In today's political climate, a wide variety of elements cause heightened global concern for fashion's marketers and consumers. They are expected to pay attention to their social and environmental responsibilities. Among these concerns are: employment of marginalized workers at fair wages, working conditions, landfill waste, water consumption and chemical contamination, air pollution, energy usage, and animal welfare. To deal with these concerns, brands are developing standards they expect members of their supply chains to meet. Standards might require the use of:
- Fair labor practices outlined by the International Labour Organization
- NO restricted chemical substances, such as sunscreens that contain the oxybenzone that harms coral reefs; and NO animal fur or exotic leather
- Organic cotton and recycled materials
- Humane methods for obtaining down, fur, and wool
- Resource-conserving farming and manufacturing practices in terms of water, energy, and chemical usage
How do consumers know if the products they purchase conform to the standards they support? Besides seeing good and bad publicity, advertising, sales promotion offers, and reviews by other consumers, shoppers check labels for such things as the percentage of recycled material used, faux fur, and which countries they prefer to make their clothes. They notice if marketers give back to the community in service and donations to charities. But they also shop for products marketed by vendors and organizations, such as: Sudara (sudara.org) Punjammies sewn in India by women rescued before they are lost to the sex trade; Combat Flip Flops (combatflipflops.com) shoes, clothing, and jewelry (made from melted unexploded ordinance-UXO) by local entrepreneurs in conflict zones; SERRV (serrv.org) and Novica (novica.com) clothing and handcrafted jewelry; and the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTOMarket.com).
From May 21 to May 25, 2018, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition will meet in Vancouver, Canada, to urge wider use of its HiggIndex hang tags that assign numbers, the higher the better, that represent how eco-friendly garments are.
No comments:
Post a Comment