Navigating the Complexity of Sustainable Fashion

In a recent episode of YPO Presents Ask the Experts – Sustainable Fashion, the conversation’s recurring theme was complexity. A garment’s journey from raw material to a customer’s closet involves several touchpoints and processes where sustainability can be addressed but determining an exact definition of what is, and is not, sustainable can be nearly impossible.

Mary Nazzal of 17 Ventures hosted Redwood Classics Apparel 's Kathy Cheng and Macnaughton Holdings Limited 's Simon Cotton to discuss the barriers they face in manufacturing sustainable clothing, ways to streamline supply chains, the navigation of standards and certifications, and ideas on how customers can create more impact.

Customers buy (and return) too much

Despite focusing on the bottom line, Cheng and Cotton emphasize that one simple thing consumers can do to invest in sustainable fashion is buy less. Purchasing fewer high-quality, well-made items can decrease the industry’s carbon footprint by preventing waste and reducing the consumption of energy and natural resources needed to make a garment. And while recycling textiles and second-hand retail seems like a viable option, it remains a niche operation that is labor and resource intensive.

Customers can also forego express shipping options, which almost always guarantees an item will be air shipped, explains Cotton. Cheng adds that customers are too acclimated to easy returns. “We have fed into the machine of easy returns so much that as a consumer, especially when you’re buying online, I can buy 10 items, try all of them on and return all ten,” she says.?

Cheng says relying less on individual consumers and more on corporations and wholesalers to commit to sustainable practices can have a bigger impact. For example, tradeshow swag, the ubiquitous t-shirts, hats or hoodies emblazoned with corporate logos given away at industry events, can be more sustainable and have higher ROI if they are well-made, explains Cheng. Impressions of the brand increase over time if these items last and are worn for longer.?

Streamline the supply chain; simplify the story

While customers can make sustainable choices at point-of-purchase, the ease and instant satisfaction of fast fashion can be difficult to resist. It’s more efficient and impactful to start at the beginning of the supply chain where garments originate and implement sustainable practices along the way.

At Redwood Classics Apparel, Cheng works in a partnership model with brands to collaborate on product development and production, working toward a shared goal of sustainability. Also, by producing and manufacturing all products on Canadian soil, rare in an industry that typically employs offshore operations, her business reduces the carbon emissions produced by shipping materials around the globe.

"If you can tell a thousand little stories about that product rather than one story about a thousand products, you’re going to be more successful..."

Another strategy, according to Cotton, is encouraging brands to limit and simplify their product lines. The various materials and processes used to develop complicated lines use up more resources and depend on more energy to manufacture. Simply made garments make the sustainable choice easy for customers, and they're easier to market, says Cotton. “If you can tell a thousand little stories about that product rather than one story about a thousand products, you’re going to be more successful because the consumer’s going to engage with that.”?

Streamlining sustainability standards

Navigating and adhering to the maze of sustainability standards can be a difficult task for both manufacturers and consumers. There are no universal standards, explains Cotton, so everyone is measuring what they think is most important and businesses sometimes overstate their impact. “It’s not necessarily that brands lie, but they choose which bits to talk about and they talk about the good bits, and they ignore the bad bits,” he says.

Cheng explains that often standards don’t account for regional or local differences. An issue in one country may not be a problem in another, making some global standards arbitrary, she explains. Cotton agrees and points to Scotland as an example of where water conservation is not an issue, although it may be paramount in other parts of the world.

“I think B-Corp is great, but is it the silver bullet? I don’t quite think so yet.”

One framework that draws praise from Cotton is the B Lab certification, which certifies businesses on a holistic set of criteria that address social and environmental best practices. “It’s difficult for one standard to do everything," he says. “I think B-Corp is the best multi-product, multi-marketing, general standard that’s out there.”

B-Corp certification is beneficial for consumer-level enterprises, says Cheng, but when it tries to fit the same mold into a full-service manufacturing system, meeting the standards can be challenging. “I think B-Corp is great, but is it the silver bullet? I don’t quite think so yet.”

Start the journey, take the first step

For leaders looking to start their sustainability journey, Cotton and Cheng stress that it’s a journey. Being “sustainable” is not a fixed label but an ongoing process. “It’s really difficult for anything at all to be called truly sustainable,” says Cotton. There are always tradeoffs and business priorities, industry standards and consumer trends will constantly be in flux. But, says Cheng, “Hopefully we’re all working toward the same goal and destination, which is to minimize and slow down the destruction of Earth.”

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About the Author

Carrie Butt ?is a member of YPO ’s global social media team focused on supporting?its?global accounts. She has extensive editorial and social media marketing experience for publishing, fine arts, civic and nonprofit organizations.