How Digital Twins Can Help Fashion Retailers Avoid Greenwashing

Building Trust in Fashion: How Digital Twins Can Enhance Sustainability and Reduce Greenwashing

Fashion has a greenwashing problem, and it’s not just about fabric and fast fashion. As brands like ASOS, H&M and Zara face growing scrutiny for bold sustainability claims, the pressure is on to prove that what’s being said in headlines and marketing is happening behind the scenes. However, while product labels and supply chain initiatives get most of the attention, the operational side of retail, in particular building management, often goes unnoticed. Yet warehouses, fulfilment centres and even retail stores can be some of the biggest contributors to a brand’s carbon footprint.

That’s where digital twins come in, technology that enables real, measurable, transparent sustainability progress. Many fashion brands proudly promote sustainable fabrics, recycling initiatives, or carbon-neutral shipping, but can't accurately track or report on the energy usage, emissions and inefficiencies within their own retail estate.

This includes massive fulfilment centres with 24/7 HVAC and lighting, stockrooms with uncontrolled energy waste, stores with inconsistent building performance and poorly maintained systems driving up carbon and utility cost.

What Is a Digital Twin and Why Does It Matter?

Twinview can help retailers monitor energy use and carbon output across all locations, optimise HVAC, lighting and environmental conditions, automate sustainability reporting with real-time data and rack improvements and benchmark sites for ESG goals. Digital twins are already helping sectors like education, healthcare and infrastructure transition from claims to credibility.

While retailers like Zara have made attempts to reduce their carbon footprint and improve sustainability, they've also faced criticism for vague claims and inconsistent progress. Their warehousing and operational infrastructure, like that of many retailers, remains largely invisible to the public. But it’s in these spaces where digital twins could make a real impact: implementing early warning systems for equipment failures and energy spikes, providing real-time energy performance tracking, monitoring air quality and environmental conditions for employee wellbeing and enabling data-driven building upgrades to reduce emissions and costs over time. Digital twins don’t just reduce emissions; they also create a defensible record of action.

Consumers and regulators are no longer tolerating vague sustainability claims. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has cracked down on greenwashing in retail. The EU Green Claims Directive is also pushing for greater accuracy and proof in sustainability messaging. Beyond Europe, several laws in the U.S., including California’s Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (CCDAA, SB 253), the Climate-Related Financial Risk Act (CRFRA, SB 261), and AB 1305 on anti-greenwashing and voluntary carbon offsets, are also holding companies accountable. Retailers that can’t back up their claims with data are not just losing consumer trust; they’re facing increasing legal and reputational risk.

How Twinview Can Help Fashion Retailers Prove Sustainability, Not Just Promise It

With Twinview, fashion brands can seamlessly track and benchmark energy usage across all facilities. The platform automatically generates data for ESG and compliance reporting, linking operational performance directly to sustainability goals. By optimising energy efficiency at the building level, Twinview helps brands make measurable progress toward net-zero targets, providing real insights, not just green marketing claims.

Sustainability in fashion can’t stop at the product label. The buildings where inventory is stored, moved and sold are part of the story. Without transparency in these areas, green claims fall flat.

Twinview gives fashion retailers the tools to turn empty promises into measurable progress. In an industry that thrives on image, digital twins bring something more powerful: truth.