Why Is Sustainable Fashion Important?
If what we eat is important enough to push organic food to the forefront, what we wear is just as essential.
Every purchase made from a sustainable brand stipulates the drive for thoughtful, environmentally responsible products. The more we adopt sustainable fashion, the more ethical alternatives will become the dominant paradigm in a world where fast fashion rules the roost of the garment industry.
While sustainable fashion is about the progression to acquiring and wearing clothes with minimum eco-impact, fast fashion brands have a notoriety for being profligate. Deploying environmentally hazardous procedures, obtaining exploitative animal-based textiles, and engaging in unfair labor practices, making fashion an unsustainable sector with social justice concerns.
Apparel, from the highest-impact to the lowest-impact, utilizes resources that release an ecological footprint. Fortunately, many sustainable brands have begun taking initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint— manufacturing products ethically using environmentally friendly fabrics and avoiding transportation of waste to landfills. Meanwhile, the newborn generation of products is amending the old standards of quality, increasing the sustainability bar for fashion businesses— and hopefully reversing the damages caused and causing by fast fashion.
What is Fast Fashion?
Fast fashion is low-cost clothing that is distributed quickly to keep up with current fashion dynamics. To accomplish such a short turnaround and low price, large businesses overlook environmentally friendly production and safe working environments. And while the price tags are usually low, the cost to the environment and the people is a whole different kind of high. But in all fairness, the fashion industry is in itself, woefully inefficient— the apparel and textile sector is the world's second-largest polluter after oil. Textiles are also reported to be responsible for about 9% of annual microplastic emissions to the water bodies. And if things don’t turn around, the apparel industry is expected to consume one-fourth of the total carbon budget by 2050.
Cotton, a major player in the fashion industry, is grown with a massive amount of pesticides, accounting for about 25% of all insecticides used in the United States. Pesticides not only deteriorate nature resources but poisons about 3 million lives and robs 220,000 mortality every year. Additionally, most major fashion firms dump their fabric waste and even unsold clothes in landfills, resulting in a monumental pile of textile waste pollution.
Sustainable Fashion Brands and Manufacturers
Modernity is infested with fast fashion— it has the center stage, extorting the spotlight and cajoling the purchasing habits of consumers. But many manufacturers have begun their stance— challenging fast fashion with responsible, sustainable, and slow fashion approaches.
Eileen Fisher, Patagonia, and Outerknown are just a few of the larger fashion designers and brands that have dedicated their operations to low-waste, ethical, and sustainable methods. Smaller sustainable brands, on the other hand, like éclipse, Happy Earth, Knickey, employ eco-friendly fabrics to construct their clothing, offering eco-conscious alternatives to consumers.
Seizing the initiatives and working toward correcting the wrongs of the fashion industry to achieve a more sustainable future, here are some of the names whose practices we respect and appreciate, and believe are expressing their brands for the greater good.
Few brands in the fashion industry can match Eileen Fisher, a womenswear designer line that uses ecological and ethical production methods. After the successful triumphs of VISION2020, a valiant environmental commitment to only use organic cotton and linen by 2020, the brand’s Horizon2030 is dedicated to circular fashion based on a regenerative farming approach. Eileen Fisher is a certified B-Corporation contributing immensely towards a sustainable future, one where eco-social consciousness dominates the mindless consumption habits.
Patagonia is one of the most well-known ecologically conscious brands, committed to making a difference in the ongoing environmental challenges, including a 1% contribution of its income to environmental charities. Their mission statement is at the center of their products, programs, and initiatives. The brand also has a record of bold environmental advocacy, standing up to political statements disputing the reality of climate change. Beyond apparel, Patagonia is dedicated to educating and empowering future generations on environmental activism, which is demonstrated in the way they conduct their business.
Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) values the open air above everything else—"an outdoor life is a life well lived" is the company’s motto. The brand believes that the natural and lush environment is where one finds the best version of themselves. REI cultivates a sense of belongingness in customers and employees, inviting their customers to tag them in their adventure posts on Instagram. They say the oldest and proven roadmap to retaining consumer loyalty and scaling your business is exceptional customer care— it’s fair to say REI flexes well in that department. The brand fosters a special bond with its customers by exhibiting genuine concern, which is not a common prevalence in competitor brands. Their sales pitch and marketing strategy are respectable and one that every brand can strive to employ. It’s simple— REI is in it to win it.
United By Blue, an accredited B Corporation, is celebrated and admired for its commitment to environmental stewardship. The company organizes beach cleanups, eliminates one pound of trash from seas and oceans for every product sold, and has successfully removed about 3.5 million pounds of trash, among other initiatives. This Philadelphia-based brand takes voluntary responsibility in promoting economic, sociocultural, and environmental welfare for the planet and its inhabitants through their product supply and demand. Stimulated by the glory of our surroundings and persistence to orient substantive changes, United By Blue commits to sustainable materials for manufacturing, labeling, and shipping— decreasing the environmental impact of their products at every stage of production to provide consumers a conscious shopping experience. Now, this is a brand to be commended!
