• H2020
• Societal Challenges
• Climate Action

The UN’s Paola Deda argues that consumers and producers in the fashion world could make a real difference for humanity and the planet, and launches a proposal on how to achieve sustainable development

On 25 September 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a ‘plan of action for people, planet, and prosperity’. The agenda includes 17 sustainable development goals for 169 targets, which should inspire action at the national, regional, and international level over the next 15 years in areas of critical importance for humanity and the Earth. Goals span from ending poverty to ensuring healthy lives, achieving gender equality, promoting sustainable economic growth and decent work, reducing inequalities, and taking action to combat climate change.

By signing onto this document, members of the UN committed to ‘making fundamental changes in the way our societies produce and consume goods and services’. All parts of society, including the business community, are called upon to changing unsustainable consumption and production patterns. SDG 12 in particular commits to ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns and is structured over eight targets, addressing the use of natural resources, chemical waste, fossil fuels and the integration of sustainable practices into the production cycles. However, it is not only producers who can make a difference, as target eight under this goal also addresses the consumer’s right to be informed so as to be better aware of sustainable development issues and able to choose lifestyles that are in harmony with Nature.

The fashion ‘world’

These commitments resonate well in the fashion ‘world’. While the word ‘fashion’ might simply recall the glamour of catwalks, beautiful models, and an ephemeral image of stylish clothes, the apparel sector often hides darker realities of irreparable damages to people and the planet in the name of profit and vanity.

The fashion sector is a major global business. According to recent data, the industry is worth more than USD 3 trillion (~€2.7tr) a year and employs 60 million people worldwide, predominantly women. In the USA alone, 20 billion garments are sold annually.

Changing the production and consumption patterns of this sector would have a domino effect on many aspects of development and provide a visible and meaningful contribution to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The fashion industry in particular offers two entry points for action: top down (as governments and business corporations have the power to foster change), and bottom up – as we as consumers do have a choice to make when buying a garment and can therefore influence the production and market.

However, to make a real change both approaches need to be combined, and at the moment government- and business-led initiatives to make the sector more sustainable are scattered, unco-ordinated, and often address only one side of the problem. Similarly, the market of sustainable fashion is limited to small businesses, is not well-marketed and remains mostly unknown.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development thus offers a unique opportunity to bring sustainable fashion to the forefront of the international debate and to demonstrate the contribution it could make to the achievement of many of the sustainable development goals.

Slowing fashion down

The way we purchase our wardrobe has changed considerably over the last few decades. Before mass production, clothes were rare items carefully manufactured by tailors. It was normal to wear the same clothes for a few consecutive days, and some garments were only for special occasions while clothes designed for work were long-lasting and did not follow any particular fashion trend.

It is with post-World War II mass production that fashion became part of the daily lives of consumers, strengthening its marketing potential as production became increasingly industrialised and as new and cheaper materials, mainly synthetic, entered the market.

The market of ‘fast fashion’ grew exponentially, reaching current peaks. Fashionable clothes are now affordable and available to the masses through well-known chains selling in retail shops or online, and appealing to all layers of society. Some psychologists argue that fast fashion brings a quick relief to the challenges of modern society, providing an affordable reward to manage daily stresses. A new garment makes us feel renewed, different, fashionable and in tune with a fast changing culture.

The phenomenon is similar to the ‘fast food’ revolution of the 1980s, which has deeply impacted modern societies since then. The results of such a change of nutritional habits, although predictable, were analysed and acknowledged only much later once their impacts on people’s health reached threatening proportions. The ‘slow food’ movement was one reaction to unhealthy fast and fatty diets, bringing nutrition back to the basics of local, traditional non-processed food.

A similar need to slow fashion down to its traditional function is now necessary. Producing better quality, long-lasting garments is an important step towards sustainability. For instance, it was estimated that extending the average life of clothes by just nine months could reduce carbon, water and waste footprints by 20-30%. Moreover, aiming at quality would stimulate the use of more natural materials and improve the production chain, as more qualified expertise would be needed and high quality materials requested.

The transition towards ‘slow’ or more durable fashion is, however, a complex process that requires action in many different areas and sectors, including action by governments and civil society at the international level. The SDGs could stimulate this long overdue dialogue and tackle the many different challenges of the fashion world.

