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Fashion Sustainability
What exactly is greenwashing? Greenwashing is a phrase used in a variety of sectors
to describe a brand's plan to look more ethical and sustainable to consumers. This is
done to project a more ecologically friendly public image. As Greenwashing is most
prevalent in the industry I will be discussing examples of greenwashing amongst
high street retailers, reflecting on who is currently combating greenwashing in
fashion, and what can be done by both business and consumers, moving forward to a
greener future. “As the sustainable and ethical market grows, so do imposters looking
to ride the coattails of our conscious-fashion movement. False claims of “green.”
“Eco-friendly,” “organic’” and “ethical” clothing are growing. (Cline, 2019).
Therefore the concern on the minds of both consumers and industry critics is whether
or not the industry's major brands are deceiving customers. Giving them a false
feeling of confidence about their capacity to make sound purchase judgments.
Fashion is one of the industries where greenwashing is most prominent, and it is a
big concern for many high-street firms. As referenced in the article, sustainability
awareness is spreading over the world. Businesses such as Justice In Fashion have
drawn attention to such industry abuses. However, this is a major issue for fast
fashion firms since changing customer perceptions would result in varied consumer
buying patterns. Fast fashion manufacturers are aware of this and employ strategies
such as greenwashing, which involves framing phrases such as "100% sustainable"
rather than "100% organic" in order to retain sales in an exceedingly fast-paced retail
sector.
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3. H&M Scorecards.
H&M have come into fire recently for adding new sustainability scorecards to their
garments. Green or Greenwashing:Who gets to decide? By Sarah Kent, “Last May,
H&M introduced new scorecards designed to grade and market the sustainability of
materials used in select garnets and shoppers. A little like nutritional labels that detail
the fat, sugar and protein content in foods, the fast fashion giants' scorecards break
down how fabrics perform in areas like global warming, fossil fuel and water
pollution.” (Kent, 2022). The problem with this is that there is no scale to base the
scorecard leaving consumers uninformed in relation to how sustainable the garment
is that they are purchasing. Another example of what can be considered as
greenwashing could be found in their “Conscious”collection. H&M ceo wants to fix
fast fashion. Is that possible? - Emily Chan- October 14th 2020- H&M’s Conscious
collection is currently made from at least 50 percent sustainably sourced materials,
such as organic and recycled polyester m, apart from in the case of recycled cotton,
which currently only makes up 20 percent of product due to quality restraints.
However, the brand doesn’t currently give any specific details on the sustainment
materials that each product contains, meaning customers aren’t able to access the
eco-credentials of the item they’re buying.” (Chan, 2020).
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H&M Conscious Collection.
The visual portrayal of thriving grain fields, green images, and green clothes
were used to introduce this collection. This indicates that H&M are
marketing their garments with a sustainable angle. The proceeds from the
sale of the collection go to a charitable trust run by H&M called the H&M
conscious trust, which is an initiative to help employees in Bangladesh.
H&M is well-known for being the largest producer of clothing from this
country. H&M declared that "every garment in the collection is
manufactured from a sustainably sourced material, 100 percent organic
cotton," in their last collection, which was launched before the global
pandemic. As a result of this consumers are not properly informed, as a result
of the lack of information from the retailer. A closer look at the garment
composition found that organic cotton did not account for the entire amount
of cotton in the garment, as H&M claims that if there is a portion of cotton in
the garment, 100 percent organic cotton will be included in the percentage of
cotton in the garment. According to H&M's website, "at least 50% of each
clothing is created from sustainable material, such as organic cotton or
recycled polyester." Looking at their ribbed slim fit dress is an illustration of
how deceptive this is. This garment is made up of four distinct fibres, none
of which account for more than half of the total weight of the garment. And
it is not specified if the material is sustainable or repurposed. However it
scores highly on their sustainability scorecard.
