Where does the fashion industry really stand on sustainability? Many brands and retailers have made public commitments to minimise the environmental and humanitarian impacts of their operations. But the widely-read Fashion Transparency Index 2022 suggested that, while some organisations have made tangible progress, inertia on the part of other brands and retailers across the size and value spectrum has held back progress at the whole-industry level.
Against that backdrop, what role can technology play in helping fashion to go further, faster, in meeting not only its self-imposed targets, but the increasingly stringent regulations being proposed in the USA, Europe, and worldwide?
To help answer that question, this episode features a frank conversation between our Editor and Ruth MacGilp, Communications Manager for Fashion Revolution – the organisation behind the Transparency Index, which has also been campaigning for a clean, safe, fair, transparent, and accountable fashion industry for more than a decade.
Together they underline the importance of taking rapid action, and explain the potential for innovation in software, hardware, and process to enable fashion brands, retailers, and suppliers to make meaningful progress towards essential targets – provided they commit the resources and investment required.
Listen now:
Use the embedded players to listen to this episode of The Interline Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or click through to follow the show on those popular platforms so you’re notified when future episodes release.
The Interline Podcast is also available through a range of other podcast services. Search for “The Interline Podcast” on your platform of choice, and then follow or subscribe.
Our next episode is scheduled for release soon. In the meantime, you can find key talking points from Episode 6 below.
Key talking points:
Building on the themes tackled in our previous episode – “Transparency In Action,” featuring Icebreaker – this show takes a detailed lens to sustainability in fashion, with discussion focusing on:
- How far the fashion industry has come towards meeting its sustainability targets, and how those targets have evolved over the last decade.
- Whether fashion has made unequal progress between minimising its environmental and ethical impacts.
- The practicalities of finding a model of fashion that retains the industry’s reputation for creativity and quality, but without compromising on human rights and living wages.
- How transparency and accountability can be built into fashion value chains, allowing brands to make confident, data-backed commitments and disclosures.
- What the future holds for alternative fabrics, and how innovation is taking root in the raw material supply chain.
- Whether fashion, at an industry level, is properly recognising and addressing the scale of action required to address its environmental and humanitarian impact.
- Why larger retailers and small-to-medium brands should adopt different approaches to their sustainability strategies.
- Whether digital fashion is likely to have a positive or negative net impact on consumer behaviour, and on brands’ ability to invest in improving the sustainability profile of their physical products.
- What actions listeners can take to make a measurable difference in the shortest amount of time.
Interested in exploring sustainability, transparency and circular fashion in more detail? Explore our editorial archives, or listen to our previous episode, which showcases transparency in action in a material supply chain.
Don’t forget to follow The Interline Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your platform of choice. And look for our next episode, releasing alongside our first-ever Digital Product Creation Report, this November.
