What is a New York City handbag giant doing in central Illinois, where it lacks boutiques, offices and factories? Tapestry, which runs the Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman brands, together with Pivot Energy, completed three community solar projects on Jan. 8. They total 13.5 megawatts, enough to power about 2,500 homes.

Two more installations will follow those just established in Peoria, Ottawa and tiny Dover, Illinois, in a 15-year partnership, announced in 2023.

The five community solar projects will add up to a modest 33 megawatts. However, those clean electrons are instrumental to Tapestry’s goal for 2025, which it reached, to count 100 percent renewables across its own operations, according to Logan Duran, global head of ESG and sustainability at Tapestry.

“Getting our own house in order from a renewables perspective was the first step,” Duran said, “simultaneously continuing to engage with our long-term and strategic partners in the supply chain, on the facility and factory level.”

In pursuit of its science-based net zero deadline of 2050, Tapestry is stretching toward a new target, announced Dec. 22. By 2030, it seeks to power 40 percent of its supply chain with renewables. Today that’s at 12 percent.

Ninety-nine percent of the corporation’s climate emissions are in Scope 3. By 2030, Tapestry aims for 42 percent cuts over 2022 levels.

In 2025, the business noted a 14 percent rise in Scope 3 emissions since 2021, which it is seeking to reset to 2022 to account for the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emissions intensity dropped by 10 percent in the same period.

Land of Lincoln

The corporation took a portfolio approach toward its achieved goal of 100 percent renewables for its own offices, stores and fulfillment centers.

“What we found was, we have a lot of stores but they all have small roofs,” Duran said. The company, which has more than a dozen stores in the Chicago area, liked Denver-based Pivot Energy’s proposition for a long-term Renewable Energy Credit (REC) offtake agreement in Illinois.

The project-based REC allows Tapestry to take credit for the clean electricity and its associated emissions reductions. 

“We can’t necessarily track direct electrons to our individual stores but if we’re able to stay within the same grid or within the same region, we felt like it was meaningful from a commitment perspective,” Duran said.

The bulk of Tapestry’s 2025 emissions

“Illinois has become a favorable market for renewable energy development, with the enactment of the Clean and Equitable Jobs Act,” noted Pivot Energy Senior Director of Project Development Buzz Becker. The law, enacted in 2021, offers incentives for RECs and requires social equity support for new energy installations.

Supporting the local community also appealed to Duran. Illinois consumers who opt for the solar power can enjoy discounted utility bills. Meanwhile, Illinois Central College and HIRE360 receive $65,000 contributions from Pivot Energy, a certified B Corporation based in Denver.

“This project announcement makes state policy tangible,” said Matthew Popkin, U.S. program manager at RMI. “Illinois encouraged the market to use community solar to not only meet today’s energy needs but also increase consumer access to fixed-cost energy and support longer-term workforce development goals.”

The energy portfolio

In other markets, Tapestry uses a mix of unbundled and bundled RECs as well as Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs).

In Europe, Tapestry is among 12 brands joining the Fashion Pact in a Collective Virtual Power Purchase agreement, announced in 2023. The solar project they’re supporting in Spain would generate an estimated 100 MW under peak sunlight.

Tapestry is also directly helping suppliers to adopt renewable energy and ditch coal by 2026, part of risk mitigation within its sustainability work. 

“If there are random brownouts or blackouts or disruptions, it obviously impacts our ability to manufacture and move product,” Duran said.

The company’s decarbonization program last year engaged with 40 suppliers across Tiers 1 and 2, addressing about 70 percent of its suppliers’ emissions. For instance, Tapestry paid for onsite assessments and feasibility studies for Tier 1 contract supplier Pungkook Ben Tre to install solar panels in Vietnam.

In addition, Tapestry engages with the Apparel Impact Institute to help tanneries slash emissions.

Materials and nature

Circularity and biodiversity protection are other core focuses for the accessory brands’ sustainability work.

Almost all of Tapestry’s leather tanneries are rated Gold or Silver by the Leather Working Group. Environmentally preferred materials include “wet blue” leather scrap from startup Gen Phoenix. That only appears in the experimental Coachtopia brand, but products are being developed for the main line, too, Duran said.

“When we look at the longevity, the durability and the intrinsic quality of the material, it ultimately really lends itself well to things like the circular economy,” he said of leather, its main material.

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Throughout their lifecycle, buildings are among the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and waste. Erecting and operating structures accounts for one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, while construction and demolition waste amounted to 30-40 percent of the total global solid waste stream in 2022.

And that is unlikely to change until governments and owners demand it.

“What’s built depends on what jurisdictions mandate and clients specify,” said Eamonn Connolly, director of engineering at Chicago-based McHugh Construction. Low carbon is currently not an emphasis — and even if it were, diffusion of best practices across the industry is sluggish. 