Poverty, sustainable growth, decent work

The Rana Plaza accident in Bangladesh in 2013, in which 1,134 people died and hundreds were injured, is widely known. This major catastrophe brought to the headlines a hidden but widespread reality in the world of fast fashion: the lack of workers’ safety and rights. The poor structural integrity of buildings where people worked in massively overcrowded conditions was, however, only one aspect the tragedy brought to light. The inhuman conditions that many workers, mainly women, had to endure on a daily basis were the outcome of severe poverty and a lack of adequate social protection measures.

Improving the working conditions of ‘fashion’ workers is an important starting point for the achievement of SDG 8 – to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. However, while the solution would seem simple, as garment companies have the means to increase quality standards and working conditions, and governments could enforce stricter labour protection legislation, little progress is being made in this domain. There thus remains a strong need for responsible politics, rule of law, and an increasingly engaged and motivated workforce. Unions are still not powerful enough to be heard by the industry and governments.

At the international level there have been several attempts to make business more respectful of human rights throughout the supply chain and to prevent the negative impacts of the production chain, related operations and products and services. A case in point was the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, in 2011.

Yet, while documents and international commitments and agreements exist, the strength and power of the market and the demand for cheap, ‘fast fashion’ are compelling. In the fashion world, SDG 8 is far from being realised.

The planet’s health

The close connection between our clothes and their impact on the environment does not come automatically to our minds. When we wear a pair of jeans, we rarely think of the huge quantity of water it took to produce them. Similarly, we do not necessarily connect the catastrophe that led to the demise of the Aral Sea to the demand for cheap cotton. Likewise, we do not connect the pollution of rivers in many developing countries to the toxicity and quantities of dyes used to colour our garments.

We make the link between Nature and fashion usually only when celebrities campaign against the use of animal fur for coats and accessories, forgetting or ignoring that wildlife is exploited by the fashion industry in many other ways that go beyond the use of fur or leather. As shown above, this includes for example the exploitation of land for monocultures, which deprives biodiversity of its natural habitats.

Moreover, the message of sustainability is often confusing even to a careful consumer. While a key element of sustainability is recycling, it was demonstrated that fleece and other fabric derived from recycled plastics is highly toxic for biodiversity, including marine and inland-water fauna, as invisible plastic particles have become part of the food chain in oceans, rivers and beyond.

In general, the harvesting or production of fabric material, and its dyeing and processing to produce clothes and accessories, is highly polluting and is also consuming high quantities of natural resources (energy, water, land and biodiversity).

The emphasis of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on the importance of a healthy planet is stressed by the adoption of two goals entirely focused on the environment, namely SDG 14 (‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development’) and SDG 15 (‘Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss’). In addition, SDG 13 urges the world to ‘take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts’.

Fashion has an important role to play and can contribute to their achievement, but as consumers we are still far from connecting the dots and understanding how our purchasing choices can limit the impact that fashion has on the environment.

People’s health and wellbeing

The toxicity of our garments is a problem for both those who are in strict contact with material and dyes during the production cycle and for those who wear the garment. It is estimated that about 10% of skin conditions are related to the chemicals in our clothes and accessories. However, little has been done to address the matter.

In February 2016, in recognition of the challenge, the Italian Chamber of Fashion issued guidelines on eco-toxicological requirements for clothes, leather, shoes and accessories, developed in co-operation with a number of associations from the fashion and chemical sectors as part of a broader dialogue on sustainable fashion. Several luxury brands have supported this work in an attempt to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in fashion. However, this initiative is widely unknown, as is information on the effects of what consumers wear on their health.

The issue of toxicity is a key one for health but also for the environment, as addressed above. However, another important aspect of fashion impacts both the mental and physical health of the consumer. Fashion brings along images of success and beauty that have a profound impact, in particular on young generations who struggle to match the image of attractiveness proposed by brands and their ads.

Fast fashion has accelerated the consumption of affordable clothing and has proposed a material compensation to physiological needs through the easy purchasing of goods such as clothes, shoes and other accessories. Fast fashion has also created new status symbols which require compliance with strictly skinny body shapes and fast changing fashion trends, launching new looks several times during the same season. Fashion hysteria is not a phenomenon to be underestimated in modern societies, where traditional values disappear rapidly to be overtaken by well-marketed lifestyles and images.

