The United Nations is calling for fashion to move beyond pushing over consumption
The United Nations Environmental Programme’s (UNEP’s) new ‘Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook’ shows how the fashion industry can use its influence to shape responsible decisions, with people buying less and better — protecting people, animals and the planet.
Those who help to sell garments, shoes and accessories play a major role in the fashion industry’s sustainability. This means people working in marketing, in PR, as influencers, and everyone else involved in talking about fashion, particularly for the purpose of sale.
Green-washing is a major global problem right now, preying on people’s eagerness to do the right thing. In Europe, as many as half of all environmental claims are ‘vague, misleading and unfounded’, according to the European Commission. In the United States and Australia, as well as other markets, this serious issue is persistently widespread.
This green-washing harms our capacity to align with required climate targets which are essential to meet, should we sustain a healthy, liveable planet and global community. Right now, the fashion industry is not on track to meet these targets.
The UNEP’s new guide aims to change this. Harnessing the fashion industry’s communicators and their ability to be an ‘enabler and driver of systemic change’, it provides practical guidance and globally relevant advice on how communications can transform fashion purchases for good.
Sustainable communication for people, animals and the planet
Collective Fashion Justice is proud to have contributed to the reviewing process of the guide, which, following our review and recommendations, now includes a short section on the importance of animal protection as part of work towards genuinely responsible fashion, with environmental, human and fellow animal health being interconnected.
The guide also includes lists of ‘do’s and dont’s’ for those working in fashion communications, to avoid green-washing, ethics-washing and pushing people to buy far more than they need. Not only unspecific environmentally relevant words like ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘sustainable’ are included, but ‘ethical’ and ‘cruelty-free’ are now, too.
Sustainability is, fortunately, holistic in its definition as part of the guide. As a result, the guide explores how fashion communications can positively and meaningfully contribute to social justice advocacy, as well as how it can reimagine our values as individuals — slowing down our transforming our system to align with total ethics fashion.