The construction industry has historically been a slow adopter of almost everything, including sustainability. But there is progress. “As companies, individuals, entities, and suppliers gain experience, they become more capable and open to advocating for low-carbon strategies,” Connolly added.

Architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms must embrace approaches that support fundamental change, because incremental improvements are no longer enough. Here are four trends to watch for in 2026 — none completely new, but all coming into their own.

Adapt, don’t build

Architects know that the most sustainable building is the one never built. Not building cuts the embodied carbon energy required to extract natural resources, manufacture and transport materials, and build structures. And that means reusing existing structures.

Detroit’s redevelopment offers a lauded example. Many projects feature buildings on local, state or national historic registers. Often, the materials and craftsmanship aren’t cheap — or can’t be had today at any price. Retrofitting with energy-saving components delivers significant efficiencies, and renovations that preserve the building envelope typically take far less time and money.

Adaptive reuse goes a step further by finding new uses for old structures. Detroit-based architecture firm McIntosh Poris has led in stopping the wrecking ball and giving structures new life. The firm transformed a 1925 bank building into a techno nightclub called Panacea, the former Detroit Fire Department Headquarters into the boutique Detroit Foundation Hotel and Fischer Body Plant 21 (below) — opened in 1919 and abandoned in 1993 — into multi-use apartments with retail and co-working space. 

Adaptive reuse produced approximately 25,000 new apartments across the country in 2024, a 50-percent increase year-over-year. Nationwide, projects are on the upswing, with a record-breaking 181,000 apartments in development, mostly from office spaces never reclaimed after the pandemic. A driving factor is the boost in affordable housing from reusing structures, which cuts construction expenses and timelines for units in desirable locations. For example, at least 20 percent of the units at the Fisher 21 Lofts will be designated for residents earning at or below 80 percent of the area median income. Tax credits and government incentives can make these developments more economical with mixed-income properties and help revitalize older neighborhoods.

Design around climate

Instead of one-size-fits-all architecture, climate-responsive design focuses on energy efficiency that arises from the site and environment. Designers orient structures to block or capture sun and wind, and select materials that naturally reduce energy use and embodied carbon. The result: reducing the use of mechanical systems for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting. 

For instance, natural airflow decreases the need for electric cooling. So, architecture firm Foster + Partners designed the Bloomberg European HQ in London to feature a unique “breathable” façade. Automated bronze louvers open and close to provide natural ventilation and, combined with a central atrium, reduce energy use by about 35 percent compared to a typical office.

Climate-responsive design has evolved into holistic architecture driven by data and technology. Google’s Bay View campus in Silicon Valley, opened in 2022, features a massive geothermal system, solar roofs, 100 percent outside air ventilation, natural light, native landscapes and net-zero water use.

Still, the vast majority of the world’s building stock needs to be transformed for true climate responsiveness.

Reenvision glass

The appeal of sleek glass curtain walls, combined with light and open interiors, explains why glass is the material used for more than half the exterior surface of modern skyscrapers. That typically leads to poor energy efficiency given glass’s low insulating value. But several innovations can dramatically reduce energy loss from glass facades: 

• Low-emissivity coatings to control heat flow 
• Insulated glass units that seal two or three panes inside, cutting heat loss
• Using denser argon and krypton to replace air between panes, slowing heat transfer even more 

The logical progression is windows that can generate energy by capturing light and converting it into electricity — as NEXT Energy Technologies’ windows do at Patagonia’s corporate headquarters in Ventura, Calif.

Also crucial is increasing the sustainability of manufacturing, which requires mining of sand, soda ash and limestone, and running furnaces fed by fossil fuels at 1500 degrees Celsius. To address these issues, manufacturers are increasing recycled glass content, using cleaner oxy-fuel technology, improving furnace efficiency and capturing carbon. Given glass’s infinite recyclability, it has the potential to become a true circular material.

Optimize with AI

The consensus from a survey of 235 contractors by Dodge Construction Network is that AI will transform the industry once construction adopts technologies that use it. But that may take time; in Yooz’s 2023 Technology in the Workplace survey, workers in construction viewed their own industry as the least technologically advanced. 

Still, construction is seeing the value of AI. Autodesk’s 2025 State of Design & Make: Spotlight on Construction report highlights some of the top use cases for AI in sustainability, including supporting data-driven decision-making, analyzing and improving supply chains, enhancing reporting, optimizing energy use and efficiency, and reducing material waste. 

