‘In Good Conscious’
Essay examining existing supply chain and logistics practices within the fashion environment and a series of writings exploring Manufacturing and Management policies.
Sustainable Futures
Intro
As the times move on, more questions about our apparel are raised? The nature and ethics of our clothes, often come into discussion, with Sustainability and Ethics at the centre of conversation. Factors concerning design, production and distribution as well as retail and use phase are essential, with each step in the process equally raised as a platform for change and just as considerable as the other.
Ethics
The term for Ethical fashion can also mean to go beyond doing no harm, for example for the Ethical Fashion Forum, these values represent ‘an approach which strives to take an active role in poverty reduction, sustainable livelihood creation, minimising and counteracting environmental concerns’.In a social capacity, this is met by increasing the capacity and wellbeing of the people and communities behind fashion. Any fashion business depends on the people behind it. In a broader context, poverty and exploitation of the human workforce behind fashion affects the stability of the industry itself. In an environmental aspect, this could be met by minimising the environmental impact of all business operations, throughout the supply chain. Creating and acting upon opportunities to reduce environmental issues beyond the immediate operations; such as awareness raising, investment in and support of environmental initiatives. On a commercial level, without a robust financial business model, none of the above can be achieved. Good intentions without an effective business structure can backfire. A sustainable approach includes quality products or services that meet market needs and demands and are fairly marketed.
Figure 1: The sustainable life cycle of a garment.
The term ‘Ethical Fashion’ represents an approach to the design, sourcing and manufacture of clothing, which maximises benefits to people and communities, while minimising impact on the environment. It is part of the larger growing trend of creating more sustainable, environmentally friendly and ethical products. “It covers a range of issues such as working conditions, exploitation, fair trade, sustainable production, the environment, and animal welfare” -V & A
The term sustainable can be used in the context of both social, environmental and commercial issues; In 1989, the Brundtland Commission articulated what has now become a widely accepted definition of sustainability: “[to meet] the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Whilst the original rationale from the 1950’s placed emphasis on ideas to “focus on the social change to alleviate global poverty” -Gwilt & Rissanen, 2011Sustainability
Sustainability and environmental issues in fashion are not a new idea. In 1990, Vogue wrote about the new environmental trend in fashion and it grew into a national movement in the decades to follow. “It was then, in the early nineties, that the seeds of sustainable fashion were sown and the concepts of recycling and environmentally friendly fabrics began to grow.” The impact that consumer demand had on the clothing and textiles sector would continue to grow steadfastly, but the supply of sustainable fashions grew at a fraction of that pace. As a result a trend was started but not addressed. However, sustainable fashion only really began to take off in the 2000’s.Brands such as Stella McCartney, known for its animal-friendly credentials, was founded in 2001. Edun, by Ali Hewson and Bono founded in 2005, to promote trade in Africa, by sourcing production throughout the continent was born. Additionally, the first Ethical Fashion Show was held in Paris in 2004.
Ethical Fashion aims to address the problems it sees with the way the fashion industry currently operates, such as exploitative labour, environmental damage, the use of hazardous chemicals, waste and animal cruelty as well as addressing serious concerns that are often raised about exploitative working conditions in the factories that make cheap clothes for the high street. Child workers, alongside exploited adults, can be subjected to violence and abuse such as forced overtime, as well as cramped and unhygienic surroundings, bad food, and very poor pay. The low cost of clothes on the high street means that less and less money goes to the people who actually make them.
Prevention
An investigation led by the Clean Clothes Campaign and the International Labor Rights Forum, examined the aftermath of two garment industry disasters in Bangladesh. The Rana Plaza garment factory building collapse on April24, 2014 in Savar, with an estimated death toll of 1,138 and more than 2,500 injured as well as the Tazreen Fashions fire devastation on November 24, 2014, in which a total of 123 were reported dead and more than 150 injured. These events exposed the grim reality of the fashion Industry to the world. The Rana Plaza building housed factories making clothes for Benetton, Primark, Matalan, Mango and other major brands. “The majority of the victims were female garment workers. The disaster was entirely preventable.”
For many consumers, the tragedy of the Rana Plaza awakened a new consciousness in the fashion industry, urging all brands to wake up to their ethical and environmental responsibilities. Yet some brands like Gap, for example have refused to join, and even luxury brands from Armani to Valentino have largely managed to evade the ethical spotlight and have yet to be “inconvenienced by reputation-damaging sweatshop scandals.”In How Luxury Lost Its Luster, journalist Dana Thomas documented this shift towards pseudo-luxury: In the past few decades, many top brands have degraded their production and quality values to a shocking extent. Today many high-end labels manufacture some products in the same factories used by their mass market counterparts, often with low-quality fabrics. Most so-called luxury fashion companies put profits ahead of quality and design and as a result, we’re sold dubiously manufactured product, which comes at a cost of life. One could argue that new inventions and research are more than likely to inspire the industries development. Fashion designers must be able to visualise sustainable design strategies integrated within their own practices; this means that the designer should link sustainable strategies with the activities within the fashion design and production process.
“It is in a designer’s responsibility to know where their materials are sourced so they know what they are working with.” All too often, designers aren’t actively offering the brand ‘luxury’ tag of which they boast, instead “most pay virtually no regard to corporate ethics and are still yet to take the first steps on reporting the social and environmental impact of their operations.”Even the Stella McCartney brand, heralded for championing animal rights isn’t to be taken at face value, as the company that owns the brand, Gucci sanctions the use of fur in many of its other fashion brands. Gucci has neither an environmental nor supply chain policy in place. The issue highlights the lengths of which, can be reached due to negligence and harsh realities facing the fashion industry.
