Vol 12: Work Culture, Everlane, and Sustainability
How much does internal culture matter when it comes to sustainability?
This newsletter is about the fashion world needing to embrace the challenge of transforming into a more sustainable industry.
We’re leading this week’s newsletter with the recent NY Times piece on Everlane. The piece is ostensibly about internal company culture but matters on the topic of sustainability.
Everlane’s promise of radical transparency matters. Everything from the way they openly talk about their factories to the way they break down costs and pricing make you want to trust the company. They place their sustainability intiatives front and center on their landing page, and you want to believe it. But last week’s piece unmasked a work culture that was problematic at best. And it makes us wonder: do companies need to first get their own houses in order before trying to transform the industry?
It’s a question that we won’t pretend to have an answer to. If we waited for perfect, the world would continue burning. But we’re seeing it more and more. Boohoo received standout marks on the ESG front as they effectively employed slave-like labor. Looking more at the S than the E in ESG, we were sickened when we learned about the COVID outbreak at LA factories that were making…..masks for the rest of us.
There is a strong part of us that feels ESG and sustainability efforts are so ripe for marketing friendliness that they will attract some bad, some kind-of-bad, and plenty of opportunistic actors. At the least, they gift companies a friendly veneer that makes them convenient for covering up other issues.
The Everlane article is tough because the problems they face could probably be found at a number of American businesses. But that’s kind of the point - when you ask the world to buy things from you because you’re better, you have to be better. That trust is a delicate thing.
We’d be curious about how our readers feel about the topic. Will the companies that traded on transparency, sustainability and positivity hold up under a microscope? The last line of the NYT piece really stuck with us:
“They do some good work, but I wouldn’t describe it as radical. The most radical thing about Everlane is the marketing.”
The Embrace Team
Everlane’s Promise of ‘Radical Transparency’ Unravels (The New York Times)
Everlane may have built a reputation for transparency and for taking care of the planet, but the company came under fire when current and former employees came forward with workplace mistreatment allegations, now confirmed by the findings from an internal Everlane investigation reported by The New York Times.
“Everlane puts a great deal of focus on ‘radical transparency’ and has made it a key selling point. But fundamentally, what they do is not any different from most mass-market fashion brands who do exactly the same, or more.” - Luke Smitham, a sustainability expert at Kumi Consulting in London
The article points out what is wrong with Everlane's internal culture, but most importantly that "mission-driven" brands should align their messages not only from a marketing standpoint but with what is actually happening behind the scenes.
Biodiversity: The next frontier in sustainable fashion (McKinsey)
According to McKinsey, "raw-material production, material preparation and processing, and end of life" are the most harming stages in the value chain, represented as large circles on the graph below.
Moreover, McKinsey identified the apparel sector's five largest contributors to biodiversity loss:
Cotton agriculture due to its pesticide-intensive and water-intensive farming process.
Wood-based natural fibers/man-made cellulose fibers (MMCFs). A significant part of MMCFs may come from endangered forests and unfortunately, the production process of MMCFs is not always environmentally-friendly, as it requires the substantial use of chemicals. (For instance, viscose is one of the MMCF, in this article Vogue Business covered more in detail the deforestation and loss of diversity linked to its production*)*
Textile dyeing and treatment overexploit freshwater resources and contominare waterways.
Microplastics poison marine wildlife. You may have heard already, but here's some scary statistics: "An average of 700,000 fibers is released in a standard laundry load, 7 and half a million tons of microfibers (which are a type of microplastic) end up in oceans every year." To find out more about microplastics, read this piece by Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program.
Waste ending up in landfills and contributing to habitat loss.
In the article, the consulting firm also examines how companies can mitigate their negative impact and promote the industry's biodiversity efforts.
