Sustainable living isn’t easy. But it doesn’t always have to be time-consuming or tedious. One easy switch consumers can make is to ditch fast fashion and shop sustainable clothing brands.
to figure out what brands are actually green and what you should look for when trying to shop for sustainable fashion.
Sustainable fashion usually means eco-friendly practices in the fashion industry, referencing the approach of designing, producing and consuming clothes that respect the planet by causing little to no damage, and therefore sustaining the environment. A defining sustainable fashion is industry’s practice of sustaining the healthy lives of the people who make clothes through living wages, safe work conditions and maker well-being.
Experts say the best way to practice sustainability is by shopping consumers’ own closet before purchasing anything new. They also recommend checking out vintage, rental and consignment stores before you buy brand-new clothes.
Experts say one can’t always trust brands that claim to be eco-friendly. Marketing heads of fashion companies use greenwashing, manipulative tactics to make sales, without doing the hard work of running a truly sustainable company. Experts outline a few tips to help consumers find well-intentioned brands.
They advise consumers to look for brands that put an emphasis on transparency in their supply chain. There is no regulation of the word ‘sustainable fashion,’ and in an industry that is already opaque, some brands can be dishonest about their environmental impact. Moreover it is also important to keep an eye out for partners and standardized certifications that can support sustainability claims. For example, The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) for organic cotton, Global Recycled Standard (GRS) for recycled products, the LEED certification for reduced energy consumption in factories or Bluesign for chemical and environmental management.” It’s also good to look for certified B Corporations, which meet a strict set of standards measuring a company’s environmental impact.
