Climate Action With Style: B Corps in the Ethical Fashion Industry Minimize Environmental Impact…
By: B The Change
Tags: Fashion, Ethical Fashion, Sdgs, Climate Change, B Corp

How has your B Corp aligned/shifted its business practices to advance progress on the SDGs? How has this affected your supply chain companies? Any adjustments to employee practices?

Michelle Sheldon: Back in 2015, a year before we became B Corp Certified, Eco Promotional Products Inc. began creating products for the UN promoting the SDGs. Since our inception in 2008, we have based our supply chain research around the UN Global Compact. With a turbulent political climate in recent years and B Corp bringing more awareness to the SDGs, we have since updated our vetting process.

We strive to investigate if and how our supply chain is helping to move the needle toward a more just future based around the SDGs and are creating our own score card for our supply chain. We’re partnering with suppliers with more transparency and those actively involved in vetting their process through the Fair Labor Association and other third-party verifiers.

Shamini Dhana: Dhana is empowering customers to value people (social) and planet (environment) every step of the way through the creation of their own fashion. The SDGs align with Dhana’s vision and ability to report and manage how we use business to “unite humanity through fashion.” In 2019 Dhana published the WearOurValues report, which looked at brand-customer value alignment in the fashion industry and found that 97% of the over 5,000 respondents demanded greater transparency in the fashion industry. That has prompted us to advocate for consumers and empower them to drive impact through the medium of fashion. Additionally, we showcase our supply chain partners and teams to honor their work and provide a connection to the hearts and hands behind each piece of garment created. Our employees are proud and, more than ever, empowered to be part of the solutions to climate change and social justice.

The Good Tee’s transparent practices include sharing information about its supply chain partners.

Adila Cokar: The Good Tee is only a year old, so we are still new and learning from partners to make improvements. As a B Corp we are grateful to learn so much about inclusivity, which also includes age. As a fashion brand we recognize that our elders do not have fair representation in the media and felt we could do better. We’ve started on our blog a #goodgen series where we interview inspirational seniors and to mitigate ageism. We are also adding more seniors to model our products. We are working toward increasing our size ranges also and as the company grows we can allocate budget to add larger sizes.

Why is it important for companies in the apparel industry to take the lead on sustainability and environmental protections?

Sheldon: This question highlights a lot of scary topics — unfair labor practices, worker safety, fair pay, discrimination, human trafficking, and so much more. Too many garment workers are forced to work unreasonable hours at ridiculously low wages; child labor is used and they are considered sweatshops. Cheap apparel comes at a huge human rights cost. Consume smarter; pay a bit more if you know it does not sacrifice the well-being of others to protect our people, planet, and profit.

Shamini Dhana, Founder of Dhana Inc., a California-based fashion technology company that currently focuses on eight SDGs.

Dhana: Every second the equivalent of a truck filled with clothing ends up in the garbage — over 70% of clothing in the almost $3 trillion fashion industry ends up in the landfill. This linear business model needs to move toward a circular and regenerative business model. Embracing circularity means valuing people and planet every step of the way. When customers co-create through circular fashion, we amplify how we as people have a choice to make an impact on social and environmental issues that we value.

People in Generation Z are demanding solutions to the current state of waste and pollution created by fashion as they are driving the resale of clothing industry ($24 billion market today), so fashion companies and brands need to adhere to the call of this growing customer base if they plan to be in business in the near future. This is demonstration of not only support for sustainability but also being transparent and accountable of the treatment of employees and workers in the supply chain they rely on. The brand’s identity is an extension of the social and environmental footprint they are impacting on a day-to-day basis. This is the real deal.

Cokar: The apparel industry is the second-largest polluter in the world next to oil and is extremely complex for industry newcomers to navigate. In addition, the 2013 manufacturing building collapse in Bangladesh put a huge stigma on offshore manufacturing. However, overseas manufacturing provides access to a wider range of resources to get the job done. These families and individuals in this industry have been doing this for generations and have a very special skill. Their jobs are not that easily replaced and people are counting on us to bring them work. Also, contrary to what people in North America hear, clothing can be made both sustainably and ethically.