From forced labor practices to poor quality products, the retail and fashion industries have been plagued with problems fueled by consumerism, ultimately underlining the need for more sustainable business practices.
“The truth is that the fashion industry is a major polluter in the world, and it is actively accelerating our planet towards a climate catastrophe. We are beginning to see around the world legislation bubbling up that would curb the impact of the fast fashion industry,” says Elizabeth Segran, Fast Company senior writer, in a recent podcast for USA Today.
Brands like Temu and Shein, both based in China, are known for producing clothing pieces at remarkable speed for low prices, but they’ve also been accused of unsustainable business practices, and stealing ideas from designers. They’re notorious for monopolizing clothing factories. For example, Temu has accused Shein of forcing its manufacturers to sign exclusivity agreements so they are unable to work with anyone else. In a civil lawsuit filed last year, Temu has alleged that Shein’s practices essentially “lock up the supply chain.”
“Temu, its biggest competitor, is saying that Shein is using mafia-like tactics to basically ensure that no other companies can come in and use those same factories,” Segran notes.
Amy Kostelansky, a Master of Science in Sustainable Management student, is a consultant in the fashion industry who has experience working for a number of designers and a large swimwear company. She’s worked in corporate social responsibility and sees the danger of fast fashion affecting the industry as a whole. Her work in CSR began after she saw a documentary exploring the social aspects of manufacturing in third-world countries.
“That really frightened me, and it made me feel horrible knowing that working in the fashion industry that my company could be complicit in that. I mean, I know that we’re very socially compliant, so I know that we’re not. However, it just kind of woke something up in me. I asked the company if anything came up related to sustainability to consider involving me. I helped launch a sustainable swimwear line for Kohl’s. And then in 2021, I became part of the newly created Corporate Social Responsibility team.”
A year later, she began doing process operations, a role she filled while simultaneously fulfilling CSR responsibilities. “We were reporting our carbon emissions per the requirements of a couple of our biggest customers. And that was all kind of self-taught. One of my colleagues had started it, taught herself, created some spreadsheets, and then taught me. And then I took it a step further to really understand how to collect and quantify carbon emissions.”
Her company was also certified under the Textile Exchange’s Recycled Claim Standard, which basically means that its supply chain is capable and competent in certifying a material to a certain standard throughout different nodes of the supply chain. This gives the consumer the ability to make more informed decisions about the products they choose to buy.
“So by the time we receive the product, we can say to our customer, this is indeed recycled–a garment made of recycled material underneath this standard, and the entire supply chain has been certified to that standard,” Amy says.
In June 2022, the US government signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which says companies cannot import anything into the US that has been made in whole or in part by cotton sourced from the Xinjiang region of China. This is because of forced labor practices on the Uyghur people. The act has been a catalyst for companies to think about their supply chains, traceability, and getting to know their supply chain so intimately that they can say their product is compliant.
If a product is found to be noncompliant, US Customs and Border Protection detains it until they verify its compliance. These detentions can last up to several months. If a product is found to have been sourced in that region, it’s either shipped back or destroyed, potentially causing a company financial and reputational harm.
Fast fashion is problematic not only from a labor standpoint, but for its ability to skirt governance.
“It’s just bad,” Amy says. “Because of the speed that these things are being manufactured, at the cost that they’re being manufactured, it makes it very evident that there could be safety issues behind the apparel, and that there’s great potential for forced labor in their supply chains. These are things that people don’t think of because they see something cute and it’s marketed well, so people buy it. And I understand that. I’m from the fashion industry, so I love cute things.
“But consumers really need to be more intentional and question the products that they’re buying. If you buy a T-shirt for $3 shipped from China, that means that the person making it got maybe $0.20, and nobody can live off $0.20. Consumers need to be more introspective and we need to reevaluate policies in the US to slow down the pace that these products are being imported into the US and consumed by US consumers.”
Many fast fashion pieces are also incorrectly sized or fall apart quickly due to quality issues.
“You see something on their website, and it looks cute on the model. And then you get it home and it looks ridiculous, whether it’s five times too small or five times too big. Then what do you do with it? You either throw it out or you donate it to a thrift store or one of those donation bins in the grocery store parking lot, and that gets shipped to Ghana or some country in India or Africa where it’s just added to a landfill and becomes a public safety hazard. So that’s the part that people aren’t seeing, and I think that it’s going to take a lot more education and people being inquisitive and thinking about things before they just push that button to buy something, because we really ultimately have the control. If there’s no demand for it, it’s not going to be manufactured. Human consumption is perpetuating this,” Amy says.
With sustainability concerns rising among consumer goods, especially fashion, Amy sees movement toward more sustainable clothing practices in California and New York.
“Europe is leading with multiple regulations around extended producer responsibility. There are multiple regulations that are going to impact any brands exporting to Europe. And then traditionally—a lot of times California and New York—these more progressive states will model after that. We’re going to see a lot more stringent requirements from all kinds of companies doing business.
“It’s a little scary because there need to be people who understand the policy and know how to implement it, and know how to supply this information that’s being required. We have to now dig into policy and global compliance. It’s going to take a very certain kind of skill set and knowledge base to be able to support these initiatives,” she says.
And these initiatives could likely be led by sustainability professionals like Amy who are passionate about CSR and effect real change, though these initiatives may be limited to large companies in the near future.
“I think that companies are going to need to make some changes to the way that they do their business so that they can free up some cash and hire people to support their sustainability programs. I’m seeing a lot of platforms being implemented, whether it’s for carbon emissions or traceability or just regular ESG compliance. Unfortunately, I think that this could potentially impact smaller companies or companies that just aren’t really capable of providing that information.”
Retail in general causes a lot of waste, which is what initially drew Sustainable Management master’s degree graduate Erin Bauer to UW. With two decades of experience in retail and business, Erin initially sought out an MBA, but then realized she wanted something different.
“When I started looking into [MBAs], I felt it was redundant of what I already do and have degrees in. I was in retail for quite a long time, and that’s when I became interested in waste because of the amount of waste that retail generates,” she said.
Erin, who now works for a nonprofit, sees sustainability tied directly to the concept of quality.
“To me, sustainability is the next generation of quality. It’s where quality can evolve, especially to focus on the elements of protecting environments, protecting people, and making sure people have a voice. This also impacts economic models, because we’ve seen in the last several years how some of the economic mindsets over the last 50 to 75 years are not working in new conditions. And it’s OK. People can be intimidated about these aspects. But change has always happened. What I like most about the sustainability program is that it encourages change. And it can help people become more comfortable with change.”
“Sustainability, in many ways, is quality repackaged, but with more aspects. Quality has always been about less waste, systems improvement, and continuous improvement. The very fundamental methodology of quality is becoming incrementally better at what you’re doing and making sure there’s safety involved.”
Are you a retail or business professional interested in the sustainability side of fashion or other consumer products? Take a look at the Sustainable Management curriculum page or reach out to an enrollment adviser with any questions about the program. For more information, call 608-800-6762 or email learn@uwex.wisconsin.edu.