H&M has agreed to stop using toxic and nonbiodegradable perfluorinated compounds (PFCs for short) in their outerwear by 2013. Nike has recycled more than 28 million pairs of athletic shoes through their Reuse-a-Shoe program. And as a result of Greenpeace actions, brands like Puma, Adidas and C&A have promised to stop their clothing factories from dumping hazardous chemicals in nearby rivers.
As these examples show, a growing number of international fashion companies are taking up the challenge to produce in more sustainable ways. Brands like H&M and Puma have developed ambitious CSR programmes, which include targets about topics as diverse as the use of water based adhesives in shoe production and CO2 emissions.
The general consensus is that large companies are crucial to changing the fashion industry and improving the environmental and social issues at stake. For example, the buying power of players such as C&A and Zara means that they can decisively stimulate organic cotton trade.
At the same time, due to their global operations, multinationals have difficulties controlling their supply chain. For instance, production for H&M takes place at approximately 1650 supplier factories around the world. Controlling labor conditions in all these factories – and the many subcontractors that are often involved as well – is no easy feat.
According to many of the upcoming sustainable fashion brands, producing clothes ethically may be more difficult for large, established companies than for young, small labels. The current forerunners in sustainable fashion are often small, visionary companies that have embraced corporate social responsibility from the start. Contrary to large corporations that are now pressured into changing their ways of doing business, ecofashion labels have sustainability in their genes. As a consequence, they are able to quickly adopt new strategies and develop innovations.
It may therefore come as no surprise that The Ethical Fashion Consultancy’s Ilaria Pasquinelli has claimed that sustainable innovations have come primarily from small companies with visionary, highly specialized designers and product developers. Only these types of companies are able to have the ideas and flexibility to be unique and stay ahead of the masses, Pasquinelli says. If this is true, we’d better support the pioneering fashion brands that have put sustainability on the fashion agendas – from People Tree to Kuyichi, RE-5 and Camilla Norrback. Enjoy!