Sustainable vs Eco-Friendly vs Ethical Fashion: what's the difference?
Is there a difference between sustainable, ethical, and eco-friendly fashion?
If you're interested in the sustainable fashion movement, you may have come across terms like sustainable, ethical, eco-friendly, clean, vegan, eco-conscious, slow fashion and many more.
You may have heard people use these terms interchangeably, but they don’t mean the same thing. Each of these terms has a closely-related yet unique meaning. Let’s find out how they are different from each other!
Sustainable Fashion
Sustainable fashion is the practice of designing and making clothes in such a way that it does not harm the environment where it’s made, the people who make it and the people who will wear it. The term ‘sustainable’ can be used to refer to materials, processes and products. It is a much broader term out of all others and encapsulates other concepts such as inclusivity, equality, social justice, animal welfare, and ecological integrity. This is why you often hear it being used in reference to anything even remotely environmentally friendly.
Sustainability addresses the entire value chain of a product — What raw materials are used? Who produced it? In what conditions? How much energy was used? What is its carbon footprint? How long can it be used before it gets discarded? How long does it take to biodegrade?
Ethical Fashion
Ethical fashion (sometimes also called Fair Trade fashion) is about the social responsibility of a company from an ethical and moral business perspective. This refers to how their products are produced, how they affect people in their supply chain, and what impact they have on the planet as well as on communities. Ethical fashion advocates for everyone working in fashion's supply chain to benefit and grow with the industry — not just the people on top.
It will take into consideration how workers are treated, whether or not they are paid fairly, if they have decent working conditions, if their rights are respected, and so forth. To maintain an ethical business model, companies should meet certain criteria as set forth by organizations such as Fair Trade USA and Workers United (which is part of UNI).
For example, an ethical fashion brand should be able to trace the supply chain of the material they use (for example, cotton) as far back as those who harvest the crops.
Eco-Friendly Fashion
Synonyms: environment-friendly / earth-friendly / eco-conscious / green
Eco-friendly fashion implies that the products are made in the most environmentally-friendly way possible. The term is used so often, it can be hard to know what it really means: is an eco-friendly product one that uses fewer resources for production? Does an eco-friendly product come from nature, like a plant or a tree? Or does an eco-friendly product support the environment in some way? The truth is that all of these are correct answers!
In its simplest form, eco-friendly fashion refers to products that are made using natural materials without harming the planet at large. This includes using recycled materials, organic fabrics and dyes, non-toxic finishes and packaging. The goal is to create a positive impact on the environment while still meeting consumer demands for high quality product design and construction.
Summary
All three terms are related, but they are not necessarily the same thing. There are many different ways to make clothes, and there are many different ways that these processes can be done sustainably/ethically/eco-friendly.
Some companies use renewable energy sources when manufacturing their garments; some use recycled materials in the production process; while others may use technology to reduce waste from their supply chain.
However, it is important to note that a garment can be ethical without being sustainable!
For example, if you're making your clothes using fairly compensated labor but low-quality materials that only last a few weeks before they have to be thrown away, then yes, your clothes could be called ethically produced but not sustainable. Ethical fashion isn't necessarily sustainable or eco-friendly — it's about treating people well throughout their supply chain at all levels of production.
While sustainable, ethical and eco-friendly fashion are different things, they can also be combined together to create a truly ethical and eco-friendly product that is not harmful to the environment or people.
We hope this article helps you understand the subtle but nuanced difference between three of the most popular eco-fashion terms in the fashion industry!
If you want to make your fashion business sustainable with the most efficient cloud-based ERP or PLM system, speak to a WFX fashion consultant for free!
Text by Vishakha Somani. Visuals from Freepik.
