Small and Medium-Sized Fashion Brands Pledge Commitment to Sustainability

What’s trending in fashion? Sustainability! You’ve heard the corporate statements from globally known brands setting goals to produce more sustainable products by a certain year, but they aren’t alone. Small and medium-sized apparel brands are also pledging to be part of the change.

According to Sustainable Brands, more than 110 fashion labels have committed to participate in its newly launched 2020 Circular Fashion Pledge.

“We recognize fashion is a significant contributor to climate change, toxic waterways and ocean pollutants, land use, and more. We know that the culture of low-cost, short-lasting clothing is contributing to tremendous waste all along the supply chain – and in customers’ closets,” according to the pledge’s mission. “We are here to change that.”

The pledge asks brands to commit to one of three goals by the end of 2020 --  enable take-back or resale, increase recycled content, or design for durability. 

“By the end of 2020, launch at least one method or partnership to enable your customers to send-back or resell their used items,” it said on the website. “Providing options to resale, upcycle, repair, donate, or recycle items gives them new life and keeps them out of landfills.”

The website also said, increase recycled content means increasing the total percentage of certified recycled content or scrap fabric by 10 percent in the brand’s top selling items because producing garments using recycled content send a demand signal that spurs growth in the recycling market.  And, design for durability challenges brands to increase the use of non-blended materials, and/or modularity and repairability in the brand’s top five selling times. Designing items so they can be repaired, upcycled, or recycled ensures that those items and materials stay in circulation.

Of 117 brands, 62 percent have pledged to enabling take-back/resale, 60 percent to increasing recycled content, and 50 percent to design for durability; roughly half have pledged to at least two commitments.

See what brands made the pledge and more, here.