In Reach
In order to bring about change, sustainability values and experiences have to be practical and in reach to people. A great example is bringing sustainability to the high street. Brands have the power to raise awareness. H&M introduced its first sustainable fashion collection, the Conscious Exclusive, which supports the discovery of new materials and clothes-making techniques. :“Cotton is the raw material we use the most. Our aim is for all cotton in our range to come from more sustainable sources by 2020” as well as the Recycle, Resell and Reuse Cloth Donation Scheme. Customers can go to any participating store with their old clothes and hand them over at the cash desk. In exchange, H&M offers a voucher. In addition other eco-conscious brands are dominating and uprising in the sustainable fashion scene.
Mina + Olya
Founded by two former financial/communications consultants, this sustainable luxury line is committed to using domestically-produced, eco-friendly materials like hemp, milk fiber and organic silks and wools. Proof positive that terrific tailoring and eco-friendliness can coexist in the same clothing brand.
Amour Vert
This Paris-inspired brand employs a zero-waste design philosophy and uses exclusively sustainable and natural fabrics—like organic cotton, recycled polyester and wood-derived Tencel and Modal—along with low-impact dyes. And for every purchase of an Amour Vert t-shirt, the company pays to have a tree planted somewhere in the U.S.
Freedom of Animals
Both sustainable and staunchly opposed to animal cruelty, this two-year-old accessories brand uses manmade materials like post-consumer polyurethane (a safe PVC alternative), recycled vegetable dyes and organic cotton to make its streamlined, incredibly chic handbags. Five percent of its proceeds go to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya, and most of the company’s bags are even named after orphaned elephants whose mothers were lost to poaching.Awareness and strategy are key to raising the platform to sustainable brands.
Figure 2: World Cotton Exports.
Seven per cent of total world exports are in clothing and textiles. Significant parts of the sector are dominated by developing countries, particularly in Asia, and above all by China. The figure shows how the USA remains the largest world exporter of cotton, despite having only 25,000 cotton farmers. Australia and New Zealand are the largest suppliers of wool and of carpets – which can be made with efficient machines requiring little manual labour- many countries including the UK are able to serve a significant fraction of their own demand.“Cotton may be natural, but most cotton consumes large quantities of pesticides, fertilisers and water during production. Organic cotton makes no promises about whether nasty chemicals were used in dying and finishing the product, and fair-trade cotton has lower environmental standards than organic. Furthermore, organically grown cotton plants tend to be less productive, which can drive farmers to hack out new agricultural land from wilderness and forest. GM cotton, which requires fewer pesticides, may be more sustainable than organic—but no eco-clothing company will touch it. There are increasing worries, too, that most of clothing’s environmental impact comes from the energy and water involved in washing and drying. Clothes made from bamboo or linen may sound more wholesome, but synthetic fabrics rarely need the attentions of an iron, or the enviro-horror that is a tumble-dryer.”The environmental impacts of clothing are huge. Non-organic cotton growing uses hugequantities of water and chemicals – 22.5% of the world’s insecticides and 10% of all pesticides,on 2.5% of agricultural land.The ‘wet processes’ of applying finishes and dyes to fabric also use a great deal of water, plus many hazardous chemicals. In poorly-regulated countries, garment factories often release toxic waste into nearby waterways.
Future
“Before ethical fashion, I couldn’t educate my children, but now I can educate them and provide for them anything they need,”
says a mother of four, who is in her late 30s. Accessories from Korogocho, such as the cuffs the women sew, are sold in high-end international boutiques and stamped with the labels of international fashion houses such as Vivienne Westwood, Fendi and Stella McCartney.It is part of the Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI), a project built on a model of “mutual benefit” that aims to support poor communities by linking them up with fashion houses and distributors.A joint effort by the UN and the World Trade Organisation, the initiative has expanded to Burkina Faso, Ghana and Haiti, with plans for further expansion within Africa and into Asia.Of the 5,000+ people involved in the initiative in Kenya, 90 per cent are women. Arancha Gonzalez, the chief of the International Trade Centre that runs the project, says it offers a sustainable way to improve lives.
Conclusion
“Trade, economic activities, markets can also be married with human development, with women’s economic development, with poverty reduction.”
Despite the growing popularity of sustainable and eco-fashion, the industry, first and foremost, rides on image. A survey into the consumer awareness of fashion and sustainability found that many would pay no more than a 10% premium for an eco-friendly garment. This figure rose to 25% when asked what they would pay for tailored clothing. Company’s like Patagonia that fully supports ethical values should be an inspiration to the industry to develop sustainable work environment, as well other eco-conscious labels including Mina + Olya, Freedom of Animals and Amour Vert, who incorporate fresh and trendy ideas, into sustainable designs. Looking forward, the industry may want to focus on innovation rather than typecasting products as ‘eco’, ‘sustainable’, or ‘organic’. Sony and Levi’s Fashion Futures project looked at issues including water and climate change, and developed scenarios for 2025. Designs such as clothing that used less water in production were seen as innovative and exciting rather than being labeled as ‘green’.A system needs to be in place in which brands take full ownership, accountability and traceability over their brand. This should be owed to the people who work for them. Delivering, in the workplace, basics, such as safety. In turn, a global supply chain that, is more connected, where employees are rewarded rather than exploited, and a standard of sustainability is attained. Environmental implications should be highlighted and there should be factors in place to limit the damage.