The article in the url below highlights that, even the fast fashion companies acknowledge their business model is a threat to their own future success:
"In its 2021 annual report, Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB identified one trend as a 'high' risk to its business for the first time, higher-risk even than increased energy costs or availability of raw materials. Should consumers increasingly prefer 'products and services with low climate impacts from trusted companies that are seen as leaders in sustainability,' H&M wrote, the company might see a negative impact. As recently as 2018, H&M didn't list sustainably-minded shopping as a risk at all."
The reason these companies are growing more wary, the article argues, is that there are plenty of signals that a backlash is possible:
"… the past few years have seen tough feedback for fashion companies that push the limits on how quickly they can churn out clothing and accessories. Retailers like Shein, H&M, Zara and Boohoo have been repeatedly dinged by consumers, activists, the press and public officials for their mounting climate, water, and plastic pollution footprints, for labor conditions and for greenwashing. Meanwhile, report after report shows consumers signaling more focus on the environment when it comes to purchasing decisions. In one 2021 survey, for example, two thirds of US consumers said they would pay more for sustainable products."
The only problem is that, any resource intensive industry characterized by waste (and that is as good a definition of fast fashion as anything else) is only a problem if the stakeholders of these companies (i.e., customers, employees, suppliers, etc.) think it is a problem. If, instead, these stakeholders are quite happy for these firms to continue polluting the environment at a heady rate, then nothing changes:
"Except, people don't always shop their values. And for all the talk about shifting shopping patterns, there is no clear quantitative evidence of any demographic ditching fast fashion en masse — not even environmentally conscious Gen Z. That leaves retailers whose business model relies on fast fashion to size up the threat against it in their annual reports, sustainability reports and climate disclosures, where little consensus exists."
Seen in this light, the conclusion of the article is damning:
"It's clear that shopping habits could change, but no one is sure how, when or if climate-conscious consumers will be good or bad for business."
So, there we have it – an industry that is a heavy polluter; widespread acknowledgement that this is happening and is not good; and the complete absence of change since, ultimately, the stakeholders of these companies don't (yet) care sufficiently to do anything about it. Fast fashion might be the perfect metaphor for our whole approach to the environment and climate change.
Take care
David
David Chandler
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Where Is the Fast Fashion Backlash?
By Zahra Hirji
March 15, 2023
Bloomberg
