercise. This approach accounts for hidden externalities—like regulatory costs, overproduction, potential environmental harm, and social issues—alongside the upfront cost of goods. “We’re having more internal discussions to understand how all this affects a product’s total cost,” he says. “For instance, if we switch to a preferred material, could that lower future extended producer responsibility fees? How can we assess a product’s full financial impact throughout its lifecycle, not just its initial cost?”
Building Stronger Supplier Relationships
Duran notes that such analysis is only possible when a company understands its supply chain and has trusting relationships with suppliers. Three years ago, Tapestry moved its sustainability team from the legal department into the supply chain function. Duran now reports to Chief Supply Chain Officer Peter Charles.
“This change does a few things,” Duran explains. “It involves me in high-level strategic conversations as part of the supply chain leadership team, where I can raise environmental and social responsibility topics. It also embeds sustainability directly into our supply chain operations.”Our team is based in Singapore, with a direct link to our sourcing office in Asia and close collaboration with our on-the-ground teams who are in the factories every day. This deep involvement has enabled us to integrate social and environmental responsibility into the wider supply chain more quickly.
To carry out its scenario analysis, Tapestry needed to build stronger partnerships with suppliers—a long-term effort, according to Duran. He highlights the company’s work with RISE, an initiative focused on advancing gender equality in business and driving systemic change across global supply chains. In 2025, Tapestry provided 106,000 workers with access to these programs.
In addition to day-to-day engagement with suppliers, Tapestry holds an annual supplier summit, rotating between China and Southeast Asia. At last fall’s event, Duran’s team spent significant time walking through the climate risk scenario analysis—what it means for suppliers and how they can collaborate to mitigate and adapt to each risk. Importantly, Duran notes that Tapestry funds much of this work, helping overcome a major barrier to scaling sustainability transformations in supply chains. The company recently completed the second round of its year-long supplier decarbonization program, which guides its top 40 Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers through an in-depth energy audit and creates a tailored action plan for each.
For instance, Pungkook Ben Tre (PK), a strategic Tier 1 supplier, began installing a rooftop solar system last year at its facility in Vietnam. With partial funding from Tapestry, the goal is to generate 1,200 MWh of solar power annually—covering about 30% of the site’s energy use. Similarly, Simone, another key Tier 1 supplier in Vietnam, installed a rainwater recycling system in 2025 designed to reuse over 20% of the facility’s water, following an assessment funded by Tapestry. The company continues to support both suppliers during implementation.
To encourage and recognize such investments, Tapestry has also added sustainability metrics to its supplier scorecard alongside traditional KPIs like on-time delivery, cost, and quality. “Part of their score now comes from social compliance, and another part from environmental performance,” Duran explains. “This ties the value we create through sustainability directly to the business value of standing out in the supply chain.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about Tapestry building a business case for sustainability designed to sound like questions from a real person
Beginner Definition Questions
1 What does building a business case for sustainability even mean
It means showing how sustainability initiatives arent just nicetohave charity projects Its about proving they create real business valuelike saving money attracting customers or avoiding future risksjust like any other smart investment
2 Who is Tapestry and why should I care about their sustainability efforts
Tapestry is the parent company of iconic brands like Coach Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman As a major global fashion group their actions influence supply chains set industry trends and show how big companies can integrate purpose with profit
3 Isnt sustainability just about recycling and being green
Thats a big part of it but for a company like Tapestry its much broader It includes ethical labor practices sourcing materials responsibly designing durable products supporting communities and ensuring their entire business model is resilient for the long term
Benefits Why Now Questions
4 Whats the main business benefit for Tapestry Does it actually help the bottom line
Yes in several key ways
Cost Savings Reducing energy water and material waste directly cuts operational costs
Brand Reputation Customer Loyalty Modern consumers especially younger ones prefer brands that align with their values
Risk Management It prepares them for stricter environmental regulations and avoids supply chain disruptions from climaterelated events
Innovation Focusing on sustainable materials and processes can lead to new desirable products
5 How does sustainability attract customers or investors
Customers are increasingly making purchasing decisions based on a brands ethics and environmental impact Investors see companies with strong sustainability plans as better managed forwardthinking and less risky which can positively affect stock price and access to capital
Common Problems Challenges
6 Whats the biggest challenge Tapestry probably faces in this area
The fashion industrys complex global supply chain Tracing materials back to their source to ensure they are truly sustainable and ethical is incredibly difficult and expensive It requires deep