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Fashion brands are promoting their local identities through stylish collection names and advertising campaigns. Now lawyers and legislators are coming to any unverified claims of what is known as “greenwashing”, and many hope that it will lead to a structural change in the entire industry.
Fast-fashion giant H&M is the first retailer to be recently sued over its sustainability claims, with a class-action lawsuit filed against the Swedish retailer in New York earlier this month. The suit claims that many of the items that H&M advertises as being made sustainably are “more sustainable, less sustainable than the items in their core collection” and that customers are shying away from items they mistakenly believed to be environmentally friendly.
It also takes on the brand’s claims that their program recycles clothes by collecting used clothes in bins in their stores. The charge led consumers to believe that old clothes could easily be recycled and turned into new clothes when the technology wasn’t there or scaled – and certainly not the scale or speed at which H&M was releasing new drops.
While the lawsuit focuses on H&M’s marketing — “conscious collection” and the use of misleading scorecards on other products, among other things — the filing should be a wake-up call for brands to back up their sustainability claims.
“They definitely have the attention of many industries and their advertising agencies. I think it’s making a lot of companies more cautious about the claims they make,” said Professor Michael Gerard, director of Columbia’s Sabine Climate Change Law Department.
Maxine Bedat, executive director of the New Standards Institute, believes this case opens the door to similar lawsuits in the future, and there will be more. “It can be an effective tool to make companies more careful and accurate in their marketing claims,” she said, but she cautioned that it shouldn’t prevent companies from solving fundamental structural problems. “I hope it’s getting companies to reframe their communication around what they’re doing, as opposed to slowing down progress and making them afraid. [change]He said.
The New York lawsuit isn’t just about how retailers market clothing. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is investigating fast fashion brands Asos, Boohoo and George over environmental claims made by Asda using misleading slogans such as “responsible”, “for the future” and “good”.
The British government has pointed out that these three brands are only the tip of the iceberg of greenwashing, and plans to put more firms under the microscope. “We will not hesitate to take enforcement action if necessary,” he said in a statement.
Eco-Edge’s sustainability consultant on policy, fashion and textiles, Philippa Grogan, says: “Like fast fashion brands, those with little to talk about often make bold claims” and expects many more brands to be called on. by the public, prosecution or regulators. “They’re just going to keep going, because they’ve only scratched the surface.”
Regardless of the legal or financial consequences, brands are paying a social price. “This is a PR storm on record,” Grogan added. “The legal implications justify the investigation in support of everything, but also headlines and social posts: ‘X brand will be investigated by the CMA.’ We hope it will be a deterrent for other brands. It’s a dirty word – ‘greenwashing’ – nobody wants to be associated with it.”
That wave is partly a generational change. Raised on a steady diet of social media, digital natives are keenly aware of climate and justice issues and call out missteps by brands on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram.
“Younger generations are not willing to accept good products that harm the environment, create negative social impacts or are made in a supply chain made with child labor in a developing country, even if it is a good product,” said Ioannis Ioannou. Associate Professor at London Business School, where he studies consumer awareness and corporate greenwashing.
In Europe, the European Commission is also taking on green claims with a series of proposals to ban companies from using buzzwords that confuse consumers at product level unless they can be backed by EU standards. The certification green claims initiative is due to be published in late 2022. Another tool to tackle greenwashing aims to help consumers make better choices. “If it’s done right, it’s going to make a huge difference in controlling this space,” Grogan said of the brands’ free-range deals.
More data, more information, more choices – all this information is well and good – but it still puts pressure on the customer. “There is a difference between holding. [brands] He is responsible and shines a light on them [advertising] Practices and taking steps to reduce their emissions,” Gerard said. “It is not clear whether the lawsuits will lead to a change in product policy or just a change in marketing.”
“If we’re somehow imagining all this change as consumers, I think that’s a pipe dream. Labels alone aren’t going to get us where we want to go.” Bedat added.
As we have seen with an organic food label or a calorie count on an approved menu, information does not guarantee better or different decisions. As an example, the fastest-growing company in fashion isn’t an established fast-fashion brand with any eco-minded credentials or publicly disclosed financial statements, but Chinese app-based Shin.
The ultra-fast fashion brand, which pushes small trends and drops thousands of items every day, is reported to reach $16 billion in sales in 2021, up from $10 billion in 2020 at the speed of light. Customers may want to make the right choices, but they also want cheap clothes.
Ioannou calls it the “trade-off effect” – consumers are willing to make a trade-off between environmental benefits and the desired product.
“One thing we have to remember is that it is not the consumer’s business to solve this problem,” he said. It’s up to the companies – they have to rethink their products, maybe smaller packaging, maybe more innovative products – and they have to rethink their supply chains for the long term.
Fashion has an example in the Nike sweatshop scandal of the 90s, he said. A massive global public relations debacle led Nike to re-examine their supply chain, revamp their overseas factories, and eventually develop a safer water-based adhesive. “From this ‘slap in the face’… this is how they came back with innovation.”
If this summer’s global warming waves, droughts, fires, and floods weren’t enough to make companies switch on their own, regulation is the next step. And here’s the thing – if consumers and enforcement agencies follow through on greenwashing claims, companies may start looking for stricter environmental laws, not just standards governing marketing and advertising language, to level their own playing field.
I expect to see more regulation, and in the long run, that’s a silver lining even when companies are exaggerating or outright cheating. [on greenwashing claims]. They are taking a risk, and that risk is becoming more expensive in a world of greater transparency and accountability,” Ioannou said.
Regulations require sustainability practices to be incorporated within a company, its operations and global supply chains. A thoughtful policy that ensures true green practices becomes the total cost of doing business and ensures that companies don’t put themselves at a competitive disadvantage for doing the right thing, Bedat said.
NSI supports New York’s Fashion Law, which would require any fashion retailer with more than $100 million in global sales that wants to sell in the state, the world’s 10th largest economy, to map their supply chains and set science-based greenhouse gas targets. Emissions – Even Shane. The bill is expected to be voted on in early 2023.
In the EU, a proposal for a verifiable green claim is expected to be published this fall and work its way through parliament next year. The group’s sustainable and circular textile strategy was published last March and will be implemented by 2030. It includes certain measures to ensure that fabrics are durable and reusable, and have a digital product passport to track, requiring manufacturers to take responsibility. for their products along the value chain, including fiber-to-fiber recycling. The strategy also calls for reducing the number of brands each year.
That may be years away, but change is already bubbling from below.
“Knowing these things are coming down the pipeline has helped internal teams champion more holistic change,” Bedat added.
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