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In an era of environmental degradation, the demand for an eco-conscious future is inevitable.  

For the fashion industry, this means a push for sustainability.  

Sustainability in fashion refers to the ethical, environmental, and socioeconomic impact of a garment from its creation to its disposal.  

There is more pressure than ever for brands to develop increasingly sustainable practices. Along with this comes an epidemic of greenwashing. Greenwashing is the term used when a brand claims to have sustainable or eco-friendly practices without verification or proof. 

Joanna Schroder, public relations professor at Grand View University and environmental science expert, explains how to spot greenwashing.  

“Companies who are open and honest about [sustainability] are going to publish it. You can go to their website and follow the process from where they are sourcing that material, how that material is grown, and who their partners are,” said Schroder. “All the way through their production and shipping process. If they are not disclosing that, they are greenwashing.  

The ease with which companies lack honesty about their practices is partly due to the slew of misinformation regarding sustainability. In other words, consumers who value sustainability need to direct concerns to the systems put in place that allow for “green” practices.  

“We actually don’t have enough facilities in the country to take everything being recycled and actually recycle it. We have more materials going into recycling than we can actually recycle … It is a very small percentage. I think in all the plastics being recycled it’s less than 10 percent,” said Schroeder. “When we’re looking at sustainability, we are going to have to look at our recycling system and build more facilities that recycle the materials.” 

With increased demand, comes increased supply.

“The companies can produce it, but if the consumers don’t buy it, they are going to stop producing it. Whenever you’re going to develop a new technology, it’s going to be more expensive,” said Schroeder. “You have to have consumers who pay more, and as they pay more, then the companies can produce more. And as the companies produce more and improve, the technology will be less expensive.”

Owner of Active Endeavors, an outdoor apparel and gear shop with a sustainable purpose, Jason Juehring describes this difficulty further. 

“It’s not always the snap of a finger, like ‘I want to switch today.’ It’s not feasible. There’s also an element of consumers wanting everything instantly perfect. We want everything to be perfect, and made from recycled, sustainable, recyclable materials. But it’s not always that easy,” said Juehring. “Thankfully in the outdoor space, if you’re not telling some sort of sustainability story, you’re probably going to get left out, lost, or left behind. We want to make sure that we’re proud of the products we are presenting to our customers. And it’s certainly gotten easier, because [sustainability] has become more mainstream, and much more of an important corporate position to be in.” 

To achieve a true sustainable future, companies need to be open and honest about their production. And consumers need to be educated.  

“Patagonia switched to organic cotton 30 years ago and the first comment was ‘isn’t cotton organic?’ That was the first response for most people, especially growing up in an agricultural state where most of our land is used for the production of crops. ‘Cotton is organic right?’’ Well, no. So, it was an explanation of what it means to be organic. It is not dumping a bunch of chemicals on fields to make things grow, killing everything else in the process,” Juehrig said. 

Yet another barrier stands between sustainability and consumers: Unnecessary politicization.  

“Unfortunately, it’s very easy to politicize common sense issues. The environment is a common sense issue, to me. We are consuming raw materials and resources way faster than we can reproduce and replace them. I think we get very comfortable and complacent in our little bubble. It comes down to providing resources to educate people about the importance of why you want something made from recyclable material, grown organically, and treated fairly. If we don’t start to care enough, soon enough we will be living in a trash dump,” Juehrig said.  

The intention behind the sustainability movement is in its name. We are moving away from the unsustainable practices of the past to develop sustainable practices for the future. At some point, sustainability is not going to be a choice, it is going to be a necessity. 

But before that can happen, the stigma surrounding sustainability as an elitist practice needs to be eliminated. It is easy to see where sustainability gets its elitist title. To those used to fast fashion—which is realistically the vast majority of the population—the price tags of sustainable products are higher than what most are accustomed to paying. It is associated with luxury and privilege.  

“As more and more people get into sustainability, it becomes less elitist. There is also this perception of sustainability that you’re a hippy. That you don’t shower or that you don’t use deodorant, that comes back from the ‘70s that we still have to overcome. We have to change the messaging,” said Schroeder. “We have to continue to change that messaging and represent the person as an average, everyday person, instead of this elitist influencer. And we can’t bully people into being sustainable. That never works. We need to just encourage people.”  

Rejecting the normalized overconsumption cycle of fast fashion in favor of fewer pieces that are long-lasting, ethically made, and environmentally friendly is a better solution for all. 

The fast fashion industry has become convoluted. When sourced by far-away countries, it is easy to ignore unethical production as exploitation within the supply chain runs rampant.  

Considering the grossly underpaid workers in dangerous conditions and use of low-quality, oftentimes toxic, materials is the opposite of elitist. The wall standing between production and consumers that blocks all the “bad” is the definition of elitist.