Fashion industry’s vague sustainability claims inspire UN playbook

The organisations which developed the playbook are the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Climate Change-convened Fashion Charter.

According to the two bodies, the playbook shows communicators how to take action through:

1. Countering misinformation.
2. Reducing messages perpetuating overconsumption.
3. Redirecting aspiration to more sustainable lifestyles.
4. Empowering consumers to demand greater action from businesses and policymakers.

“While addressing production impacts is essential, shifting patterns of excess consumption in core markets is also a priority, which means confronting the dominant linear economic model and its accompanying narrative of newness, immediacy and disposability,” the UN bodies say in a media statement.

The power of fashion’s marketing engine

“The Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook acknowledges the power of fashion’s marketing engine and the significant role it plays in shaping desire, aspiration and levels of consumption. 

“It presents the need to direct such efforts towards sustainable and circular solutions as a creative opportunity. It provides a much-needed framework when policies around how to communicate environmental claims increasingly come into force. By leveraging their skills, communicators can be a part of the solution rather than contributors to the problem.”

Adds Daniel Cooney, Director of Communication at UNEP: “The balance between the science of sustainability and reimagining the fashion narrative is where communicators can excel. There is so much power in the stories fashion tells. If the fashion sector is to meet its sustainability targets, we need its enormous marketing engine to redirect its efforts towards sustainable consumption.”

Because sustainability has become a selling point for fashion brands, the UN warns that vague language and sustainability practices have become confusing for consumers and created mistrust.