How can the Throwaway Apparel Industry Become Sustainable?

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Sustainable Textiles
Digital labels and a data-driven second-hand clothing market are among the ways for the clothing industry to shape a new reputation

Across much of the globe, the appetite for new clothes seems insatiable.

Fashion trends mean many people refresh their wardrobe once or twice a year. It appears to be an industry that is a hopeless case when it comes to embedding sustainability.

But this bleak view is not shared by CSOs and other leaders at apparel companies. They are seeing a vision distilling and have real hope that net zero and fashion can one day be mentioned in the same sentence.

Debbie Shakespeare is Senior Director of Sustainability and Compliance at Avery Dennison.

Speaking to Sustainability Magazine, her enthusiasm for that vision is undiluted.

Debbie started at Avery Dennison in Procurement, then in Supply Chain. Moving to Sustainability seven years ago is something she has never regretted.

She says: “What I love is just the range of what I'm doing. One minute I can be talking about human rights and social issues. The next minute I'm talking about climate change, then I'm talking about traceability and transparency of supply chains.

“I get an equal amount of satisfaction out of all of them.”

Avery Dennison supplies physical and digital labelling for the apparel industry. If you buy a shirt, trousers, socks, there is a good chance that the main label, the tags, the brand logos and even the washing instructions label were produced and applied by the company.

What are the sustainability challenges?

Debbie says that, historically, the challenge has been that the products are physical, which means there is no way to avoid having significant supply chains.

One way that Avery Dennison – and Debbie’s team in particular – is operating is through influencing.

She says: “We're dealing with various different tiers of the textile chain because we're involved in it ourselves. So we can really help support businesses in that place.”

Another way is by getting the buy-in of its 20,000-strong workforce.

Debbie says: “How do we really engage our workforce to deliver our Scope 1, 2, 3 and net zero goals? And how do we make sure everybody within the business understands how their role has a tie back to the goal?

“It's not the sustainability team in isolation that should deliver the goals. My role is to engage the workforce, making the challenge real.”

Sustainability & ESG Consultant Henning Ohlsson, writing on LinkedIn, says the textile industry is responsible for 10% of global CO2 emissions.

This includes:

  •  6 kilos of CO2 per t-shirt
  • 2,700 litres of water per t-shirt
  • 20% of all industrial water pollution being caused by textile dyeing and treatment.

He thinks the answer is to focus less on the negative impacts of fast fashion and more on striving to do good in the industry.

He says: “This must involve prioritising ethical sourcing, promoting fair labour practices, reducing waste through recycling and upcycling and embracing sustainable materials and production methods from analog to digital.”

Hello Business, meet Sustainability

It’s a message that is being repeated long and loud across the industry.

Global business consulting service Accenture has published a Playbook called Scaling Sustainability Solutions in fashion, to help firms to navigate new legislation that is coming online in the coming months.

It’s authored by: Senior MD, Retail Sustainability & ESG, Cara Smyth; MD, Retail Sustainability & ESG, Frank Zambrelli; Strategy Manager, Retail Sustainability & ESG, Alexandria Lee and Michael Stone, Management Consultant, Retail.

They say the clothing industry is at an “inflection point”, adding: “Supply network engagement will be a fundamental element in building a different and better future for fashion and its related industries.

“Technology interchanges and shared data sets will become the catalysts for new trading relationships that power healthier organisations — meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.”

The report says the transformation will rely on business and sustainability becoming “symbiotically intertwined”.

It offers advice on achieving this throughout each area of a fashion business, adding: “Business is good for sustainability: sustainability is good for business.

“If silos are left behind, and operations and sustainability are woven into one, the magnitude of lasting progress that could be unleashed will change the industry — and the world.”

Levi Strauss & Co gets a flying start

Levi Strauss is among the many textiles companies that are getting ahead of the curve.

In May, it gained SBTi validation for its net zero targets, bringing in tougher supply chain and Scope 3 goals and new emissions measures.

The apparel company says the SBTi review made it reflect on its 'footprint, progress and ambitions'.

CSO Jeffrey Hogue says: “There are challenges, but we will leverage innovation, supplier engagement, sustainable sourcing and industry collaborations to drive the progress we need to see while strengthening business resilience.”

He says the review is about driving “deeper impact” into its work.

“Critically, this also means we are moving on to the same time horizon as many other apparel companies, including many that operate with the same suppliers we do,” Jeffrey adds.

Synchronising with the key messages from the Accenture report, the changes mean Levi Strauss can engage in “stronger collaboration with industry peers and supply chain partners to unlock leverage for progress and drive greater impact for our company, our value chain and the apparel industry”.

Driving digital solutions

Coming back to Avery Dennison, there are some exciting potential solutions on the horizon.

One relates to the growing market for second-hand clothing, which is set to be 10% of the apparel market by 2025.

Debbie says: “We see this as somewhere we can really help. We can help sellers because we hold the data on where and where the product was produced. It authenticates the product and enables it to be sold on at the right price, giving confidence.”

She says it removes much of the risk of counterfeiting, which is a growing threat to the industry.

Arguably even more exciting is how European legislation is paving the way for apparel to be digitally passported.

Consumers should eventually be able to download an app, hold it to a code on an item of clothing and get the rundown on its price, how and where it was produced, its sustainability impact, where the material came from and much more.

As consumers become increasingly climate conscious, it promises to be a big motivator to producers to become more sustainable.

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