Phil WhiteThe Fashion industry is responsible for 2.1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas per year. That is more than all the international flights and shipping combined according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The need for a sustainable fashion industry is more clear than ever.
There is a growing awareness of the fashion industry’s impact on climate change among consumers, particularly generation Z. Nine out of 10 Gen Z consumers believe fashion brands have a responsibility to address environmental issues according to a 2019 McKinsey and BoF Report. This has inspired significant recent momentum in the sustainable fashion movement.
Consumers, watchdog organizations, and even policymakers are increasingly calling out ‘greenwashing’ in the sustainable fashion industry. Greenwashing is a marketing tactic used by companies to make misleading or false claims about the environmental benefits of their products. Greenwashing can take various forms, such as using vague or unverifiable terms like "eco-friendly" or "natural," or highlighting a single environmentally friendly feature of a product, while ignoring other aspects that may be harmful to the environment.
What is sustainable fashion?
Sustainable fashion means taking into account its environmental, social, and economic impact. It involves creating clothing, accessories, and other fashion items in a way that minimizes harm to the environment, respects the rights of workers, and provides fair wages and safe working conditions. This may involve the use of eco-friendly materials, reducing waste and carbon footprint, ethical sourcing and production, and promoting circular fashion practices such as recycling, upcycling, and reducing consumption. Sustainable fashion aims to create a more responsible and ethical fashion industry committed to creating positive social and environmental impact.
Sustainable Fashion vs Fast Fashion
The fashion industry is one of the largest polluters in the world, with significant environmental impacts. Globally, we consume 400x more clothing today than we did 20 years ago. Sustainable fashion aims to reduce these negative impacts by implementing practices that reduce waste, pollution, and the use of non-renewable resources.
Here are 4 ways fashion brands can truly become more sustainable
At Grounded we’ve been working with The Lycra Company over the past few years conducting global research and thought leadership panels to identify the best means of reducing the fashion industry’s carbon footprint. Here are some immediate opportunities fashion brands can consider to become more sustainable.
Design for a circular system with a focus on physical durability
In our predominantly linear industry, the average fast fashion garment made of fossil fuels only lasts a few washes. Designing a garment for longevity is a common sense way for a brand to be more environmentally conscious.
Sustainable fashion brands should be designing not for a single customer in a traditional linear model, but with the expectation, the garment will be part of a circular model, passed along for multiple owners to enjoy. Brands that create durable clothing shine on resale sites like TheRealReal and Trove. Consumers are willing to pay more and increase loyalty to brands that are known to hold up in second and even third wardrobes.
Design with Emotional Durability in Mind
We’ve all had that item of clothing that makes us happy, that we’ve worn until it completely gave out. While not every item of clothing can carry such emotional value, fashion brands can design with emotional durability in mind. Brands can encourage consumers to fall in love with high-quality pieces that are timeless, modular, or versatile. Buying less but buying better is a growing consumer value. Meeting this need might not appear to make commercial sense for a brand as it reduces the purchase frequency, however, it builds brand trust and has clearly worked for industry leaders like Patagonia. As well as newcomer darlings like sustainable fashion company AYR, All Year Round, which has doubled in size every year since its 2014 inception selling only high-quality basics.
Consider bio-derived or recycled ingredients
Most of a fashion brand’s carbon footprint occurs indirectly through its value chain. Choosing renewable sustainable fashion materials like organic cotton and bamboo will reduce the end product’s carbon footprint and consumers are willing to pay more for them. Recycled polyester, drawing from open-loop recycling of PET bottles, can also reduce environmental impact and is available at scale. New sustainable fashion innovations are also entering the fiber market. Such as The LYCRA Company’s fiber made of annually renewable field corn instead of fossil fuels. Or Rubi Laboratories' carbon-negative viscose fiber. Both can be incorporated without altering the manufacturing process.
Afterlife
Fashion brands can consider the afterlife of their products by adopting sustainable and circular practices that prioritize reuse, recycling, and repurposing of their products. Sustainable fashion brands can consider using biodegradable materials in their designs, supporting this with clear consumer directions on disposal. They can also create in-house recycling programs, such as Madewell’s denim recycling program, where any pre-loved pair of jeans can be brought in for store credit and the product is used for residential insulation by Habitat for Humanity.
Adopting the right sustainable fashion practices for your brand
At Grounded, we helped The Lycra Company articulate and amplify their messaging around a variety of sustainable innovations made from textile waste, recycled PET, and a first to market bio-derived spandex product with an anticipated 44% reduction in carbon footprint. We conducted global research, published 9 white papers, and worked with the UN Conscious Fashion Network to further their role as a sustainability leader in the fashion industry.
Let us know how we can help you on your brand’s sustainability journey today.
Shannon Flannigan co-leads the sustainability marketing practice at Grounded World. As former US CEO of Toast Ale her expertise lies in upcycling and creating circular initiatives to drive scale and impact.
