The challenge: Limited visibility into nature risks across the supply chain

Clothing retailer Everlane has long been recognized for its leadership in sustainable fashion. Grounded in the principle of radical transparency, the brand has made major strides in climate reporting and ethical sourcing, including a 52 percent reduction in Scope 1–3 emissions since 2019 and ensuring 90 percent of its materials meet certifications such as organic, recycled, or responsibly sourced standards.

But when it came to nature, they recognized a strategic gap.

For brands like Everlane, whose products rely on natural materials such as cotton, wool, and leather, nature-related risks from biodiversity loss to water scarcity and land degradation, are increasingly material. According to the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, nature degradation could result in global economic losses of up to $5 trillion by disrupting industries dependent on ecosystem services. These risks are gaining urgency as regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) take shape, and voluntary frameworks like the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the Science Based Targets for Nature (SBTN) set clear expectations for how companies should assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies on nature.

Everlane sees nature action as part of their broader leadership in sustainable fashion — a way to live their values, strengthen their brand, and build a movement for change. Their goal in undertaking a science-based risk assessment in 2024-25 was to understand how nature degradation could affect sourcing and where action like restoration, stewardship, or supplier engagement might be needed. They aimed to build a credible, evidence-based nature strategy that matched the ambition of their climate goals and deepened their commitment to responsible business.

Like many in the apparel sector, the company lacked full, real-time visibility into its agile supply chain. The ever-changing landscape of apparel supply chains can see fiber origins that change on a seasonal or purchase order basis. While some material origins were well documented by the brand, others were not. Many risk tools were too expensive, rigid, or complex to support the flexible, iterative analysis needed.

“We know we need better data, but we can’t let the gaps stop us from taking action,” notes Katina Boutis, Head of Sustainability and Sourcing, Everlane, “So, we look for tools that help us work with what we have, without getting overwhelmed by cost or complexity.”

Solution: A flexible path to nature insights

Everlane turned to its trusted consulting partner, Pure Strategies, to understand its nature risks. They began with a gap assessment to evaluate current activity against the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and relevant disclosure standards. An initial country-level analysis, using World Wildlife Fund’s Risk Filter tool helped to establish exposure, but lacked the spatial detail needed for sourcing decisions.

“We needed a flexible tool that would enable us to visualize data and generate outputs we could analyze for Everlane, even when supplier data wasn’t complete,” notes Colleen Corrigan, Senior Sustainability Advisor, Pure Strategies.

Pure Strategies enlisted Earth Blox, a cloud-based geospatial platform, to map biodiversity risk across Everlane’s key materials - including cotton and wool. Designed to support regulatory compliance, risk mitigation, and opportunity identification, Earth Blox helped to overlay supply chain data with indicators of ecosystem pressure, from water stress to habitat loss. This presented a science-based view of nature risk that Pure Strategies and Earth Blox used to inform supplier engagement, support disclosure goals, and help Everlane to strengthen its sustainability strategy beyond climate.

Delivery and implementation: Seeing the story in the data

Using Earth Blox’s spatial outputs, Pure Strategies overlaid known sourcing regions, including regions within Turkey, India, and Tanzania, with spatial data on ecosystem intactness, water stress, and biodiversity. Where sourcing details were incomplete, proxy datasets (such as cotton-growing density maps) helped model likely impact zones.

Throughout the project, Pure Strategies led the analysis and engagement with Everlane, using Earth Blox to explore data, refine methods, and adapt the workflow to match available sourcing information. The Earth Blox team provided responsive support by helping to test options and tailor outputs, while enabling Pure Strategies to move quickly and independently at every stage.

“Everlane had never seen this kind of analysis before,” noted Isabel Hofmockel, Customer Success, Earth Blox. “Shifting from spreadsheets to spatial thinking helped them see where their impacts and dependencies were.”

Results: From fragmented data to strategic action

This collaborative project, combining the unique areas of expertise of Pure Strategies and Earth Blox, marked a shift in how Everlane approached nature risk. For the first time, the company could visualize biodiversity-related exposure across its sourcing footprint and share those insights in its 2024 Impact Report. Even with incomplete supply chain data, spatial analysis, coupled with sourcing regions, helped inform strategy, support reporting, and drive supplier engagement.