Inditex Chief Sustainability Officer Javier Losada to step down

Javier Losada, who has been Chief Sustainability Officer at Inditex since 2019, is set to step down amid a corporate governance restructure, according to Spanish media reports.

The news was first reported by local Spanish newspaper Economía Digital, which consulted with several unnamed sources. Inditex did not respond to CSO Futures’ request to confirm the information.

Losada is Inditex’ first Chief Sustainability Officer and a member of the executive committee. According to reports, the company has yet to decide who will succeed him in the role.

Losada was one of the last directors to join the Inditex executive team under former CEO Pablo Isla, who left in 2022. His replacement, Óscar García Maceiras, has been restructuring the executive committee with new appointments in the past couple of years, and the Chief Sustainability Officer’s departure is framed as the latest governance change within the Spanish fashion giant – which owns the likes of Bershka, Zara and Pull & Bear.

Javier Losada’s legacy at Inditex

Losada was instrumental in developing Inditex’ sustainability strategy, which includes an SBTi-approved target to achieve net zero emissions by 2040, and an interim goal to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 90% by 2030. 

He also drove the group’s circularity efforts, leading innovative deals with startups for the purchase of recycled materials, textile recycling pilots and industry collaboration to advance circularity goals. 

But even under Losada’s leadership, Inditex was criticised for its lack of transparency around sustainable procurement efforts. Last year, the group ranked 6th out of 52 retail brands analysed by fair fashion NGO Remake World in a report assessing performance across six sustainability indicators, but got a 0 on traceability. Inditex is one of 20 companies that still “fail to publish even a Tier 1 supplier list at the sufficient level of detail”.