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From scrutiny of the chain of origin to prolonged manufacturer liability, fashion corporations want to keep an eye on sustainability policy developments that will occur in 2024. George Harding-Rolls, director of policy and advocacy at sustainability consultancy Eco-Age, which works with brands and retailers such as Diesel and Matches, shows the major adjustments coming next year.
The repression of fashion through a policy of sustainable progress is in fact underway. As an industry known for its strong social and environmental footprint – whether it’s returned or recycled garments that end up in African landfills, accusations of fashion slavery, rivers strangled through pollutants, and chemical-soaked clothing – it can’t possibly be allowed to self-regulate.
No matter what type of retail logo it is, a new law is coming. Here’s what you want to know to respond to the changing regulatory tide.
Don’t waste, you don’t have to
Last year, when hard-hitting investigations such as NGO The Changing Markets Foundation’s “Take-back Trickery” report [July 2023] revealed the volumes of waste clothing dumped on the Global South, the European Union (EU) adopted the Waste Framework Directive which includes Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), requiring brands to pay for end-of-life waste treatment [of garments they produce].
Read more: The Reality of Recycling
There is still work to be done to ensure this includes express reuse and recycling targets, but EU member states will have to create textile collection plans until 2025. For UK brands and stores selling in the EU, the ramifications are yet to be confirmed. , as the legislative measures have not yet been confirmed. The procedure is taking shape; however, a UK company would probably have to comply if it is described in the directive as a “producer” and falls within its scope. California’s reaction to the EPR, the Responsible Textile Recovery Act, was postponed until 2024, so fashion companies are also following the evolution of the situation.
The EU Waste Shipment Regulation, which would ban illegal shipments to countries in the Global South, is still in the process of being drafted and calls for special attention to the used clothing industry. This law is still being negotiated and its main practical points are not officially set in stone. However, amendments to the text are proposed to include clothing and footwear. The inclusion of fashion in this text would serve the purpose of other fashion-oriented policies and symbolize the mandatory formula change.
Microplastics have long deserved legislative attention, as deliberately released microplastics were banned [in the UK in 2018], but unintentional microplastics, which add microfibres excreted through textiles, are still waiting for a concrete proposal. We will probably have to wait until the next European meeting. The European Commission is in place [the existing European Commission has been in place since December 1, 2019 and will last until the elections for the next one in June 2024] to see if there is appetite for it.
Read more: How Microplastics Became a Macro Problem for Fashion
Greenwashing
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has led the kind of opposition to greenwashing and continues to require corporations to meet the highest standards with its Green Claims Code [published in September 2021 to help corporations obtain their green credentials while also reducing the risk of deceptive buyers, in April 2022. The UK government has given it the strength to fine companies for non-compliance. ]We can expect the effects of their lengthy investigation into Asos, Boohoo and Asda this year [the CMA launched investigations into store claims in August 2022] – I don’t expect the effects to be a wonder for many.
This will most likely send a signal to brands and stores that dubious green claims will be investigated and those responsible for greenwashing will be held accountable. This symbolizes a new general that green claims will have to be physically powerful and backed up through science-based methodologies. .
The EU’s Green Claims Directive is being revised in the EU as lawmakers detail the main points of what types of claims corporations can make, how they can be made, what evidence they will have to submit and which bodies can submit them. Those who are not yet in the process of rethinking their green marketing want to prepare for the arrival of those new regulations and demand much greater authenticity in their communications.
Eco-design
The products themselves are also facing revision as to how they are manufactured and how their effects are measured. The Ecodesign Regulation for Sustainable Products (ESPR), which will come into force in 2025 in all EU member states, aims at sustainability and circularity.
A key component of the ESPR will be the implementation of virtual product passports, which provide detailed data on product sustainability to facilitate purchasing decisions [by storing and tracking data about a product, its materials, components, and footprint data]. prohibit the destruction of unsold property until 2028.
Compliance with the ESPR, once enacted, will be vital for companies, with penalties for non-compliance including fines and potential exclusion from EU markets.
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Reporting is a basic precept of all sustainability work: you can’t manage what you can’t measure, as the saying goes. The EU Sustainability Reporting Directive comes into force in 2024 and requires companies founded in the EU and promoting products there, to employ a step-by-step technique based on corporate duration and net turnover: to report on their environmental and social impact with a standardised methodology, which will help compare and contrast efforts.
The burden of knowledge gathering and research for businesses is expected to increase dramatically.
Additionally, in the realm of reporting, California’s Corporate Climate Data Accountability Act requires corporations that generate more than $41 billion (£32 billion) in annual profits within the state to disclose their greenhouse fuel emissions from scope one to scope three. public and personal corporations operating in California with annual profits in excess of £1 billion [£79 million].
Scrutiny of supply chains
Fashion corporations find themselves in the middle of a network of connections in the chain of origin that hides problems similar to human rights and the environment. A wave of due diligence legislation is underway to address such issues, for example the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). ), which was followed by the European Parliament last year, will require corporations founded in the EU and promoting there to be responsible for their impacts on human rights and the environment, whether in Europe and abroad, and have committed action plans.
In the United States, the New York Fashion Act (NYFA) is gaining support from major fashion brands, celebrities, and activists. It proposes that apparel corporations active in New York with an annual global profit of more than £100 million [£78. 9 million] will have to be transparent about their source chains, report on key issues such as chemical use, set and achieve climate targets, measurable in garment batch workers, and conduct in-depth research in those areas.
The proposed law in Washington state aims to impose environmental obligations on major fashion brands (with a global turnover of more than £100 million [£78. 9 million], to New York initiatives, demanding transparency in environmental policies and social justice impacts, starting January 1, 2027.
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Where next?
We must not forget that 2024 is set to be one of the biggest years in the history of democracy, with half the world able to vote in some form of democratic election. That is both a big thing for self-determination and possibly a tense moment for nascent regulatory sustainability efforts. Take the EU’s Textiles Strategy, which is pushing forward sustainability in fashion. It has been a pet project of the current commission, but there are no guarantees for the next mandate. Likewise, across the world as scrutiny and scepticism of climate and sustainability action grows, 2023’s pioneering policies could be thrown onto 2024’s legislative bonfire.
For most companies, “compliance” will be the word of the year, and an intelligent understanding of what you want to report, disclose, adjust, and enforce will be critical to your sustainability strategy.
However, for the most ambitious corporations, resting on their laurels is not an option. All progressive policies need advocates from industry, civil society, and beyond to ensure a broad church of consultation and consultation: corporations that pontificate sustainability but don’t blatantly enforce systemic law. They want to improve their game and become defenders as well.
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