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Sustainability

Can Fashion’s Favourite Sustainability Standard Be Saved?

At its annual meeting the Sustainable Apparel Coalition sought to move past a greenwashing controversy that’s exposed the limits of the fashion industry’s efforts at self-regulation.
A shopper walks past protesters holding a sign designed to look like a clothing care label with the tag "Greenwashing Instructions."
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is looking to chart a course forward, after getting caught in a broad greenwashing crackdown this year. (Romy Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
By
BoF PROFESSIONAL

For the last decade the Sustainable Apparel Coalition has been one of fashion’s most powerful and influential sustainability-focused trade groups, with members including Patagonia, Nike and H&M Group. Its widely used suite of tools, collectively known as the Higg Index, was seen as an industry standard to measure environmental and social impact.

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Further Reading

Green or Greenwashing: Who Gets to Decide?

European efforts to introduce standardised rules governing how brands back up environmental claims are fuelling a heated debate that stands to create winners and losers.

Sustainable Fashion’s Credibility Crisis

This week, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition suspended the use of its product labels, employed by companies like H&M and Amazon, as concerns over greenwashing engulfed one of the industry’s top sustainability tools.

The New Rules of Sustainability Marketing

A wide-ranging crackdown on greenwashing has snared major players from H&M to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. Now regulators have issued new guidelines for how sustainability can be marketed.

About the author
Sarah Kent
Sarah Kent

Sarah Kent is Chief Sustainability Correspondent at The Business of Fashion. She is based in London and drives BoF's coverage of critical environmental and labour issues.

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