Why do we keep consuming fast fashion?

Factories used by H&M and other fashion retailers are polluting rivers in Bangladesh. And that should not come as a shock to anyone. We have created a system where such actions are implicitly rewarded. Most large fashion retailers are publicly listed and, hence, must prioritise profit and growth ahead of everything else, including environmental sustainability.

Even for fashion retailers that want to do the right thing in terms of environmental sustainability, it is extremely difficult to know what is really going on in their supply chains. Since the deregulation of markets in the 1990s, garment production has been outsourced and production is often subcontracted multiple times. This is profitable for retailers but limits their possibility for oversight on the activities in the various facilities where their clothes are produced. There is, therefore, alway a risk that suppliers will cut corners when it comes to the environment.

Against this complex and confusing backdrop, consumers don’t really stand a chance of making good choices. First there is the question of what is actually an environmentally sustainable choice (better to choose organic cotton, which is thirsty or locally produced nylon, which is produced using fossil fuels). Then we must try to figure out how the clothing in the store is produced, which, as we have seen, is not always clear to the retailers, let alone to their customers.

It has become so complex to make environmentally-sustainable clothing choices that we jump at any chance to have things simplified. Fashion retailers know this and have made things simpler for us with “better choice” labels and so on. But, as the recent court case against H&M has shown, these labels are often confusing and misleading 😞

I was asked to talk about this on the news recently. They asked me which clothing brands we could trust if we want to shop in a way that is environmentally sustainable. I told them that choosing second hand clothes is the only way to be sure that your clothing choice is not unnecessarily polluting the environment.

If you understand Swedish, you can watch my interview here.