Steps that fashion must take to achieve its sustainability goals

“A miracle would have to happen to save the existence of fashion as we know it,” trend forecaster Lidewidge Edelkort wrote me in an email this week.

I asked for ideas on what a more responsible fashion industry would look like. The responses I received reflect the industry’s overall (still) commitment to change at the end of a year where meaningful progress has been made in ambitions to curb environmental impact and improve working conditions.

Instead, a widespread greenwashing crackdown led by regulators in Europe has exposed just how shaky the commitment of big brands is, even as their supply chains begin to feel the effects of climate change linked to global warming.

If this sounds like a depressing note to end the year on, think about it this way: the reality is that fashion companies are being challenged and held accountable for poor sustainability claims in the process itself.

“It sounds like a negative, but I think it’s a positive,” said Ken Pucker, a senior at Tufts Fletcher School and former chief operating officer at Timberland. “We need to have an honest conversation. We live on the last planet… [and] We don’t need synthetic jumpers to wear for 20 minutes.

The tension between the fashion industry’s profit-driven pursuit of growth and environmentally and socially responsible work is being recognized as fundamental solutions to this tension – this year the anti-capitalist concept of ‘growth’ is emerging as a buzzword – but it’s showing that brands are actually moving forward. There is little sign for change.

“As an industry we’re still trying to solve this in our current business model and that’s why it’s failing,” said Vidhura Ralapanawe, head of sustainability and innovation at Hong Kong-based manufacturer Epic Group. Brands are increasing sustainability initiatives, but they are still pushing costs and risks onto their suppliers.

Basically, the incentives that drive the industry need to change. That should be guided by good or market action to value natural resource conservation in the cost of goods and production, encourage better environmental protection, and fine polluters.

“The biggest thing with our industry is the very difficult idea of ​​redefining value,” says Claire Bergkamp. “We need to make this system work better for us as people … We need to think beyond value for shareholders.”

The change may come from consumers, whose priorities and goals are shifting alongside growing cultural awareness of fashion’s influence. Alec Leach, former fashion editor and author of The World’s on Fire But We’re Still Buying Shoes, says: “This whole era of fakery has become completely pointless.” Consumers are starting to wake up to how over-the-top fashion is.

The current model is not only bad for the planet and the people who make our clothes, but it’s undermining the industry’s creativity, Edelkoort argues.

“If I were a designer, I would try to create a new feeling by focusing my career on fibers and textiles… Planet,” she said.

But most of all, I always create the joy of fashion as a human expression.

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