The Great Greenwashing Machine - Part 1: Back to the Roots of Sustainability

Today, major fashion brands claim to be engaged in sustainability efforts, but as this new report reveals, many are failing in their efforts because they are using a flawed definition of sustainability, unscientific methods and selective implementation.

The report, titled The Great Greenwashing Machine - Part 1: Back to the Roots of Sustainability (PDF), authored by Veronica Bates Kassatly and Dorothée Baumann-Pauly and supported by leading sustainability consultancy Eco-Age, examines sustainable fashion claims and critically assesses the extent to which fashion’s efforts are contributing to meaningful change, and to what extent they are a distraction.

The fashion industry is considered as a major contributor to air, water, and soil pollution, as well as an enabler of exploitative sweatshop conditions for garment workers – this reputation is bad for business, so in response, fashion brands have created sustainability programs to assure governments, consumers and investors that they are addressing their social and environmental impact.

Despite these well-meaning industry efforts, the perceived holistic sustainability benefits do not appear to be trickling down to the producers, some of the least represented and underpaid in fashion’s global value chain. The vast majority of those living below the social foundation are to be found in the global south. Yet not only are their needs not given priority, but the global south does not even appear to be represented in any of the major sustainability initiatives and groups. Nor do Zambian or Burkinabe cotton farmers, Brazilian silk, or Peruvian alpaca farmers appear to be consulted at any of the major fashion weeks or conferences.

This report first outlines the definition of sustainability, going back to the roots of origin in the 1987 United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development – also known as the Brundtland Commission – that underpins the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to this day.

It then delves into a critical assessment of how current sustainability claims in fashion deviate from the Brundtland definition and exposes the vast consequences and outcomes resulting from fashion’s failure to meet it.

The first report in the series provides two concrete measures, with three associated action points for policymakers and corporations; the aim of which is to ensure that in meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, overriding priority is given to meeting the essential needs of the world’s poor.

Authors: Veronica Bates Kassatly & Dorothée Baumann-Pauly
Date: 15 September 2021
Publisher: Eco-Age

To download this report and discover quotes from the authors and from Livia Firth, please scroll down the page.