Nobody can seem to agree on how to dress sustainably.
Some people advocate for organic cotton and Fair Trade fashion, while others criticize how expensive those types of pieces are for most people. Some advocate for only buying vintage, but shouldn’t indie designers also be supported in their efforts to be eco-friendly? Certain experts cheer for the huge ripples that international brands send across the supply chain with seemingly small improvements, while others decry said small improvements as straight-up greenwashing.
But that’s the thing: Even the most passionate experts on the topic don’t think there’s one way to do sustainability "right." And if the pros don't have an answer, what are the rest of us — i.e. people who care about fashion, but also care about the planet — supposed to do?
To lead us in the right direction, we sat down at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit with the smartest sustainable fashion expert we know: Linda Greer, a scientist at the National Resources Defense Council. She launched the NRDC’s fashion-focused Clean by Design program in 2009 to clean up water and air pollution in Chinese apparel factories, and has both a master's in environmental science and engineering and a PhD in environmental toxicology. Basically, if anyone knows the scientifically proven way to dress sustainably, it’s her.
Don’t worry, though — you don't need a PhD to understand the information ahead. Because as it turns out, being a sustainable fashion consumer takes way less work than you think.
You do have the power.
“Consumers absolutely have the power to change the industry,” Greer tells Refinery29. And “this industry packs a surprising punch.”
According to last year’s Pulse of the Fashion Industry report, fashion was responsible for emitting 1,715 million tons of CO2 in 2015. “People don't think about that," she says. "They think, I drive a car, and fly in an airplane, and I heat my house, but there is embedded carbon in fashion. And if you buy a lot of fashion, your carbon footprint is abroad.”
According to Greer, fashion is also the second largest polluter of water in China. (The chemical industry is number one.) As a consumer, you don’t know the names or have contact information for chemical manufacturers, but you do have the Instagram handle of many fashion brands that manufacture in Asia — and you can use the power of the tag to tell them that you care about this issue.
Photographed by Aslan Eylul.Don’t worry about knowing it all.
“The first thing consumers ask is: How do I know what to buy? And that is exactly the right question – [but] without an answer,” Greer says.
That’s because there’s no universal fashion labeling system right now — no way to compare brands to one another, no overarching certification, and hardly any transparency. The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is working on it, but until they finally release their labeling system, it’s all just guesswork.
Last year’s Pulse of the Fashion Industry report attempted to break down all of the different materials by impact, but there were two glaring omissions: toxicity, and end of life — a.k.a. what happens to your clothes when you’re done with them. This year’s report simply says: “Every fiber...carries its advantages and disadvantages.” And then you have the processing, dying, finishing, shipping...
We're not even going to try to give you a comprehensive run down of the best fabrics to buy. “We don't want you to need encyclopedic knowledge in your head,” Greer says. “ We don't want people to have to shop their way through this problem. What we want is the industry transformed.”
Photographed by Aslan Eylul.Donate that disposable income.
The good news is that there are experts out there working hard to fix the industry so everyone can shop sustainably. Greenpeace is successfully convincing brands to phase out toxic chemicals, Canopy is saving endangered rainforest trees from ending up as rayon viscose fabric, and the NRDC is trying to clean up supply chains.
So if you have some extra cash, instead of using it to buy one pricey organic cotton T-shirt that was made in America, consider donating to one of the above nonprofits.
Apologies to socially conscious entrepreneurs, but “that one T-shirt, at the moment, is just too small,” Greer says. “We've seen over five to 10 years that these individual niche special collection things are not igniting. It's definitely more impactful to give the money to the groups that are working on systems change.”
If you want to support a small sustainable designer, buy a piece because you love their work and vision. Just don’t expect it to change the world.
Photographed by Aslan Eylul.Move quickly.
It was surprising when Linda Greer said on a panel that “It’s no longer effective to work on the government level because of the global supply chain.” Wait, isn’t she an activist?
“It's not that I don't think government is the answer. In fact, my whole career up until this crazy project, I've done government policy. I'm all over that,” she told me later.
With most issues — personal care products, toys, cars — there’s already some sort of legislation passed or on the table. Fashion is different. It’s a brand new topic of discussion, but it's also an urgent one.
