B: Big brands

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!

T: Transparency

Total transparency will become a hygiene factor, business change maker Enviu wrote in 2013. Even though not all consumers are likely to be this demanding, fashion brands are increasingly pressured to prove their ethical and environmental credentials. With accusations of greenwashing high on the agenda of sustainability campaigners, fashion brands will need to move beyond merely stating their values or claiming their long-term goals, Enviu says. Instead, they will need to present clear evidence about results of their sustainability policies and pro-actively inform their customers about it.

Of course, transparency has been a main tenet of the sustainable fashion movement from its inception in the 1980s. Campaigners demanding information about labor conditions in the textile supply chain are a well-known example. But in recent years, the public has come to expect fashion companies to provide ever more clear and honest reporting on social and environmental issues. Their efforts have been supported not only by disconcerting media reports about the lack of respect for labor standards and environmental concerns, but also by the work of ranking organizations exploring the sustainability performance of major brands and companies. With the insights provided by Good Guide, Rankabrand and the like, consumers possess powerful tools to embark on a search for the most sustainable brands and products.

Ironically, the very instruments that were meant to increase transparency, and provide consumers with reliable information about the social and environmental feats of their purchases, have proven to create quite some confusion. With more than 100 sustainability certificates, initiatives and product logos in the Netherlands alone, consumers are likely to be overwhelmed. The lack of clarity could eventually decrease consumer support for fair-trade and ethical products.

Thankfully, there are fashion brands that prove that communicating about sustainability can be clear and straightforward. For example, French ecofashion label Sobosibio allows customers to trace the origins of their clothing purchases to the people who made them. And casual wear brands such as MudJeans, Kuyichi and Re-5 create collections that are certified organic as well as fairtrade. And as we all know, brands that have been assigned two or more sustainability certificates are highly unlikely to be merely greenwashing.