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 Sustainable Apparel Coalition is rebranding as Cascale, distancing the organisation from a greenwashing scandal focused on its Higg sustainability tools and indicating ambitions to expand beyond fashion.
The organisation, which counts as one of the industry’s most powerful and influential sustainability focused trade groups, has been working to move beyond criticism that its data on the environmental impact of materials is not robust enough to back up consumer-facing marketing claims. Its rebrand comes a little under a year after Higg Inc., a for-profit sustainability analytics platform originally spun out of the SAC, changed its name to Worldly.
But the SAC said the move is really designed to reflect the fact that it no longer only serves the apparel sector. Some 10 percent of its members operate in adjacent sectors, including home furnishings, sporting and outdoor goods and bags and luggage.
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What’s Next for Fashion’s Most Controversial Sustainability Tool?
After the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Higg Index became a central focus for greenwashing allegations, the trade group commissioned an independent review. Its recommendations include scrapping a stand-alone materials assessment and more work to improve the data.
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.
Fashion’s biggest sustainable cotton certifier said it found no evidence of non-compliance at farms covered by its standard, but acknowledged weaknesses in its monitoring approach.
As they move to protect their intellectual property, big brands are coming into conflict with a growing class of up-and-coming designers working with refashioned designer gear.
The industry needs to ditch its reliance on fossil-fuel-based materials like polyester in order to meet climate targets, according to a new report from Textile Exchange.