Can Sustainable Fashion Marketing Really Achieve Precision?

Regulations in the textile sector are approaching like a dark cloud announcing an imminent storm. However, many professionals in the sector do not know how, when and by what means they will have to start complying with the requirements that the European authorities are prioritizing to improve transparency in the sector.

Navigating Marketing Regulatory Uncertainty

Regulatory fog creates confusion and misinformation, leading to marketing campaigns that, in a determined effort to avoid greenwashing, unintentionally alienate consumers. Sustainability sells, but moralistic messages don’t resonate as well.

But consumer confidence is precisely the aim of two important European directives. Directive on consumer responsibility for the ecological transitionalready in force since last March, aims to enable consumers to make informed purchasing decisions and thus promote more sustainable consumption. Directive on environmental claimson which the Council announced last week that it was ready to start discussions with the European Parliament, aims to protect consumers from greenwashing practices by ensuring that purchasing decisions are guided by reliable environmental claims.

The Eco-Claims Directive and the Directive on empowering consumers for the green transition together establish a coherent policy framework to support the Union in the green transition by transforming consumption patterns in a more sustainable direction.

Europe has established a framework for the management of commercial messages regarding the sustainable aspects of products. Among the requirements, environmental claims must be supported by recognised scientific evidence. For a robust assessment, data demonstrating a high level of quality and accuracy must be provided or the methodologies used to calculate this data must be made accessible. However, upon closer inspection of the regulation, there is a lack of definition regarding the criteria for data accuracy or the methodologies required to extract the information communicated.

The role of methodologies in sustainability claims

What level of accuracy can be expected from data-supported ecological claims if the use of a specific methodology to calculate these data is not required?

From the perspective of a sustainability expert in the fashion industry, the upcoming regulations seem too general and aim to create vaguely defined frameworks that give companies carte blanche. However, the lack of clear boundaries within these systems could jeopardize the ambitious environmental goals for which the regulations were originally intended.

Without a standardized methodology for assessing impact information, the system will continue to lack transparency. Let’s imagine for a moment that we are talking about food products and that, depending on each brand’s calculation methods, an almost identical product could display different calorie counts on its label. In the food industry, calorie calculation follows certain rules and standards to ensure the accuracy and consistency of nutritional information provided to consumers. So why aren’t the most accurate impact calculation methodologies also described for the fashion industry?

The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) is a methodology developed by the European Commission to assess and communicate the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Some sustainability platforms, such as comeadhere to the recommendations of this methodology for carrying out Life Cycle Analyses, in addition to the ISO 14040/14044 Environmental Management standards. However, European regulations do not currently impose PEF as a mandatory measurement methodology for all companies.

Lessons from recent fashion conformity controversies

To meet sustainability regulations, it is essential that fashion companies apply scientific methodologies that ensure the accuracy of their results. A few years ago, concerns arose when it was revealed that H&M was manipulating the sustainability scores of its products. The H&M scandal highlighted the limitations of using the Higg Index exclusively as a tool to assess the sustainability of clothing. If the goal of the regulations is to educate consumers and provide them with an accurate representation of the products they are purchasing, as well as the possibility of maximum transparency to make informed decisions, it is essential to consider the methodology used and its limitations to ensure the greatest accuracy of brands’ sustainability claims.

According to a study conducted by the European Commission in 2020, more than half of environmental claims and labels are vague, misleading or unfounded, and 40% lack substantiation.

With 50% of European consumers believing that brands often mislead them when communicating about their environmental efforts, regulation does little to help if it does not clearly define the methods that brands must use to calculate their impact. Even if brands complied with all the requirements outlined in the Environmental Claims Directive, the risk of greenwashing would persist if the methods they use lack scientific basis and rely on vague calculations that do not accurately reflect the reality of the product.

The way forward for European regulation

While Member States have two years to transpose the Directive on “Empowering consumers for the green transition” into their national legislation, it is not yet clear whether each country will establish its own calculation methodology, which would further complicate the comparison between products from different Member States, or whether, on the contrary, a standardised methodology will be established to harmonise the system and make it easier for consumers to compare and understand the information.

In recent months, we have seen France take the initiative to define an overall impact score through eco-labeling, managed by the Ecological Transition Agency (ADEME)We will see whether this strategy positions the country as the industry standard or, on the contrary, creates a desire to develop independent assessment systems, thus hampering industry standardization.

No one said establishing a regulatory framework was easy, and the intersection between fashion and sustainability is no exception. With evolving regulations and the urgent need to combat greenwashing, the industry is facing a monumental challenge that it must address sooner rather than later.