Green It, Mean It
Fashion Mingle’s Mingle Mastermind Sessions got to the issue most businesses are hesitant to address, it’s sustainability, the mission, and the actions to become environmentally friendly in the fashion industry, producing clothing and accessories with net zero effort, in this week’s session that’s “Fashion Business Sustainability Guide: Hey FTC! We Want Updated Green Guides”.
It’s one thing to say that you are sustainable, and that you’re using eco-friendly sourcing and manufacturing to producing your collections, however, pencilling in and saying it will not put you in the clear with sustainable state and federal laws put in place to go green, you could obtain fines for not being at zero carbon footprints by 2030, let alone following exact guidelines about your business’s sustainable process.
It’s also stressed that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) update their green guides about businesses being clear about their sustainable, organic, and natural claims, keeping fashion in line and forcing fashion to be environmentally friendly 100 percent, identifying bad actors and posers of green.
While higher standards are being stressed, most businesses large and small may find themselves between and rock and a hard place when nailing down their plan to be sustainable, to a point where businesses may throw their hands in the air and give up, not willing to put the time and money to go green.
It ultimately comes down to the first step of beginning a conversation about sustainability in fashion, not dump facts and educate consumers and businesses all at once where you’ll go nowhere with the green mission, start slowly by talking about it with your colleagues and contacts in fashion about a sustainable future free of fast fashion and carbon production, then encourage your customers by piecemeal, customers will the first line of defense in getting educated about sustainability, they’ll definitely ask questions sooner than later.