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H&M x PETA Vegan Leather Line
A more recent example of H&M’s shameless greenwashing is their
collaboration with PETA. This collection comprises clothing produced from
"100% vegan leather," a substantial portion of which was constructed using
fossil-based materials such as polyamide and polyester. This is another
example of something that is technically vegan but not sustainable, since
there is a discussion about whether it can be labelled as a quick win for
manufacturers to add in their clothing mix. The reasons for this are that it is
just moderately more expensive than virgin polyester, there is no
explanation for how much energy is needed in the material's upcycling, and
there is evidence that it is an unsustainable fabric after manufacture. A
study found in an article regarding sustainability from BoF exemplified how
bad polyester is for the environment. “Polyester fibres make up nearly
three-quarters of microplastic pollution in the Arctic and probably come
from textile manufacturing and household laundry.” (Jasmin Maluk Cha,
2020) When polyester is washed, it disperses microplastics into the water,
which is then discharged into rivers and the sea. This pollutes the water,
resulting in microplastics entering our bloodstreams through the food we
eat.“According to H&M it actually has 90% less impact than creating new
nylon? But the microfibres still have 100% of the same impact whether
they’re from recycled sources or not” (McLeod, 2021).
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Workers Rights
Another factor that enters the sustainability debate, particularly with H&M, is the
treatment of garment workers in the fashion sector. H&M has been chastised for not
paying its employees a decent wage.“While H&M has honoured its orders, labour
rights advocates have called for the company to make a concrete commitment to
ensuring all workers in its supply chain are paid properly- with the clean clothes
campaign finding that 93 percent of brands still don’t pay a living wage to their
suppliers.” (Chan, 2020). As previously stated, H&M's sustainability promises are
not backed by their actions in the items they sell or the way they treat their
employees. “In 2013 H&M made a pledge to pay all of their garment workers a
living wage by 2018, but they failed. In fact their workers in Bulgaria in 2018 were
being paid a mere 9% of the living wage, with no workers interviewed by the clean
clothes campaign earning anywhere near a living wage. Many of their workers were
described as working under forced labour.” (McLeod, 2021). Still no progress has
been made since 2013 regarding this major issue facing the fashion retailer. What is
glaringly visible, though, is the sheer volume of apparel that they are making and the
number of items that they have on offer. “H&M are one of the worlds largest fast
fashion brands, in the year 2018/19 they sold 2.2billion units of clothing, and they
work on the same system as the rest of fast fashion.” (McLeod, 2021). Textile waste
is one of the most serious issues we face, alongside consumer overconsumption. For
a brand that is trying to portray itself in a sustainable light, this is simply too much
clothing to be producing, furthermore it is in no way contributing to the fight against
garment waste.
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Primark, Do They Care?
Primark Cares, a sustainable apparel line, was introduced in 2020. The collection
was labelled as sustainable since it was created from "100% sustainable cotton" and
includes a pair of jeans priced at £10 per style. Because there is no meaning for the
term "sustainable," this is tremendously misleading to customers. Primark's
reluctance to communicate exactly what they mean to customers is an example of
greenwashing, according to studies. Primark began a programme in Thailand and
Pakistan centred on cotton producers.
This entailed training the farmers on how to cultivate cotton crops in a sustainable
manner. However, there is no indication that Primark farmers are still using
dangerous chemical pesticides that are prohibited in organic cotton growing.
Primark's representative justified this by stating that if they used other chemicals in
the creation of their denim, they would be unable to maintain the pricing or garment
production level. As a result, the yield targets would be increased, as would the lead
times. Because the garment life cycle must be considered while designing, this is an
example of consumer overconsumption.
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Transparency
As discussed Greenwashing is a major issue that faces the fashion industry, the main
issue stems from transparency within the supply chain. If brands were totally honest
with how their garments and materials are manufactured it would lead to consumers
being more informed around their purchasing decisions. This for example can be
achieved by setting realistic production targets, reducing production quantities and
producing verifiable reports which explains everything about the garment
manufacturing process.
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9. References-
Cline, E., 2019. The conscious closet. P.200.
Chan, E., 2020. H&M’s New CEO Wants To Fix Fast Fashion. Is That Possible?. [online] British Vogue. Available at:
<https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/article/helena-helmersson-interview> [Accessed 4 May 2022].
Kent, S., 2022. Green or Greenwashing: Who Gets to Decide?. [online] The Business of Fashion. Available at:
<https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/sustainability/green-or-greenwashing-who-gets-to-decide/> [Accessed 5 May 2022].
McLeod, I., 2021. PETA X H&M is not the "future of fashion", it's greenwashing. [online] Muccycloud.com. Available at:
<https://www.muccycloud.com/2021/11/peta-x-h-is-not-future-of-fashion-its.html> [Accessed 4 May 2022].
