Why Designers Should Be Part of the Sustainable Fashion Solution

I like fashion, but you are not serious people.

I like “Succession”. I love the dark humor, brutal language and strong dedication of businessman Logan Roy. As I reflect on my first six weeks as Cascale’s chief executive officer, I keep coming back to his quote from season four. After they made questionable decisions, he told his children: “I love you, but you are not serious people.”

The industrial approach to sustainability does not work. We’re already seeing brands push back on their technology-focused content. It was also recently reported by McKinsey that two-thirds of fashion brands are lagging behind in meeting their decarbonization targets. In addition, 40 percent of these products actually saw an increase in emissions. These goals, set with good intentions, quickly crumble when faced with the magnitude and complexity of the challenge.

So, it’s difficult. We know that more than 70 percent of our industry’s carbon footprint resides in manufacturing. Manufacturers work in many forms. Brands have their own performance goals, targets and pet projects, but they share factories, so it’s not uncommon for manufacturers to have multiple and conflicting plans on the fly. Products are bogged down, developers are paralyzed and progress is painfully slow.

I understand the need for brands to show progress, and most of them have dedicated teams dedicated to delivering on their goals and objectives. But it falls apart when it meets the reality of the joint production plant.

Eventually, brands will have to give up some of their pet projects and create compatible projects in partnership with other brands and manufacturers. This comes with its own challenges, anti-trust for one thing, but it will need to be addressed.

To add further complexity, we have a multitude of well-intentioned private organizations with their own agendas that affect individuals. These can vary in size, funding, knowledge and skills set, but if we are not careful, they can cause further separation despite the best intentions.

One of the most obvious results of this confusion is that we are not listening to the people best placed to help solve this problem: developers. This is due to buyer/seller power; very few manufacturers will tell their customers that their ideas are absorbing. I completely understand why manufacturers “put low”. I would do the same. We need to bring these voices to the table, so we fight fair for progress.

At the recent Cascale Manufacturer Conference in Shanghai, we gathered over 200 attendees to share their ideas and solutions. I also travel to other parts of Asia to meet with individual manufacturers, as they are in a unique position to provide solutions. Their expertise is important, especially now that weather conditions have become critical due to heavy rains and increasing heat waves.

But there is hope. This industry-leading Higg Index tool gives us unparalleled insight into what works and what doesn’t. I will use our Annual Conference in Munich in September to share this information and propose a roadmap for the industry.

The clock is ticking. If we are going to be solid people, we have to work together.

Colin Browne is the CEO of the global nonprofit alliance Cascale, formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, and was the interim CEO and COO of Under Armor.