Outerknown stands out for its emphasis on long-term sustainability— every product is composed of long-lasting and excellent quality material. Offering a high degree of sustainability with 90% of supplied regenerated or recycled fibers, the brand’s trunk collection is constructed with recycled plastic bottles. Outerknown’s SEA Jeans that come with a lifetime exchange, mend, or recycle warranty is one of the ways the brand fulfills its many missions— keeping old jeans away from landfills. The company is certified by the Fair Labor Association and believes in forging a powerful connection between aesthetic, performance, and long-term viability.
Everlane is the ticket to contemporary, chic, fairly priced essentials. Profoundly committed to social, ecological creation and progressive traceability, or as the brand put it Our way: Exceptional quality. Ethical factories. Radical Transparency, Everlane has unquestionably ingrained transparency into their business— being transparent about their factory operations and the gap between the selling price and the actual cost of their product. Everlane has established and retailed its brand in a way that has empowered the company to thrive in an intensely cut-throat industry.
PrAna is one of the brands that are highly conscientious about their manufacturing process, placing a roaring magnitude of commitment towards environmental stewardship and assuring adherence to the highest standard of environmentally friendly methods. The brand uses only recycled wool, organic cotton, and other eco-friendly materials, and aims to resort to preferred fibers by 2025, and by 2030, a reduction of 30% of their GHG emissions. PrAna partners with multiple well-known organizations working for the greater good such as Fair Trade Association, Sustainable Apparel Coalition, and Textile Exchange as part of their mission to contribute to sustainability. PrAna’s degree of mastery and actions is worth its weight in gold!
Producing products locally and shipping in biodegradable packaging, éclipse, a Canadian fashion retailer, practices fair wages, workers' rights, and tracks its supply chain. The brand plants a tree for every item purchased to compensate for the shipping carbon footprint.
Happy Earth is a B Corporation accredited sustainable fashion brand based in the United States. Committed to contributing to the prosperity of nature, the brand gives back to the environment and society by fighting climate change, planting trees, and conducting waste clearance projects through collaborations with Happy Earth dignitaries and non-profits organizations.
Knickey validates the meaning of sustainable wear— a socially responsible brand practicing environmentally friendly production and packaging. Their range of women’s underwear made from natural fibers will undoubtedly entice consumers to find the best sustainable deals, embraceable for life.
Gallant: Shining Spotlight On People and the Environment
Fair wages, laborers' rights, and safe working conditions are amongst the continuing ailments of the fashion industry. While sustainable brands ensure that workers are paid a fair salary and that production conditions are safe, brand transparency and accountability are what will help in establishing long-term viability. The most exciting aspect of the future of sustainable fashion is that more people are starting to invest their interest in it. From consumers to modest fair trade brands and top fashion industry leaders, the support for sustainable fashion is growing. Sustainable fashion has a strong pipeline and the higher we raise the bar, the better it is going to get.
Gallant is a certified B-corp with ambitious goals including combating climate change and safeguarding the environment, promoting equality and inclusion, and moving towards circular and regenerative business. Driven by the aim to deliver corporate solutions to the pressing eco-societal issues, Gallant assists purpose-driven companies, the change-makers, who are taking a stand to mitigate the damage we've precipitated on our planet. Our strategy necessitates a comprehensive business approach to generate meaningful & authentic value-driven products.
Fostering Authentic And Impactful Value-Driven Products
Modern consumers empathize with a brand's mission when it resonates with theirs. The present generation harnesses the strong passion, actively searching out for purpose-driven businesses whose practices help facilitate the causes they value. Purpose-driven businesses are also three times ahead of the market competition on average.
Brands that operate with purpose use a variety of ethical strategies to practice honest and transparent business operations. Their objectives and the genesis of their purpose are authentic and in alignment with corporate social responsibility (CSR). Here are further reasons why generating ethical and authentic value-driven products matters—
Convey impactful brand narrative: Authenticity emerges from a company's desire to make a difference. The goal to become a unifying force and progress is based on voicing what is important to the customers and the brand’s mission.
Demonstrate responsible accountability: Purpose-driven companies are responsible for their actions. They make consumers aware of their production processes and chain supply operations with unprecedented transparency.
Gain customer & employee trust: Companies leading with purpose and authenticity garner a stature of trust among their customers, employees, and partner organizations, resulting in new connections and more income.
Humans as the priority: Recognizing the value of inclusivity in the company goals and aims adds to a brand's authenticity. It also helps in leaving a capturing impact in the hearts and thoughts of people they come into contact with. Investing in sustainable growth through initiatives like thoughtful corporate employee gifting delivers the message that their workforce is their strongest advocate.
Sustainability does not imply foregoing income or placing revenue accomplishments on a standby mode. As a matter of fact, a company that considers sustainability concerns is more effective in a variety of ways, including revenue growth, expansion, and talent retention.
Thinking about building a sustainable fashion brand? Whether you are looking to add wholesale organic t-shirts or simply organic cotton blank t-shirts to your collection, Gallant can help. Already a sustainable brand? Congratulations! We would love to work with you on creating sustainable packaging solutions using our muslin bag and more!
Gallant’s products including the above wholesale toiletry bag is made with 100% organic cotton.
