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Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Fashion’s Sustainability Reality Check

Aspirational environmental goals are colliding with the realities of a volatile market, incoming regulation and shifting politics, threatening fragile progress at a critical time.
A protestor holds up a sign that reads "There's no planet B."
Big brands sustainability commitments are under pressure amid market uncertainty and political flux. (Shutterstock)

It started as a slow fade. Brands that once exuberantly trumpeted new “sustainable” collections or initiatives turned down the volume on the topic, or hit pause altogether.

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Further Reading

Who Will Finance a More Sustainable Fashion Industry?

H&M, Gap, Mango and Bestseller are leading an effort to provide manufacturers with cheaper loans for decarbonisation projects. It’s an innovative bid to address fashion’s big climate financing gap, but it still has holes.

Is Fashion Serious About Sustainability?

At fashion’s annual sustainability gathering in Copenhagen, the biggest question was why, after 15 years of discussion, so little has changed and whether a coming tsunami of government regulation can force the industry to evolve its practices.

About the author
Sarah Kent
Sarah Kent

Sarah Kent is Chief Sustainability Correspondent at The Business of Fashion. She is based in London and drives BoF's coverage of critical environmental and labour issues.

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