In news: This week’s ethical movers

Some of the big fashion brands are starting to show they mean serious business when it comes to sustainability. H&M, Zara and ASOS are just three major global players taking key steps in addressing the environmental strains of fashion production and setting an example for the rest of the industry. Although they still have work to do.

Here’s what we learnt this week…

GOING UP

H&M Conscious

There’s been much hype around H&M’s Conscious line but perhaps deservedly so: Every season it seems to raise the bar that little bit higher. For the Autumn/Winter 2018 season it has introduced recycled cashmere created from leftover yarn that has been respun. It’s also brought in velvet made of recycled polyester partly sourced from used uniforms.

“We have been developing this velvet for years to get a quality we're happy with,” explained Cecilia Brännsten, H&M’s group environmental sustainability manager.

FOR THE RECORD…

Currently, 35 per cent of the materials H&M uses for its clothes are organic, recycled or sustainably-sourced.
H&M has pledged to use only recycled or sustainably sourced materials by 2030 at the latest - and 100 percent sustainably-sourced cotton by 2020 (this is currently at 59 percent).
The fashion group has also started to filter recycled polyester and TENCEL™ into wider eco-conscious pieces on the shop floor (illustrated with green tags).

We’re also loving H&M’s global Garment Collection Program - an initiative that allows you to drop old clothes back into stores. They can then be reworn (marketed as second hand), reused (converted into other garments) or recycled (used for other non-fashion products).

ASOS

ASOS recently announced the decision to turn its cut-offs into sanitary pads for women in Africa. It has also pledged to ban the sale of mohair, silk, cashmere and feathers and launched a sustainable fashion training programme.

GOING DOWN

Uniqlo

The brand ethics-scoring resource, GoodOnYou, has given Japanese fast fashion brand Uniqlo a ‘Not Good Enough’ rating for its Labour category. This is based on the 2018 Ethical Fashion Report which delved deeper into the company’s payment of a living wage, worker empowerment and transparency.

Uniqlo have minimal working empowerment initiatives and have been criticised for not implementing a living wage. It’s also come under fire for supposedly refusing to pay millions owed to workers at a plant in Indonesia.

ASIA’S WOES

According to reports, many of the 60 million people who work in Asia’s garment industry are still severely underpaid, particularly in the newly emerging cheap labour nations of Ethiopia and Myanmar.

Governments are doing little to help. In Bangladesh, garment trade union leaders were recently imprisoned for organising peaceful worker protests against poor pay.

Head to our other stories…