Fashion’s Greenwashing Problem

In a sea of unsubstantiated claims about sustainability, BoF’s Sarah Kent explains why it's so hard to measure impact, and what sort of regulation could be coming for fashion.  

Background: 

Concern about the environmental impact of clothing has swelled in the past few years. So too, has the practice of greenwashing. Right now, fashion marketing is flooded with eco-conscious messaging as brands dub their products “sustainable” without doing the groundwork to back up declarations. Consumers and regulatory parties are starting to demand more. 

Key Insights: 

• With little oversight outside voluntary inter-industry initiatives and no regulation, a sustainable marketing free-for-all has swept over fashion. 
• European policymakers looking to crackdown on greenwashing are currently considering legislation about how impact across various environmental areas can be measured. 
• Several snags have inhibited any real progress on measuring sustainability, including bad data, tangled methodologies, and the presence of complex social factors that go beyond ecological impact. 

Additional resources: 

• Green or Greenwashing: Who Gets to Decide?: European efforts to introduce standardised rules governing how brands backup environmental claims are fuelling a heated debate that stands to create winners and losers.
• The Sustainability Regulations That Could Reshape Fashion: Governments in Europe and the US are discussing regulations and policy proposals that could help steer the sector in a more sustainable direction.
• Fashion's Greenwashing Problem Begins with Bad Data: Fashion is doubling down on ambitious promises to clean up its environmental impact, but bad and misleading data are complicating efforts to build a more sustainable industry.

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