Sustainability
How fashion can do better for people and the planet.
Highlights

Can Fashion Stop Greenwashing?

Big brands are changing the way they talk about sustainability following a regulatory crackdown in Europe. But exactly how companies should be required to substantiate their eco-marketing claims remains hotly debated.

Case Studies & Reports

Analysis

Widespread Inaction on Sustainability Eclipses Progress at Fashion’s Biggest Companies

Case Study

Case Study: How to Talk to Customers About Fashion’s Dirty Secrets

Case Study

Fashion’s Race for New Materials — Download the Case Study

Latest News & Analysis

Fashion’s Age of Self-Regulation Is Over

The idea that businesses will willingly sacrifice profit to reduce pollution and improve labour conditions is a “convenient fantasy.” But beefing up government oversight is a messy and slow process.

Fashion Needs Climate Survival Strategies

As floods, drought and extreme heat become increasingly common risks, fashion brands must start thinking about how to build resilience into their supply chains.

‘How Can We Live?’: For Garment Workers, It’s Worse Than the Pandemic

Rising living costs and increasingly precarious work are trapping the low-wage workers who power the fashion industry in a crushing squeeze, Sarah Kent reports from Dhaka.

Can a ‘Sustainable’ Brand Do Black Friday? It’s Complicated.

The holiday sales bonanza promotes rampant consumerism. And yet, for many sustainably minded designers and founders it’s a valuable marketing moment they can’t resist.

Marimekko’s Strategy to Scale as a Values-Driven Company

Finnish lifestyle brand Marimekko, which reported net sales of €152 million in 2021, is channeling the radical spirit of its founder and introducing initiatives in circularity and exploring the metaverse as part of its strategy to scale and futureproof an iconic heritage brand.

Fashion’s New Age of Volatility Hits Suppliers

Whipsawing consumer demand is squeezing fashion suppliers and their workers in countries like Bangladesh, Sarah Kent reports from Dhaka.

Vestiaire Collective Bans Fast Fashion

Roughly 5 percent of listings will be hit by the move, the resale site said, as it seeks to position itself as an eco-conscious player at the upper end of an increasingly competitive market.

At Eastman Naia, Enabling the Creative Potential of Sustainable Fibres in Fashion

Five years after its launch, cellulosic fibre brand Eastman Naia became a supplier of sustainable fibres to brands such as Patagonia, Zara and H&M. Now, BoF talks to Ruth Farrell, Eastman Naia’s textiles general manager, to learn about the brand’s new product portfolio and customer demand for ecological action.

‘Stop Lying, Stop Greenwashing’ — Key Messages From COP27

From activists taking brands to task over corporate greenwashing to the finance gap and antitrust challenges, here’s what fashion leaders need to know from the UN’s high-stakes climate summit.

What Are Fashion’s Climate Risks?

Efforts to stave off catastrophic climate change are failing, reports from the UN’s COP27 climate summit show. From cotton yields to forced labour, here’s what that means for fashion.

BoF Insights | Does Fashion Stand a Chance of Hitting Its Sustainability Targets?

With all eyes on COP27, BoF Insights research into the sustainability initiatives of the world’s 30 largest publicly listed fashion companies underscores why the industry is at risk of missing sustainability goals set for the end of this decade.

Fashion’s Shaky Climate Commitments

At the UN’s COP27 summit, fashion’s chances of achieving lofty climate targets still rest on ‘a leap of faith,’ with the industry just starting to lay the basic foundations required to deliver.

THE NEWS IN BRIEF

EU States Reach Deal on ‘Due Diligence’ Rules

European Union member states on Thursday reached a deal on rules that would force large companies to check whether their suppliers use slave or child labour, or pollute the environment, but with an optional exemption for financial services.

EU Sets Recycling, Reuse Targets to Cut Packaging Waste

Under the proposal, all 27 EU members will be required to reduce packaging waste per capita by 5 percent by 2030 and 15 percent by 2040 compared with 2018 levels. Packaging now accounts for 36 percent of municipal solid waste.

PETA Launches $1 Million ‘Vegan Wool’ Prize

$1 million will be rewarded to the first individual or small business to successfully develop a sophisticated animal-free alternative to wool, the animal rights group announced Thursday.