“Right now, as I look around the world, I don't see really any governments that are poised to step up,” says Greer. “We have a really urgent problem on our hands with climate change. We are actually going to melt this place down if we don't get on top of this really quickly. I think the faster way to get where we need to go on the way to government regulation, is to force the private sector to take responsibility.”
Photographed by Aslan Eylul.Don’t bother with boycotting.
So you’ve heard about your favorite brand doing something bad. Maybe there was a small fire in a factory, or it was connected to a polluting factory in China. Many concerned consumers will declare that you can’t shop there any more in good conscience. But even if you could cut yourself off cold turkey from every unsustainable brand out there (which is, well, a lot of them), that actually doesn’t help fix the problem.
“There's this expression: ‘Those who buy don't care, and those who care don't buy,’” says Greer. “That's not good! We need those who buy making the impact. If you're not buying, then you're not a lever for change.”
Why should a brand listen to you if you tell them, "I’ve never shopped here and never will?" It’s more powerful to tweet or email the company and say “I will buy from you again if you take steps to fix this.” Then you’re dangling a carrot for change right in front of them.
Photographed by Aslan Eylul.A for effort.
There’s no perfectly sustainable fashion brand out there. It simply doesn’t exist. So when I asked Greer if it’s okay to buy from a sort-of sustainable brand that is making some effort (think Levi’s, Adidas, Nike, or H&M), she said yes. Whew!
“I think if you know they are on the road to something serious, it's okay. Because perfect could be the enemy of the good,” she explains.
A good place to look for brands with legit good vibes is on the Sustainable Apparel Coalition website. It’s an industry coalition of brands who want to improve their sustainability. You can also check out the app Good on You to get a third party’s feel for which brands are putting in the effort. For example, H&M is ranked as “It’s a Start” because it measures and reports its carbon emissions and aims to phase out toxic chemicals from its supply chain, among many other initiatives, but still uses mostly conventional materials. Anthropologie gets a “we avoid,” because of a complete lack of transparency, and Raven + Lily gets a, “great” rating, because its eco-friendly products are made by women who are paid a fair wage.
Photographed by Aslan Eylul.Ask a question. Any question.
What if you really want to buy from a brand but you have a bad feeling about them? That’s a powerful feeling to leverage.
“Brands nowadays make great efforts to have a certain aura associated with their brand,” Greer says. “They want people to come buy their brand, not just the blouse because it's a beautiful blouse, but because of what it represents, a sense of identity, etc. That makes them exquisitely sensitive to customer concerns about the sustainable impacts of what they are doing. So that's why I think it really is as simple as them hearing from a large number of their customers that something is not okay.”
So, let brands know what you think. Ask them via email or Twitter or Instagram what they are doing to improve their sustainability and what the factories are like where they source from. Merely asking a question — any question — shows them that you're paying attention.
Photographed by Aslan Eylul.Get this browser extension.
Greer has been daydreaming about an app that would let you contact a brand when you’re considering a purchase to express reservations about shopping with them given their track record. “It's like, 'I'm here, I'm your customer and I care about this, so do something about it,'” she says. It would also give a shout-out to companies that are doing a good job.
Guess what? That app exists, except it’s a browser extension. Add DoneGood to your browser, and it will pop up on fashion shopping sites to either congratulate you on picking a great brand, direct you to sustainable and ethical alternatives, or let you tweet at the brand with one click.
Photographed by Aslan Eylul.Ask your alma mater to buy sustainable swag.
If you’re a college student or active alumnus, here’s a neat trick: You can work on an initiative at your college that's like a fashion-focused version of California’s groundbreaking Buy Clean California rule, which requires the state government to only purchase building materials that are below average in the emissions they generate. In this case, if your college is concerned about climate change (looking at you, University of California), then it could commit to only buying T-shirts, sweats, and other sports gear from brands that can prove they manufacture more sustainably.
The growing market for collegiate-licensed apparel generates $4.6 billion in retail sales annually, and more and more brands are trying to get in on the action. That’s a lot of money on the table, and a huge incentive for brands to measure and clean up their supply chain.
Photographed by Aslan Eylul.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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