Spot Greenwashing with these Tips!

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Sustainability has been a term in all of our minds and it has been especially prominent in the Fashion space. Whether you are a consumer or a brand, the concern for the health of our home has been under the spotlight.

The first article that we are going to explore is the problem of Greenwashing.

Greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company's products are more environmentally sound.

There have been numerous schemes that try to block brands from being able to greenwash but a recent study by CMF (Changing Markets Foundation) has found that schemes such as SAC (The Sustainable Apparel Coalition) and certifications like The Ellen MacArthur Foundation have been unsuccessful in holding high standards and have rather been procrastinating when it comes to issues like the use of fossil fuel.

Although there have been eco-friendly efforts that have been seen from numerous brands, the use of polyester fibres and fossil fuels has actually increased - meaning the environmental impact has been stronger. The CMF suggested that these schemes be abolished and instead, have legislations that can put mandatory measures on the fashion industry.

Read more here: Fashion Certification Schemes Can Enable Greenwashing, According to Report

So what is the solution for greenwashing? Would customers be able to play a bigger part and recycle more to decrease our environmental impact instead? That may not actually be the case. This next article from Vogue has outlined the reasons why recycling will not be able to solve fashion's sustainability problem.

With the enormous amounts of clothing (100 billion items!) that are produced per year, less than 1% of that is actually recycled. What does happen to the clothing that does get recycled though? Unfortunately, it seems that the blended use of fibres in clothing makes it difficult to recycle. Quality also becomes an issue when it comes to recycled cotton as the fibres become shorter and the quality is degraded. Polyester is then blended with the recycled cotton to make it stronger and brings the clothing item back to the difficulty of recycling blended materials again.

We are seeing more new technologies that are easing this issue but it is clear that the solution for the fashion industry's environmental impact is not recycling. What we may need is an entirely new business model that can quickly alleviate all the issues that we are facing.

Read the article in full here: Why Recycling Won't Solve Fashion's Sustainability Problem

You may not be aware of it, but greenwashing is everywhere and as consumers, we all fall victim to it. With brands sounding eco-positive, consumers are easily deceived by the one aspect that brands claim to be sustainable and be blindsided by the areas where the brands have not made a change.

So how can we, as consumers, spot greenwashing tactics from brands? There are a number of things that you can keep a lookout for to see whether or not the brand is greenwashing or not. The first is to look for any facts or figures that they release to support any 'conscious collections' that they have. Numericals will often give you a general idea of the changes that a brand is making from an environmental front, don't be convinced by the flowery language that marketers write if there is no solid evidence behind it!

If you want to have a condensed summary of what fast fashion has been doing to give an image that they are being environmentally friendly, you can watch this explanation given by Hasan Minhaj below:

We know that it's frustrating to try and find out what to do and how to catch if a brand is greenwashing so we have compiled a list of relevant articles for you to find out more and be a better eco-friendly and global citizen.

Tips to spot greenwashing:

• Greenwashing in Fashion is on the Rise, Here's How to Spot It
• Little Green Lies
• You've Heard of Greenwashing, But Do You Know How to Spot - and Stop - it Happening?

List of Sustainable Brands to Explore:

• Our Favourite Sustainable Brands (Harper's Bazaar)
• Expert Rated Sustainable Brands (Find out which brands are environmentally through expert analysis)

Resale Fashion Strategy Benefits:

• New Study Shows Which Resale Fashion Strategies are Best for the Planet and Business

Recycling Textiles 101

• The Basics of Textile Recycling

Let's all make an effort to take action and be more aware of greenwashing tactics that brands equip to mislead the public!

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