Consumers, investors, and staff (including potential recruits) are ever more focused on the sustainability agenda. This can influence behaviour – where they spend/invest their money, and where they take their talent. So it is not only ethical but also good business, to promote sustainability
The fact that COP26 has received more attention this year than ever before reflects how high up the agenda combatting climate change and focusing on sustainability (rightly) is.
And for the first time, businesses (not just governments and NGOs) were meaningfully part of the discussion.
But retail and fashion businesses are in a bit of a bind. Consumers, investors and staff (including potential recruits) are ever more focused on the sustainability agenda. This can influence behaviour – where they spend/invest their money, and where they take their talent. So it is not only ethical but also good business, to promote sustainability. Many brands already recognise this, and 130 brands have signed up to the UN’s Fashion Charter with its updated commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050 and procure 100% renewable electricity and deliver coal-free supply chains by 2030.
But ultimately the way that retailers and fashion businesses make money is by producing (often new) ‘stuff’ which involves using natural resources, from often far-flung places with sometimes little traceability yet alone transparency in the supply chain, potentially damaging ecosystems, producing waste and pollution, all leading to…worsening climate change. They can also, in some cases, heavily influence consumer attitudes. Does the messaging encourage consumerism and a ‘throw-away’ culture, or does it promote sustainability, recycling and re-use (but without entirely decimating their customer base)?
Is it possible for retailers, fashion brands and hospitality businesses to make their businesses genuinely sustainable? In the wake of COP26, numerous commentators including a recent guest on our Future of Work “In conversation With…” podcast, Andrew MacGowan, have come up with some thoughts for a sustainability roadmap:
- Recognise the challenges but also recognise that not taking action on sustainability can be a serious financial/commercial risk for the business
- Identify where your business is least sustainable and where you could make the biggest impact changes:
o Use of polluting energy sources such as coal?
o Voluminous water use and pollutants to make fabric?
o Deforestation to access raw materials?
o Waste – plastic or otherwise, whether in the production process or packaging or both?
o Unethical or unknown working conditions for growers/farmers of raw materials?
o Gender inequality in the supply chain?
Each business will have its own assessment of this depending on its products but also production methods, business model, and customer base.
- Set some (ambitious) goals around those particular areas, while also working on other, easier to solve issues – will that involve investing in technology to replace the need for certain resources or minimise the impact (e.g. carbon footprint) of producing a certain product? Investing in ethical practices and transparency (and resilience) of the supply chain? Biomimicry could present interesting options, particularly for beauty brands.
- Be transparent about the company’s goals and the specific actions needed to achieve them.
- Empower and incentivise staff at all levels of the business to take action on the company’s sustainability agenda – for example, if sales targets/success do not factor in sustainability goals, or worse, if they incentivise behaviours that run counter to sustainability goals, there won’t be progress.
- If possible and appropriate, partner with other organisations (and certainly with suppliers of the business) to help achieve those goals; ensure contractual documents reflect agreement on these points as needed. Companies that need to prepare a Modern Slavery Statement may have already started better understanding and improving their supply chains.
- Fact check green claims being made by your own business and those you partner with – as these issues draw more attention, so they also draw more scrutiny; claims of ‘green-washing’ are taken seriously and can of course be reputationally very damaging if exposed.
Ultimately, for retailers and fashion brands, the motto may become: ‘Produce less, better’. This may be easier for luxury brands to comply with than those traditionally aimed at mass-market, though changes in mass-market brands could have a bigger environmental impact. It is worth noting that the brands that are successfully recognised for their sustainability initiatives tend to focus their efforts – and their messaging – on one key strand of sustainability.
And of course, governments should still have a huge role to play in terms of law and policy: deciding what’s allowed and what ‘green’ incentives may be offered. And – something which will impact all businesses and us as consumers and individuals – to what extent we can, as George Monbiot advocates, just leave fossil fuels in the ground.
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