Get Ready for a ‘Surge in Returns,’ Green Returns and More (WWD)
As online sales thrive amid pandemic, here are some interesting data on reverse logistics reported by WWD:
With the ongoing move from analogue to digital processes across the supply chain, the argument for paperless returns managed in an online “returns portal” instead of providing a label in a box is just one step taken by retailers [...] to streamline their operations and reduce waste — to a cost savings of 640,000 pounds on return labels alone, or 8,000 trees saved a year.
Among other trends is flexible return policies, "returnless" returns, calculating the carbon footprint of the shipping and application of data analytics in reverse logistics.
Can fashion’s favourite fabric become more sustainable? (Vogue Business)
In our last edition, we've mentioned US Cotton Trust Protocol continuing to gain ground in the fashion industry. Here Vogue Business covers more in detail why sourcing the most widely used textile fiber in a sustainable way has become crucial for both fashion and luxury players.
Rethinking Materials for a Circular Apparel Supply Chain (Sourcing Journal)
"Material innovation in isolation won’t solve fashion’s systemic issues. Circularity should be a systemic shift in the way we do things. If we’re isolating these pieces of the chain, we’re not going to the heart of the problems" - Annie Gullingsrud, chief strategy officer at cloud-based system for product authentication Eon
Circular Systems, MycoWorks, Evrnu, Lenzing, these companies have taken the task of transforming downgraded materials such as agricultural waste, biodegradable plastic or mushroom roots to create a more sustainable option for textile production. These incredible innovations may transform the way we view waste. However, according to Sourcing Journal, in order to tackle sustainability challenges, the process of creating circular production should also bear in mind health and performance.
Why Guess CEO Says Circular Design Is the Only Way Forward for Fashion (Sourcing Journal)
In this interview with Sourcing Journal, Carlos Alberini, CEO of Guess Inc. revealed a "circular" vision for the denim apparel brand, while highlighting the regional differences between European and US customers towards the sustainability issue:
"In Europe, the acknowledgement of climate change and other critical environmental issues is broadly understood and naturally integrated with the customer sensibilities and lifestyle. The governments are also assuming a leadership role on environmental issues and non-financial corporate reporting, which is also encouraging all businesses to rapidly grow and compete on their environmental credentials. This is leading to a marketplace where customers are more rapidly adopting and expecting sustainability marketing.”
Whether the Old World pays more attention to sustainability or not, one thing is certain: the current health crisis has profoundly impacted the lives on both sides of the Atlantic.
Around the news
Primark launches national in-store recycling - the fast fashion retailer introduced a new initiative in the UK in partnership with a recycling specialist Yellow Octopus aimed at encouraging its customers to donate their pre-loved items from any brand to be "reused, recycled or repurposed".
Deadstock revival: Meet designers bringing wasted clothes back to life - young British fashion designers Lydia Bolton and Christopher Raeburn turn deadstock into new collections, paving the path to building sustainable and responsible businesses.
Decarbonising fashion is imperative - a great read from Vogue Business on the fashion industry's race for carbon neutrality.
Fashion for Good and SeaChange present ground-breaking solution to wastewater treatment - Fashion for Good together with SeaChange Technologies has initiated a pilot project that enables the treatment of wastewater while eliminating the production of sludge and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
Fashion rental startup By Rotation thrives, Rent the Runway struggles - the British startup By Rotation evolved into part-renting app, part-social network and grew despite the pandemic, while the US counterpart has seen a decrease in its customer base, and cut staff pay.
Benetton Group Continues to Invest in Sustainability - few highlights from its latest Sustainability report: in 2019 over half of the total cotton used was certified by the Better Cotton Initiative. The Italian fashion group also reduced by 90 percent the CO2 emissions of its logistic activities and will launch a sustainability-focused platform for the Sisley brand.
ETHICAL TRADE - retailers, brands and their suppliers take responsibility for improving the working conditions of the people who make the products they sell.
It requires identifying problems and ensuring decent working conditions (working hours, health and safety, freedom of association and fair wages) for workers across their entire supply chain and promoting workers' rights.