As H&M becomes the first major retailer to add sustainability credentials to individual items of clothing in partnership with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), Retail Week explores what the move could mean for the fashion industry.

H&M

  • H&M is the first member of the SAC to trial sustainability labels on its garments
  • Retail analyst Bryan Roberts draws comparisons to nutritional traffic-light labels on food
  • Retail Week gives its verdict on whether the move will influence shopping habits

It has started small – with four dresses, a bodysuit and a pair of shorts, to be precise – but H&M’s decision to add details about the environmental impact of its ranges to product labelling could have much bigger implications for fashion and the way we buy clothes.  

The fashion industry is notoriously unsustainable, with fast-fashion brands rapidly churning out garments that are often worn once and then thrown away.

“I don’t think anyone really knows that the fashion industry is one of the most harmful industries”

Stella McCartney, designer

Speaking just last week ahead of the G7 summit, designer Stella McCartney stressed that the government needs to change policies and laws in order to incentivise more sustainable behaviours across the industry.

Stella-McCartney

Stella McCartney has been vocal about the environmental impact of fashion

“I don’t think anyone really knows that the fashion industry is one of the most harmful industries,” she told Sky News. “I don’t think they know that 150 million trees are cut down for viscose, whereas I’ve managed to source a sustainable wood pulp in Sweden.

“I don’t think people know anything about it, so for me to be there with these world leaders is really exciting, but also very terrifying because I’m desperate to get across some of the facts and realities of how unfashionable the fashion industry is.”

This is exactly what the SAC is trying to do at a consumer level: influence shoppers to make better decisions, which in turn will translate into retailers’ mindsets and government policy.

The Higg Index Sustainability Profile – created by the SAC – that H&M is piloting is based on independently verified environmental impact data, spanning areas including water use, water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and the use of fossil fuels.

Although the programme has only launched initially with H&M, the ultimate goal of the SAC is to create a unified way to understand the environmental impact of fashion across all retailers, manufacturers and brands to promote industry-wide transparency.

It also hopes to combat greenwashing – businesses presenting themselves as more climate-friendly than they really are – and arm customers with the data they require to make informed decisions about their consumption habits.

In that regard, comparisons are being drawn to the traffic-light system on food items sold through grocery retailers, which has helped consumers to eat more healthily.

“Transparency itself is not the end game, but it’s a critical step for transforming the industry and establishing a new era of accountability”

Amina Razvi, Sustainable Apparel Coalition

The use of red, amber or green colour-coding on food packaging clearly highlights the calories as well as the fat, sugar and salt content of any given item, allowing customers to buy healthier options more easily.      

SAC executive director Amina Razvi hopes the coalition’s index can have a similar impact on the fashion industry. 

“Transparency itself is not the end game, but it’s a critical step for transforming the industry and establishing a new era of accountability,” she says.

“By leveraging the Higg Index — starting first with environmental data and then expanding to include social impacts — we can help both businesses and consumers make better decisions, and drive collective action at scale.” 

Other SAC members, including Amazon, Calvin Klein, Helly Hansen, Puma and Zalando, have also pledged to implement the first phase of the profile programme on their products, marking a step-change across the industry.

All 250 global SAC members, including Asos, Boohoo, Inditex and M&S are expected – but not required – to have the programme in place by 2025.

Acting as a sustainability scorecard, each product is given a rating from baseline to three, depending on what materials have been used to create it.

Baseline scores are given to products made from standard materials, such as polyester and acetate, while scores of one, two and three are awarded to those made with more sustainable materials, such as organic cotton or recycled polyester.

“Without facility-level details, any product-facing scores would be a greenwashing exercise” 

Ayesha Barenblat, Remake

Ayesha Barenblat, founder and chief executive of non-profit organisation Remake, believes there is work to do to get the index right.

“While we often hear from our community of conscious citizens that a nutrition-label type of product-level score would be useful, I think it’s important to ensure that the Higg Index is backed by facility-level data with clarity on who the auditors are and how the product-level information is verified,” she says.