Questions about data privacy and security remain. Still, architects and engineers are using generative AI to explore alternatives for structural design that use the least material while maintaining integrity. AI programs can be trained to predict the exact material quantities a project requires, eliminating over-ordering and cutting cost and waste. By quantifying embodied carbon in materials, AI can also help reduce a project’s carbon footprint.

Digital twins — virtual replicas of real-world entities such as buildings — also use AI to predict behavior from design to end of life. Continually updating digital twins with data from sources like embedded sensors enables managers to test new ideas and make changes. For instance, a digital twin of Heathrow Terminal 5 simulates energy use, airflow and thermal comfort for greater efficiency and post-occupancy performance.

Double down

By 2050, the global building stock is expected to double. The practices and tools to lower future buildings’ carbon footprints are out there, awaiting demand and adoption. “We’re just an industry waiting for the signal to do more,” said Connolly.  

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There’s truth to the adage, “Out of sight, out of mind.”

At least, that’s what research from Trellis data partner GlobeScan shows when it comes to the sharp decline in the public visibility of sustainability messaging by brands. Across more than 30 global markets surveyed, the reach and credibility of sustainability communications diminished in the last year. In 2025, only 36 percent of consumers reported seeing at least “some” sustainability messaging from brands, down from 49 percent in 2023.

Trust in these messages has also fallen: 65 percent of people reached by sustainability communications say they have at least “some” trust in them, compared to 79 percent in 2022. These trends were consistent across eight major product categories:

• Cars
• Cleaning products
• Clothing
• Electronics
• Financial services
• Home furnishings
• Packaged food
• Personal care products

What this means

For brands, pulling back on sustainability communications risks losing consumer trust and relevance. As fewer people see and believe these messages, brands have less influence on purchase decisions and sustainable behaviors — even if the same work is continuing under the radar. To stay impactful, organizations must rethink how they engage consumers and make sustainability messaging more visible, credible and personally meaningful.

Based on a survey of more than 30,000 consumers across 31 countries conducted July — August 2025

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U.S. companies that rely on a widely used but crude method for calculating Scope 3 inventories should prepare to see double-digit increases in supply-chain emissions estimates when switching to a more sophisticated version of the process, according to a recent study.

Difficulties in obtaining primary data from suppliers often prompt companies to employ spend-based models, which use emissions factors to convert the amount spent on a product into an audit-friendly estimate of the emissions associated with that purchase. 

The factors vary widely depending on the model, however. Many models contain emission factors based on a single country. A single-region model based on U.S. data, for example, effectively assumes that everything in a company’s supply chain was manufactured in the U.S. And because goods manufactured outside North America often result in higher emissions, Scope 3 estimates can leap when regional differences are taken in account.

“We’re putting a false ‘made in the U.S. sticker’ on every product and hiding the real story,” said Yohanna Maldonado, an author on the study and head of climate data at Watershed, a carbon accounting firm.

Global data

To increase accuracy, companies can switch to multiregional models that account for local emission intensities. Working with researchers at Stanford University, the WWF and CDP, Maldonado and her Watershed colleagues found that the total upstream emissions of around 5,400 companies that reported revenues to CDP in 2023 jumped by 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide when a multi-region was used. Their study was published last month in Nature Communications.

How this headline figure applies to individual companies is challenging to determine, in part because few companies disclose details of the models they use. But the problem appears to be widespread: Three-quarters of companies that did disclose details said they used a single-region approach. 

Companies that import significant quantities of steel, fertilizer and other emission-intensive products are likely to see the biggest jump when moving to a multi-regional model. Maldonado said increases of 20 to 40 percent are typical among the Watershed clients that have made the switch.

In addition to the misleading Scope 3 numbers, single-region models also hamper companies’ ability to identify potential emission reductions, noted Maldonado. She cited the example of aluminum sourced either from Brazil, where widespread hydropower lowers emissions intensities; or China, where coal-powered electricity is more common.

Free multi-regional model

Ease of access explains the continued widespread use of single-region models, said Maldonado. Until last year, the Environmental Protection Agency maintained a free-to-use model based on U.S. data, and the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero continues to offers an equivalent. 

That will change later this year when Cornerstone, a collaboration between Stanford, environmental consultancy ERG and Watershed, makes its multi-regional model available for free. The model will incorporate the former EPA data and a multi-region model that Watershed acquired in 2023 when it purchased VitalMetrics, a sustainability software provider and consultancy.

Companies considering switching models should ideally do so before they set targets, advised Maldonado. Those with targets will probably need to restate historical Scope 3 data using the new method, she noted. 

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Levi Strauss and Discovery Education are picking up where home economics classes left off. Which is to say, they are teaching high schoolers basic sewing skills.

The “Levi’s Wear Longer Project,” launched Jan. 14, starts in San Francisco with workshops at Levi’s Eureka R&D center. A global campaign will follow to share virtual and in-person lessons for tasks like adding buttons, patching jeans and altering hems.

