«Most people don’t realize that the capitalist model we’re living in is a construct, it’s a man-made system» Dr. Hakan Karaosman and Professor Donna Marshall
European legislation on sustainable fashion
The European Commission has stated that fast fashion is out of fashion. France announced that by the end of next year, every item of clothing sold within its borders should have a climate impact label, while Norway and Germany both introduced due diligence acts.
The EU Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation introduced a digital product passport that could store information such as product durability, repairability or percentage of recycling material. This regulation would also require brands to share the number of destroyed unsold goods (though the European Council and the European Parliament still need to agree for it to be adopted).
A business model that promotes overconsumption
Fashion produces more than one hundred billion items of clothing annually based on a business model that promotes overconsumption. In addition, because most of the items are made of petroleum-based synthetic fibers that are cheap and low-quality means there is little product durability or longevity. The main issues impeding environmental sustainability and creating dire social consequences are overproduction and overconsumption.
Professor Donna Marshall and Dr. Hakan Karaosman in conversation for Lampoon
Donna Marshall, a multi-award-winning supply chain professor and pro bono advisor for the United Nations, companies, NGOs and governments discussed her research with Hakan Karaosman, an award-winning supply chain scholar focused on climate action and social justice issues in fashion supply chains.
Currently, Prof. Marshall is the President at the International Purchasing and Supply Education and Research Association (IPSERA), and Dr. Karaosman is the Chair at the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion (UCRF). Raised by mothers who were garment workers, they conduct supply chain research and use their scientific results as instruments to enact change within the fashion industry that is characterized by complex supply chains and notoriously unbalanced power structures.
FReSCH – Professor Donna Marshall and Dr. Hakan Karaosman’s research
Their research, FReSCH, shows that fashion operations lead to ecological, social, physical and psychological consequences. They explain that there are paradoxical tensions and trade-offs between operational goals and sustainability but also between social and environmental sustainability practices. They underline that fashion brands must ensure environmental sustainability while focusing on justice and fairness. Prof. Marshall states «If we want to improve sustainability, in terms of climate change, biodiversity, or anything environmental, we cannot leave social sustainability behind. So, where are the supply chain workers in all of that?».
«Fashion is based on labour and we cannot accelerate fashion’s transition to sustainability unless we involve every actor across these complex supply chains», adds Dr. Karaosman.
Fashion waste impacting the Global South
«The goal is to make changes in the policy, disrupt and transform our market-based, capitalist systems that perpetuate social and environmental problems», states Prof. Marshall. Even in the luxury segment, organic or natural materials have been replaced by cheaper, mixed and low-quality materials. Products, consequently, have shorter life cycles, and end up being thrown away. Textile waste that will increase from fifty-seven million tons to one hundred and forty-eight million tons by 2030 ends up in various countries, most notably in the Global South, creating intergenerational problems and climate injustice.
The fashion industry, as a system, is obsessed with financial growth. Even though many fashion brands have been recently framed as eco-conscious, many supply chain practices come at the expense of people. Current efforts to make the system less unsustainable divert attention without challenging the underlying problematic and systemic conditions. A number of multi-stakeholder initiatives and platforms claim to be driving change; but these events privilege the people in power and fail to ensure inclusion and representation of the people working across fashion supply chains, mostly from the global south.
Donna Marshall: Supplier relationships
«Those problems can’t be solved with top-down solutions, industry standards and certifications» says Prof. Marshall, pointing out that things are context specific, and every country and supplier requires specific and individual ways of tackling issues.
We need to bear in mind that legislation, ideas and cultural norms vary between countries and that solutions must be made with multiple voices, embracing grassroots initiatives and people with knowledge in terms of context, production and consumption systems.
«When we’re trying to transition, when we’re trying to create ideas and encourage a new way of thinking around the fashion industry, what will actually help and get people to think differently is culturally specific», explains Donna Marshall. To become sustainable, fashion brands need to support their suppliers and create relationships and conversations, so that risks and benefits can be distributed equally. Otherwise, financial risks are cascaded down onto the suppliers.
Dr. Karaosman: Supply chains need to become decarbonized
As production is no longer vertical, fashion supply chains have become complex, fragmented and secretive. Regulators and legislation are asking brands to perform supply chain due diligence so we can ensure that they are socially and environmentally safe; this means that fashion brands will need to invest in their supply chains. «We need to discuss how fashion, as a system, can help production countries improve their societal and community well-being», explains Dr. Karaosman.
It is fashion brands’ moral imperative to make sure that their supply chains are decarbonized in fair and just ways and that nobody will suffer in this transition.
The neoliberal and capitalist model we’re living in
Fashion is a labor-intensive industry but less than two percent of the workforce within fashion supply chains earn a living wage, meaning the remaining ninety-eight percent receive exploitation wages. Further, 181 million people are working in precarious and insecure conditions. An environmental focus must be in tandem with social justice and fairness for the people working across fashion supply chains.
«Most people don’t realize that the neoliberal and capitalist model we’re living in is a construct, it’s something that is so embedded in our society, but it is a man-made system», stated Prof. Marshall, «It is our moral duty to create a better system for all, with respect, fairness and justice taking a central stage», continued Dr. Karaosman. Education seems to be a key solution. «What we’re doing now is planting seeds for a different way of thinking, being and working in business», said Donna Marshall, explaining that all courses in supply chain management at University College Dublin have sustainability embedded in them. The culture of business needs to change, and profit must be replaced by the three Ps as Prof. Marshall calls it «people, planet and prosperity».
«We need to get as far away as possible from this business model. We’ve lost a relational view of business, the one built on trust and innovations» stated Prof. Marshall. People’s mindset, ways of thinking, our culture needs to be reoriented towards a better and more responsible way of producing fashion with environmental, social and psychological fairness and justice for all, not the brands.
