Opinion: 3 ways the fashion industry can meet the SDGs

There are several legacy indicators that illustrate an alignment between prominent industry sector players on key issues linked to the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, leading women’s fashion magazine Marie Claire recently devoted a notable issue to sustainability, while the Museum of Modern Art currently celebrates a fashion exhibit entitled “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” And, with a recent roll out of a comprehensive vision leveraging circular economy principles, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation provides a compelling call to transform how modern clothes are designed, produced, sold, and used. While it is encouraging to witness fashion and corporate actors convening to discuss these issues, positive change requires participation from companies and consumers alike. Constructive, collaborative, and results-driven action across the industry is critically important to formulate, execute, and realize systemic change. Consequently, there are three specific strategies the fashion and apparel industry should incorporate to tackle the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals. 1. Collective implementation of apparel waste and reuse strategies Sustainable Development Goal #12 calls for sustainable consumption and production, including efforts to reduce resource use, degradation, and pollution along the product lifecycle, while increasing quality of life. The primary crucial issue facing the textile industry is waste embedded in the production and consumption processes, generating 10 percent of global carbon emissions and 20 percent of industrial water waste, while annually directing 10.5 million tons of clothing to landfills. Due to the sheer volume of water consumption patterns present in the sector, it is fashion brands’ responsibility to take a leadership role in the promotion of sustainable water and energy use. Existing programs supporting water, sanitation, and the SDGs require corporate statesmen to commit to continuous progress. The United Nations Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate provides six core elements of water stewardship and risks. Sweden Textile Water Initiative offers guidelines for sustainable water and waste water management throughout a company’s supply chain. Ceres, a sustainability pioneer, just released the first comprehensive online toolkit for investors to evaluate and understand water risks. The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board has blossomed with major support to enhance capital market efficiencies with high-quality sustainability financial reporting. Finally, CDP has developed a global disclosure system to effectively measure and manage companies, cities, and states’ environmental footprint. Developing market-based solutions for natural assets is essential for the industry’s long-term viability. There is no shortage of innovations linked to upcycling, a process that helps turn discarded fabrics and scraps into new products. Companies such as Unifi, and Evernu work to reduce textile waste and offer innovative uses for color dyes and virgin resources. Due to water usage volume required to meet demand for the estimated 35,000 tons of chemical dye necessary to color the clothes we wear, it’s no wonder industry incumbents such as Levi’s have developed entire new finishing processes designed to minimize water usage. Recently, quality assurance company DNV GL and the U.N. Industrial Development Organization developed self-assessment tools that assist textile companies evaluate water footprint throughout their manufacturing processes and entire supply chain. 2. Merging of partnerships and coalitions outcome-driven strategies Despite a growing shift in consumer preferences for more sustainable design and practices, there is no cohesive approach to overcome the complexity of the critical pieces of a sustainable fashion industry. The rise of numerous associations and industry groups provides a solid platform for constructive collaboration, in a bid to overcome industry effort fragmentation, embrace transparency, and highlight critical issues facing the industry. These key coalitions provide ample opportunity for learning and sharing best practices, and are critical tools for companies to remain relevant and nimble. The NGO Textile Exchange, for example, works to minimize the harmful impacts of the textile industry with a special focus on fibers and responsible supply networks. Global industry advocate C&A Foundation supports numerous programs to accelerate sustainable cotton, improve working conditions, eradicate forced and child labor, and foster circular fashion. The Sustainable Apparel Coalition developed the Higg Index, a standardized supply chain measurement suit of tools for industry participants to assess and benchmark impacts of manufacturing. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has become the driving force behind efforts to help transition global business and government to a circular economy. The Global Fashion Agenda’s recent call to action garnered more than 64 signatories committed to embracing circular principles by setting targets and reporting on progress. Fashion for Good evolved as a global initiative to reimagine how fashion designs, makes, uses, and reuses items. For initiatives such as these to thrive, more companies need to adopt these principles and endorse a vision for a new textile economy. Purchasing entities must be accountable for maintaining supply chain operations in line with international, country, and collaborative standards. More importantly, to move these activities past small incubators, we must prioritize scaling efforts through partnership, and collaboration on best practices across the value chain to bring sustainable processes for textile waste, and re-engineering trash, plastic and energy to fruition. For example, Patagonia, Kering, and Eileen Fisher collaborate on renewed garments and materials, while H&M and Marks & Spencer built specialized take back and sorting programs for reuse. 3. Values-driven labor and production strategies Perhaps the most comprehensive challenge facing the fashion industry relates to meeting Sustainable Development Goal #8 on decent working conditions, due to demands embedded in the fast fashion business model. Quick turnaround, coupled with rising production costs, while struggling to sell products at low-prices, creates a difficult landscape to navigate. A continuous vilification of wrongs with a systemic failure to highlight good practices also leads to companies increasingly understanding the reputational risks in failing to recognize basic violations in company-owned and third-party supplier factories. The Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh propelled numerous initiatives to shed light on unsafe conditions, resulting in the joint signing of the new Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety. In conjunction with additional agreements, factories have embraced deadlines set for the summer of 2018 to improve working conditions. There are concurrent efforts underway to manage the aforementioned reputational risks embedded in the supply chain. PVH works alongside Accord to audit and remediate issues on behalf of members in all locations. Other companies have turned to the United Nations International Labor Organization’s Better Work Program, active in 1,450 factories that employ more than 1.9 million workers in seven countries, and jointly managed by the International Finance Corporation, to dedicate resources and efforts to improve working conditions and competitiveness. In addition to these strategies, there are cross-cutting intervention opportunities through efforts to identify catalytic areas of engagement embedded within the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, SDG #5 is intended to promote gender equality. It is estimated 80 percent of the workforce, from farming to manufacturing, is made up of women, who hold vast influence and see their livelihoods directly impacted by industry practices. Corporations can create tangible value by leveraging brand power to champion gender equality practices formulated to empower women, offer decent work, foster growth, and advance policy supporting rights in sourcing countries. Prominent examples of competitors deriving business development results include Kate Spade and Gap’s support of more than 68,000 women in 12 countries through the “P.A.C.E. — Changing one million lives” training and educational program. It is up to us to come together, private, nonprofit, and government sector, through a clear, committed, concentrated effort, to ensure the complexity of these issues is collectively examined. We need to ensure a compelling value proposition that delivers the new solutions and investments necessary to create the vision billions in the planet wish to see. Sustainability will continue to become a key value driver and competitive differentiator. Only those people within the industry confident in their people, product, values, processes, and leadership will create the respective and regenerative ecosystem of the future. We must be those people. Read more Devex coverage on the Sustainable Development Goals.