Greenwashing: 5 reasons your eco-friendly fast fashion label may not be that conscious
Humans are sitting frogs in a boiling pot when it comes to the environment and pollution. And these frogs are wearing high-end trendy clothes made of pollution and plastic.
Fast Fashion. You must be aware of this term. Chances are you are currently wearing fast fashion. Fast Fashion has really soared in popularity over the decade; stealing designs from major fashion houses and runways, to offering them in season at cheaper prices for the masses.
You must have your own taste when it comes to fast fashion brands. Perhaps you prefer Zara, H&M, Mango, Shein (now banned in India) or Urbanic. These brands debut their new collections almost every two weeks, creating an artificial demand.
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But you must have also noticed that some of these brands have environmentally-friendly options too, like Zara’s Join Life collection, which promises recycled material in clothing and H&M’s Conscious collection. You must have even felt a little sad for the planet and your shopping habits and chosen to buy clothes from their more eco-friendly options.
But are they really sustainable?
A new report by the Changing Markets Foundation, called ‘License to Greenwash’, says that most of these sustainable certifications are fake and enable Greenwashing.
What is Greenwashing?
Greenwashing is a marketing strategy used to reel in environmentally conscious consumers by making false claims about a product or a collection being ‘eco-friendly’.
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Here are 5 reasons why your eco-friendly certified apparel may not be so eco-friendly after all:
1. The report looked at ‘10 major certifications, labels and voluntary industry initiatives in the fashion sector’. These certifications provide a way for brands to assess their own sustainability practices and rate them. They also label a brand’s products on whether they are made in an environmentally-friendly manner or not. Brands like H&M, Nike and more use the initiatives.
2. The certifications and some major brands that use them are:
- Higg Index and SAC – H&M, Nike, Walmart
- BlueSign – Adidas
- Oekotex - NA
- Cradle to Cradle - Adidas, Decathlon, H&M, Inditex (Zara), Marks and Spencer, Tommy Hilfiger
- Ellen MacArthur Foundation – Gap, Nike, H&M, Burberry
- Textile Exchange - NA
- The Microfibre Consortium - NA
- ZDHC – Burberry, H&M, Levis, Victoria’s Secret
- WRAP - NA
- EU EcoLabel - NA
(These brands were at one point of time associated with the certifications and perhaps are still associated with them).
3. The report claimed that the certifications were not found to be fit for purpose, lacked transparency, accountability.
4. Some were found to ‘rate fossil fuel-derived fibres as the more sustainable choice’.
5. The report accused various brands of ‘freely using their membership of such initiatives to greenwash and even escape government scrutiny’.
The problem with fast fashion: It creates an unending sea of clothes and accessories, creating artificial demand, higher waste and consumption of fossil fuel, oil and gas. The insatiable fast fashion business model is powered by polyester, a type of plastic fibre, leading to more consumption of plastic and its disposal.
The apparel industry contributes to about 10% of the carbon emissions around the world. And it is only growing.
Fast fashion’s endless shopping and mindless dumping is more of a western problem, though it is seeping into India. But one report had said that Indian Gen Z is the world’s most sustainable shoppers compared to their counterparts elsewhere.
On the brighter side, places like Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar market where Indians troop in to buy clothes in bulk at cheap prices are either thrifting or buying what’s known as export surplus. Hence, these shoppers are helping reduce future waste by buying them before they are inevitably dumped.
In the latest, the EU is set to propose new laws to rein in fast fashion companies in the region. The laws will target apparel production at every stage and force brands to adopt more sustainable methods. The ‘License to Greenwash’ report also comes ahead of the EU proposal.