The philological effects of fast fashion are paradoxically even more dangerous than the physical ones on the consumer. While anorexia is one example, it is the overall focus on the quick satisfaction of a cheap purchase which is rather dangerous. Young generations compensate for the presumed  ‘lack of purpose’ with a fast fashion market without even reflecting on the consequences that such an economic and retail model has on their health and the environment. If we are to achieve SDG 3, to ‘ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’, the fashion industry should not be ignored.

The fashion passport

Certification has proven to be an effective tool to ascertain the sustainability of a product, trace its origin, and learn more about its production chain. The forest industry came to develop certification systems in the last three decades due to the pressure of consumers who began to ask for more transparency on the methods and origin of the wood they were purchasing. Deforestation and an increased environmental awareness led the market to develop tools to reassure consumers.

The fashion world has experienced some limited attempts to report about and regulate the sustainability of a product, through standards, certifications and initiatives developed in different contexts and for different purposes. Some cover the ‘naturalness’ of materials and the environmental friendliness of a product; others certify the sustainability of labour conditions or the non-toxicity of a product. Yet despite these efforts and initiatives, as of today, the average consumer is not informed and cannot check when buying a garment whether it was produced sustainably and what its impact was on people and the planet. While initiatives are commendable, and help the expert customer, they are not relevant and powerful enough to reach the global consumer.

It is therefore urgent to develop a common language of standards and certifications that could be applicable to all garments and apparel around the world, similar to what has happened in the forest industry. The fashion industry could actually learn from the lessons of forest certification and standards in other sectors and even develop a more universal certification system based on clear and accepted indicators to be reflected in a universal ‘fashion passport’, which would speak to consumers and provide them with the necessary information for them to make an informed choice. The passport would (similar to the energy passport developed for energy efficiency in buildings in European countries, for instance) also influence the market. The higher the performance of the product ‘recorded’ in its passport, the more desirable it becomes.

To be relevant to sustainability, the passport would need to address at least three important aspects of the fashion industry: labour, impact on the environment, and health and wellbeing.

Certainly, it would not be easy and immediate for all producers to be able to develop an accurate passport. Missing data, difficulties in tracing all aspects of production, limits to the changes that could be made quickly to the production chain and processes are all potential issues. However, the passport could be seen as a work in progress that would develop as the business improves and acquires the ability to perform and report. The initial steps could cover the traceability of the product, as production and trade chains could be easily identified and recorded. The moment the passport becomes a requirement, it would be embedded in the planning and production process, becoming the norm, the same way standards and certification has become the norm in other sectors.

Ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns, as envisaged in SDG 12, must involve the fashion sector, and the passport could be the subject of a dialogue amongst all actors.

Towards sustainable fashion 2030

It is now time to gather all relevant stakeholders around a table to agree on an agenda for sustainable fashion. These would include governments, civil society, environmentalists, labour experts and unions, gender specialists, health experts, and the fashion industry – from business to designers. The SDGs offer a unique opportunity to set the agenda of such a gathering, to understand the contribution the sector can make to their achievement and to identify activities that can improve it.

Such a world gathering should be informed using state-of-the-art material on the impact of fashion on people and the planet. There is a need for comprehensive research on the economic, environmental and social impact of the sector, with up-to-date data and statistics. No comprehensive study has been developed so far, and the available information remains scattered and unreliable.

Based on such a study, the meeting could agree on the next steps for action, including the creation of an expert group to develop the fashion passport. A strong message from the meeting, in the form of a charter or declaration, could also set the basis for the next steps for the sector, and include sustainability and the SDGs in the business processes and plans of the fashion industry.

This article was written with this objective in mind: to stimulate discussion on the subject, show the clear connections between fashion and sustainability, and possibly generate interest in continuing the dialogue at a different level. Making the SDGs ‘fashionable’ could certainly contribute to a healthier, more prosperous planet for all. Certification at the global scale seems like an ambitious but reasonable way to proceed.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of its author and do not reflect in any way the position of the United Nations on the subject.

Paola Deda

United Nations Economic Commission from Europe

http://www.unece.org/info/ece-homepage.html

This article first appeared in issue 12 of Horizon 2020 Projects: Portal, available here.