Can You Buy Sustainable Fast Fashion?

This week we’re asking the question – is it possible to buy sustainable fast fashion? To answer that we’re joined by sustainable fashion consultant Jacinta FitzGerald and GoodOnYou.eco founder Gordon Renouf.

Fashion is a huge business here in Aotearoa. In 2020 we collectively spent $7.8 billion on clothes and shoes. That’s over $1,300 each.  

Going back a little bit further in 2019 an estimated 63 million tons of clothing was produced globally. That’s more than the weight of 19 million Toyota corollas, 40 million hippos or 400 years worth of Italian parmesan cheese production! 

All this comes at a cost. The fashion industry has a huge effect on our planet. A report from the World Economic Forum report found that fashion production accounts for 5% of our CO2 emissions. That might not sound like a lot but it’s almost three times as much as the aviation industry. And it doesn’t stop there. Clothing production also accounts for 20% of the worlds waste water, enough to fill up 37 million Olympic swimming pools. 

Fast fashion gets a particularly bad name when it comes to sustainability. With a dizzying number of brands like H&M, Zara & ASOS releasing 'sustainable' and 'conscious' clothing lines, it can be a minefield to decipher what any of this actually means, and if claims are valid. And that is a real concern. 

Fashion sustainability consultant and program director and Mindful Fashion NZ join us to break down exactly what “sustainability” does and doesn’t mean with respect to fashion.  

A study by the Changing Markets Foundation found that “greenwashing is rife” at both high street and luxury brands. Their results said that 60 per cent of claims by UK and European fashion companies, including Zara, H&M are unsubstantiated and misleading. It’s not particularly surprising then that research has found that only 1 in 5 us trust a brands sustainability claims. 

With that in mind Gordon Renouf founder of sustainable fashion rankings app ‘Good On You’ joins us to dig into the marketing and sustainability messaging of H&M, Cotton:On, Glassons, Kathmandu and Kmart. Are they really as great as their marketing department makes them sound? 

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