Definition of 'sustainable' by the London College of Fashion's Center for Sustainable Fashion.
Financial accounting is rather ill suited as well as ill equipped to deal properly with a system that has finite natural resources. Else, why would it not record the environmental losses that come with e.g. extracting bauxite? And what about ESG? Well it turns out, ESG is just more of the same (growth) just in a shade of ‘green’. It is for a reason that the Global Materials Footprint has kept growing in alignment with the much coveted GDP growth. Despite all green efforts. ESG – investing in ‘greener’ tech and businesses – is definitely NOT ‘Sustainability’ as we need it.
In time for Christmas, one of the most historic inter-governmental landmark decisions hit the headlines: The 'Biodiversity' COP (COP15) had actually achieved 'something'. 200 countries had agreed on 4 Goals and 23 Targets. Some of those are a bit more concrete than others, the headline goes roughly like this: “By 2030: Protect 30% of Earth’s lands, oceans, coastal areas, inland waters; Reduce by $500 billion annual harmful government subsidies; Cut food waste in half.” A closer look at precisely those 23 Targets and the specificity of the measures they contain.
Ever heard of EMAS, the European Eco Management and Audit Schema? No? This is a brief introduction to what it is, with links to further resources.
6 cherry-picked myths, that are often led into the field of discussion against sustainable fashion, and will examine them close up and outside in.
While the relevance and criticality of COP26 is hammered home in the global media, the news reporting on COP15, as an effort possibly and reality more important than its Scottish climate conference peer, was rather subdued and unspectacular.
Let’s therefore get the most context-relevant questions straight out of the way: What is COP15? And why are there two COPs? And what has biodiversity to do with it?
On February 9th 2011, the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation successfully launched the Fairtrade Gold Standard. The UK is the first market where FT gold is available.
The term sustainability is applied as the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society. In this context sustainability is about the integration of social, environmental, ethical, human rights, consumer concerns and financial performance into business operations and strategy in collaboration with stakeholders, with the aim of: Identifying, preventing and mitigating any possible adverse impacts of business’ actions on the environment and society while maximizing societal benefit.
The Manifesto of a Hummingbird: . 13 + 1 ways to make a stance for responsible business and leadership.
The supply chain.
It has been accepted a long-time ago: supply chain is a risk. Or better: a RISK in capital letters.
But also a word that sounds impersonal. Very akin to a factory being a cogwheel in a much larger clockwork. And while the definition of the term does list ‘people’, the focus is very clearly on the idea of it all being a neat system of seamless interactions.
The fashion industry needs to change. Why? A simple T-shirt needs 2000 litres of water 150 grams of pesticide to grow the cotton. And that's only the start!
What means ethical in the fashion business? The lack of 1 widely accepted label is an issue. Yet: The principle problem is the lack of a consensus of what ethical business practises really are.
This is the first of a series that will look at and into true cost of certain goods and services. Cash subsidies thereby is one component, but certainly not the only one relevant one – indirect subsidies (e.g. in the form of environmental degradation or similar) need to be considered also. In this particular post, I’d like to focus on Oil & Gas subsidies, fossil fuels' True Cost, and what we know about these. What we already also learn: comparing apples to apples won't be easy.
True Cost calculations are only ever 'best available efforts', and much data remains missing or speculative at best. This is an issue we will encounter again also once we'll look into renewables, or indeed other kinds of industries outside of energy.
Sustainability for Fashion := "Creating desirable products that evoke an emotional connection [...]"
As a consumer, we have a basic understanding of “Ethical”. We know that buying such a product is supposed to alleviate some of our guilt, by doing a little bit of good, but what does it actually mean?
The 5 principles of good design: Invisible, solves problems, open to communication, in sync with life cycle, and mimics nature.
Fall 2010, Conclusion: Paris Ethical Fashion Week, the longest standing ethical fashion event. What is the make-up of a successful ethical brand?
Where and how was 'ethical fashion' invented? Who played key roles in the past? And where are we at and where are we going? A retrospective analysis that also looks into the future.
One of the challenges of sustainable fashion is the wording used to define it. We commonly associate adjectives like “sustainable”, “green”, “eco”, “responsible”, “conscious”, “ethical” with the word “fashion”. The question is: are certain words more popular than others? Or are some others nowadays outdated? How do consumer talk about sustainable fashion? And the industry?
Many of the most important resources our current civilisation depends on – all of them finite natural resources - form part of what historically would have been called ‘The Commons’. And yet, many of them are economically treated as 'income' and not the valuable and finite 'assets' they are. That again is the tragedy of the commons.
