“It’s not easy being green,” a fact that Kermit has bemoaned. But for brands that do it well, it can foster greater customer loyalty.
Brands jump on the circularity bandwagon
Circularity is the name of the game of keeping products in use rather than throwing them out. For the clothing market that means avoiding the wastefulness of fast fashion in favor of clothing that endures for many uses and that applies sustainable practices in production and recycling.
The online consignment shop, thredUP, shifted the paradigm of thrift shopping from trawling through racks in-store to scrolling through options on your phone or PC. In addition to making buying pre-owned clothing that much more convenient, it branded it as not just economical but socially responsible, as it explained on a blog post:
Here’s the facts:
-Fashion will drain a quarter of the world’s carbon budget by 2050.
-26 billion pounds of textiles are dumped into global landfills each year.
-A single T-shirt takes 700 gallons of water to produce.
Here’s what we can do:
-Consume less.
-Reuse more.
-Choose used.
Over the years, thredUp has partnered with popular brands that gain a halo effect from participating in the resale market due to its green cred. Brands like Adidas are even using their partnership with it to launch their own Give Back initiative xclusively on their own branded app.
Clothing for a better future
One of the brands to embrace sustainable standards for clothing is Primark. In the Primark Cares section of its website, it details its commitment to reduce its carbon footprint in production and increase the longevity of its clothing.
As Primark explained in Love Your Clothes, Love Your World:
“When it comes to fashion, durability — how long a product lasts — really matters. It’s not just about getting better value for money by keeping your clothes longer, it’s about improving our impact on the planet so there’s less waste.”
For proof of progress, Primark said it would be working with WRAP and will follow a "’Target, Measure, Act’ approach, where businesses set targets, measure their impact and track progress, both on an individual basis and towards national targets” for the UK.
,Primark already uses recycled or sustainably sourced materials in 25% of its clothing lines. It has pledged to increase that to all its product lines by 2030.
The brand’s CEO, Paul Marchant was quoted i the ncorporate pledge,, saying. “ Our ambition is to offer customers the affordable prices they know and love us for, but with products that are made in a way that is better for the planet and the people who make them. We know that’s what our customers, and our colleagues, want and expect from us.”
Gaining by losing a million pounds
It’s not just the clothing industry that is concerned with going green. The beauty industry has also woken up to the imperative to reduce waste..
One way to make it happen is by cutting out unnecessary packaging. That’s what e.l.f. recently announced in sending out an email with the subject line, “e.l.f is committed to sustainability.”
It promised that it was shedding unnecessary waste in its packaging. “Say Goodbye to 1,000,000 Pounds of Packaging” was the way it phrased it, and it illustrated that point with an image and a gif.
There’s a double advantage to reducing excess waste from packaging. Of course, it generates less waste of paper and plastic. But also the lighter weight means greater efficiency in transportation and fuel consumption.
Finding new approaches to make clothing and beauty products more sustainable is a win-win. One win for the planet and another win for brand loyalty. That's why it’s a good bet that we will see many more brands communicating their pledges to improve their environmental impact.
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