The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The New York-based knitwear label published its first sustainability report on Thursday, basing its assessment on methodology established for The BoF Sustainability Index. The exercise helped the company establish areas where it’s ahead of the game and pinpoint blind spots.
As a small company with a focus on positive impact and close links to its manufacturing base — founder Wei Lin’s mother owns and runs the factory that develops and produces all the brands products — the company has a good level of control over its operations, helping to boost its performance. But there also areas where it hasn’t focused yet, or that it would need to revisit as the brand grows, the report found.
“This is not a report written to advertise how great we are, in fact it is going to show a lot of holes in areas where we haven’t even begun to consider and reduce our impacts,” PH5 said in the report’s introduction. “This is a report for us internally to understand where we are at, so we can begin to enact change on a science-based level, and not in marketing terminology that is so often used in the industry to impress.”
The BoF Sustainability Index was established in consultation with a council of global experts. It sets 16 ambitious targets across six categories to align industry performance with global environmental and social development goals by 2030.
The fashion industry continues to advance voluntary and unlikely solutions to its plastic problem. Only higher prices will flip the script, writes Kenneth P. Pucker.
The outerwear company is set to start selling wetsuits made in part by harvesting materials from old ones.
Companies like Hermès, Kering and LVMH say they have spent millions to ensure they are sourcing crocodile and snakeskin leathers responsibly. But critics say incidents like the recent smuggling conviction of designer Nancy Gonzalez show loopholes persist despite tightening controls.
Europe’s Parliament has signed off rules that will make brands more accountable for what happens in their supply chains, ban products made with forced labour and set new environmental standards for the design and disposal of products.