Thirty-five percent of members of Gen Z polled by Levis’s said they would keep their clothes for longer if they knew how to address tears and other flaws — but 41 percent reported having no way to do so. (Levi’s noted similar things about Millennials when it launched repair tutorials in 2014.)

“By building up repair skills within the next generation and emphasizing the idea of durability, we’re helping spark a culture of creativity, sustainability and pride in taking care of the things we value,” Levi Strauss President and CEO Michelle Gass said in a statement.

Levi’s also appears to be vying for youth brand loyalty to carry forward an identity of durability, which originated with its outfitting 1850s gold miners.

“Some brands claim that offering repair creates continued engagement after the point of sale and drives traffic into their stores, which is then converted into new sales on top of the repair,” said New York-based sustainability consultant Liz Alessi.

Indeed, Levi’s is among a small yet growing number of brands advancing repair. That often-neglected pillar of the circular economy movement counters the industry treatment of clothes as perishables. Signs of growth include the rise of apparel-repair startups including Revive and Alternew, which recently signed a deal with Primark.

Globally, the market for mending services will expand by 9.4 percent each year to 2035, growing to $1.18 billion from $.53 billion in 2026, according to Business Research Insights.

Tersus Solutions, which provides resale logistics, cleaning and repair services to apparel brands including The North Face and Eileen Fisher, is seeing significant growth in brands’ warranty and repair programs, according to CEO Peter Whitcomb. “Many brands are shifting from replacement-first models to repair-first approaches as a way to better serve customers, extend product life and reduce environmental impact,” he said.

Levi’s other repair plays

In addition to its longtime focus on design for longevity, Levi Strauss has been advancing other circular economy programs within its sustainability strategy. The 173-year-old company offers tailoring services at certain stores, including free hemming for its Red Tab loyalty program members.

Part of Levi’s push for net zero by 2050 includes the 2030 goal of cutting down Scope 3 purchased goods and services emissions by 42 percent over 2022 levels. The use of Levi’s products, including laundering, makes up 31 percent of the company’s overall emissions, according to its 2024 Climate Transition Plan. 

Efforts to address that include Levi’s Secondhand branded resale program, which is entering its sixth year. It also enables customers to exchange used Levi’s for a coupon of up to $30 at certain retail stores. Buying used items requires 53 percent of the carbon that would be emitted from buying something new, according to the company.

Patagonia, Uniqlo, Primark and Neiman Marcus are among the other companies expanding a mix of repair services, alterations guides or in-house workshops in the United States. Comparable efforts are relatively more normalized in Europe, which has a longtime culture of product aftercare and restoration, particularly among luxury houses such as Hermès, Dior and Burberry.

Other fashion brands repair plays

Here’s a sampling of approaches by other brands to make repairs mainstream:

Patagonia

The fleece jacket giant’s network of free, lifetime repairs is part of its Worn Wear program, launched in 2017 with the idea that “repair is radical” and generating $13 million in revenues in 2025. Patagonia offers simple patching or seam-closings in stores and from repair vans at special events, as well as more complex mail-in fixes. Its Reno, Nevada, repair center counts tens of thousands of repairs each year. A partnership with iFixit produces virtual repair guides, which Patagonia has kept 583,000 items out of the trash.

Uniqlo

Repair counters are spreading at fast-growing Uniqlo stores, owned by Fast Retailing of Yamaguchi, Japan. An upcycling workshop at one of its shops in Germany has grown into Re:Uniqlo Studio repair and “remaking” services at 70 stories in 23 international markets. The brand introduced Re:Uniqlo to certain U.S. stores several years ago, charging $5 to close fabric holes or replace buttons.

Primark

In May, Dublin retailer Primark began expanding repair workshops to the U.S. in Staten Island and Tysons, Virginia. The company has held more than 730 such events across Europe since its “Love it for longer” program began in 2021. The company also shares online tutorials for mending and hemming.

Neiman Marcus

Former Dallas-based department store Neiman Marcus, now based in New York under Saks Global, belongs to an old world or high-end, in house repairs. All of its three-dozen locations offer tailoring, alterations, repair and restoration, including for clothes, shoes and handbags bought elsewhere. Simple adjustments for full-price goods are free. The brand began marketing decades-old services as a circularity play around 2021. It met a 2025 goal to extend the lives of 1 million products two years early.

However, repair is harder to monetize than resale, according to “Untangling Circularity” podcast host Cynthia Power. “These are the companies with loyal customers who will shop at the brand for decades. These companies have much to gain from offering repair services and repair education programs because they are strengthening the foundation of their existing value proposition to their customer.”

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