“Without facility-level details, any product-facing scores would be measuring the wrong thing and a greenwashing exercise on the part of the brand.” 

higg

Higg Index Sustainability Profile for H&M

Taking the index one step further and creating a traffic-light system, as the grocery sector has, would allow customers to understand what they are buying and where it comes from at a glance. 

Although H&M has not confirmed that this could be an option, it plans to “evolve and develop the sustainability profiles in the future.

Traffic-light labels were launched as part of a government initiative in 2014 to improve public health, with the hope that consumers would make healthier choices in supermarkets. 

“Shoppers really do appreciate any effort being made to make their decision making easier as it’s all incredibly confusing” 

Bryan Roberts, Shopfloor Insights 

Some European grocers have taken that further and begun trialling ‘Eco-score’ labels on their food and beverages.

Created in France, the Eco-score initiative provides a score out of 100, which then correlates with a letter from A to E, with A being the best for the environment. Each letter is also a traffic-light colour for easy identification.

“Shoppers really do appreciate any effort being made to make their decision making easier as it’s all incredibly confusing,” says retail analyst and founder of Shopfloor Insights Bryan Roberts. 

“Most generally understand that meat takes more resources than plant-based food, but different brands and retailers having a variety of traffic-light systems causes a lot of confusion. 

“What people want is one system across all brands and retailers with the same criteria, which creates an easy way to judge what to buy. A traffic-light system solves this problem, but it needs to be standardised – ideally across Europe, but at least across the UK.” 

The six items H&M has scored thus far have an average of 1.9. Although they are made of materials with a lower environmental impact, such as Ecovero viscose, it leaves the fashion giant with some way to go before its “conscious” collection lives up to SAC standards.

H&M says it plans to scale up the work done with the Higg Index Sustainability Profile, adding it to more products throughout the next two years. It hopes ”as many products as possible” will be a part of the programme by the end of 2022, although it has not revealed any specific targets. 

The SAC wants to move the dial further in the future, expanding the index to include the social and environmental impact of the factories that produce the garments, as well as each retailer’s corporate responsibility record.

This will be crucial in order to communicate the true environmental impact of a garment and allow consumers to make a fully informed choice.

Will the index really change what consumers choose to buy?

Drawing further comparisons with the grocery sector, shoppers clearly still buy cakes, sweets and other unhealthy items, regardless of how many ‘red lights’ might be contained within their nutritional content, whether that is on a regular basis or as the occasional treat. 

Roberts says having nutritional labels has influenced the decisions of the “health-conscious” consumer by acting as “a helpful, quick reference point”. But if people are less wary about their health, or want to treat themselves, the red flags are often ignored. 

The same thought process will likely apply when it comes to fashion; the more sustainably minded consumer would be inclined to ignore those items with a lower Higg score, but would they still be viewed as a treat? If so, the index would ultimately do little to resolve the problem of fast fashion.

“If you’re a cash-strapped mum of four, sustainability may not be at the top of your agenda when making clothing decisions for your children”

Bryan Roberts, Shopfloor Insights 

Price is also a factor that needs to be considered. Products that are made using sustainable materials and manufactured in a sustainable way are likely to cost more than those that do not meet that criteria.

As Roberts says: “If you’re a cash-strapped mum of four, sustainability may not be at the top of your agenda when making clothing decisions for your children.” 

However, for those that can and do care about the origins of their clothing, it all comes down to convenience, which is where a traffic-light system could come into its own.

It would instantly indicate the sustainability credentials of a product, without the need for consumers to dig through the scorecard, and offer a universal, independent certification across the industry.

Fashion companies are awash with various accreditation schemes in the name of transparency and sustainability – from ‘better cotton’ to organic to Fairtrade – all of which require a degree of research if a consumer is to truly understand the environmental impact of their purchase.

The SAC’s index may not radically shape buying decisions in its current form, but presenting clear and concise information of this ilk to consumers will be crucial in order to encourage long-term change across the industry.

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