Dress to impress

Retailers urged to clean up

The average British household spends nearly £1,200 a year on buying clothes. That adds up to a massive - but so far missed - opportunity to help “to make what we wear a force for good”, in the words of a new report from Forum for the Future.

High street clothes stores can learn a lot from what leading supermarkets have been doing on the food front, explains Stephanie Draper, deputy director of Forum’s Business Programme. “Consumers are now increasingly aware of the sustainability issues around food,” she says, “and are demanding more healthy food, fair trade and organic products as a result. This debate is needed in the clothing industry.”

The report urges others to emulate innovative supply chain policies adopted by M&S. Its key messages are:

• Manufacturers should demand cotton that’s free of hazardous pesticides, insist on higher environmental and social standards in factories and dye houses, and ensure greater traceability down the supply chain.
• Designers should tackle the runaway fashion cycle, by offering ‘upgrades’ that give clothes a new look and by opting for biodegradable fibres such as wood-based Tencel for ‘fast fashion’ items that’ll be worn only a few times.
• Brands and retailers should do more to help consumers make the right choices through clear labelling and by extending their ranges of sustainable clothing.
• Consumers can minimise the energy they use in washing and drying clothes, which make up the lion’s share of a garment’s environmental footprint.

A copy of the full report is available from www.forumforthefuture.org.uk

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have picked up the baton too, providing these clear guidelines for the bewildered punter: 

• Buy second hand.
• Buy fewer, more durable clothes.
• Choose those made with least energy and least toxic emissions, by workers paid a credible living wage with reasonable employment rights and conditions (e.g. fair trade or organic).
• Hire, rather than buy, the kind of clothes you know you won’t be wearing to the end of their natural life (tuxedos, wedding dresses, maternity wear).
• Wash clothes less often, using eco-detergents and lower temperature settings (you reduce energy consumption by 41% if you wash at 30oC rather than 40oC); hang-dry them and avoid ironing where possible.
• Give clothes a longer life by repairing them.
• At the end of their life, recycle them (in your household collection box, or a roadside clothing bank).

- Hannah Bullock

‘Well dressed? The present and future sustainability of clothing and textiles in the United Kingdom’ can be read at www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk

11 March 2007

Hannah Bullock