Top-down Change – Building a Sustainable Fashion Industry in Vietnam
Thus far in my look at how to impact change in the ethical fashion industry I analyzed a grassroots middle school project to decrease overconsumption, and systematic change in Cambodia that caused waves globally. Now, I turn to look at a multi-stakeholder organization that aims to impact the garment industry from the top-down.
Changing business practices and altering people perceptions of how to succeed in the fashion industry is a big task. Organizations like the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and Fashion Revolution have been taking on this task from the producer and consumer side respectively. The SAC in particular has been able to penetrate the market and build a standard around what sustainable and ethical fashion should look like, and more importantly, how companies and factories can achieve and prove these standards. They’ve been able to achieve this by establishing the Higg Index, an industry wide auditing tool to measure sustainability practices and labor standards. Even with the prevalence of this tool and the growing trend of sustainable fashion, the garment industry still struggles to raise standards.
One recent multi-stakeholder initiative that has caused waves in the industry is Vietnam’s Race to the Top program. A collaboration founded in 2015 and boasts big name brand participation, including Nike and Gap Inc., in large part due to its association with the SAC. Race to the Top was founded to answer the question: “What if, rather than a system characterized by a race to the bottom framed by tragedy there was a race to the top with a sustainable system of apparel characterized by measurable progress both in environmental performance and the well-being of workers.” To do this, they needed the help of all parties involved, brands, governments, NGOs, and nonprofits.
The program has effectively brought together all the pieces and put them together to work as one, from encouraging sector-wide use go the Higg Index, to working with Better Work to maximize their efforts in the industry. With the multi-stakeholder approach, large scale problems like climate change and human rights violations cannot be solved by one company alone nor the perfect government policy, there needs to be a collaboration between all stakeholders to converge on common goals for all organizations.
After a pilot program with three mills, the Race to the Top initiative was able to produce drastic cuts in electricity and water usage. This not only is beneficial to the environment but also saves money for bottom line driven corporate leaders and ultimately results in lower costs for fabrics. These systematic changes are tedious to implement, but in the long-run, lead to a more reliable and cheaper supply chain. It is important to consider the long-term benefits when forming these programs, and look beyond quarterly earnings.
Vietnam’s Race to the Top program has lofty goals such as streamlining assessments, lean manufacturing to facilitate worker-manager dialogue, incentivizing better buying patterns, and creating capital for improvement activities and sustainably operating factories. I’ll be keeping an eye on the group to see how these goals play out, for now, they have made some headway in raising sustainability standards in local mills. These top down approaches can take time to trickle down and make impact. Also, with so many factors at play, it’s near impossible to control for every factor, requiring flexibility and frequent readjustments to strategy. I look forward to following up on their progress in the following years.
As I continue my graduate studies I will be analyzing different approaches to shifting the fashion industry and identifying when each approach would be most impactful. Each situation is unique and requires different solutions. From small scale grassroots projects that grow into global movements to having the right policy lined up at the right moment in time, to shifting mindsets from the top down, it’s an energizing time to be a part of sustainable and ethical fashion. There are a growing number of opportunities for people to step in and drive change in the industry, as companies open up to the idea of sustainable fashion, consumers demand a better product, and tools are made available to help us achieve this. Regardless of which approach you gravitate to, there will always need to be some degree of top-down change in order to make drastic shifts within our corporate structures and government policies, it’s a continuous process.
Systemic Change – Better Labor Standards in Cambodia
When you start looking into the world of fashion corporate social responsibility, it is not uncommon to stumble upon big game changers that somehow haven’t trickled down to the media. These are often actions taken by corporations out of necessity and have good timing to thank. International trade negotiations in Cambodia during the rise of their garment manufacturing sector are a clear example of this case, which I like to call “accidental ethical fashion”.
One thing I’ve learned since starting graduate school at NYU is that policies may seem to sometimes pop out of nowhere, but there is often a long history of hard work that is goes unseen. Interest groups and activist are waiting to pounce on those perfect, unpredictable opportunities to push forward their initiatives. It’s our job to be ready, and know how to mobilize quickly when those windows open.
In the case of Cambodia, and confluence of multiple factors led the country to be the first to partner with the International Labor Organization (ILO) to monitor labor standards in garment factories. This partnership resulted in working conditions in factories being directly tied to how many garments they were able to export. The pilot program sparked a new era for the ILO and Better Work organizations were formed in other countries to continue the program around the world.
Cambodia has grown from being completely a closed market from 1975 to 1989, to now having 32.65% of the global garment sector share. The country’s entry into the market in the early 1990’s allowed them to sidestep export quotas allowing their garment sector to flourish. The rapid growth in the industry led to growing pains in the workforce and when stricter trade regulations needed to be put in place in 1998 this allowed for the perfect climate to create the first ever trade laws developed to incentivize ethical labor standards.
During the 1990s when Cambodia was stabilizing, the government saw garment manufacturing as a low capital plan for economic development in their country. Cambodia looked to their neighbor’s economies booming after establishing successful garment manufacturing sectors and wanted to reap the same benefits. The state had a large population of unskilled workers looking for jobs and the garment industry’s low barrier to entry was ideal. Minimal capital investment and training were required to get the industry started, so Cambodia jumped on the opportunity to bring economic prosperity to their people.
Seeing the opportunity to work around the Multi-Fibre Agreement (which set strict export quotas in other countries), investors from Taiwan, China, and South Korea descended on Cambodia to build garment factories and attract foreign brands who were limited by quotas system in other countries. This served Cambodia well, and the market grew rapidly from $80 million in exports in 1996 to $6.8 billion in 2015. The rise of Cambodia’s garment industry owes its success to their opportune timing of market entry. The lack of restrictions allowed them to thrive as other developing countries’ manufacturing sectors were dampened.
In 1998 when the US government faced growing pressure from domestic apparel manufacturers to impose restrictions on Cambodian garment imports, simultaneously Cambodian factories were experiencing increasing discontent from their workers leading to strikes and protests. News of the conditions in factories abroad prompted American supportive labor groups who in turn petitioned the US government to take action and review the claimed abuses of workers’ rights in Cambodian factories. This created the perfect climate for US and Cambodian governments to collaborate on a trade incentivized structure for monitoring working conditions in apparel factories.
With acknowledgment from all parties that government monitoring of factory labor standards was not credible, the ILO was approached to step in as a third party auditor. This was an innovative and groundbreaking partnership, at the time the ILO had never monitored private sector operations, nor had they been involved with on the ground audits of workplaces. The Director-General of the ILO at the time, Juan Somavia, cautiously accepted the proposal after much debate with the ILO bureaucracy and governing body. This agreement would prove to be successful and spark the Decent Work program at the ILO, which protects workers and advocates for fair wages and safe working conditions. The partnership also created a more cohesive ILO, and some would argue, more relevant in the increasingly globalized apparel supply chain.
The monitoring system faced some problems at the beginning, but they were amended quickly to ensure transparency and credibility. Firstly, the quotas were set for the entire garment sector in Cambodia, not by the individual factory, and it was not mandatory for factories to participate in the ILO workplace monitoring. This did not incentivize manufacturers to partake in the program, instead, they would be more likely to try and get a free ride off of other factory’s good efforts. Once this problem came to light, the Cambodian government limited availability of the export quota to the US to only factories participating in the ILO program.
Secondly, transparency of information was imperative for the industry but whether the ILO should name all factories by name or produce an aggregate report was left unresolved. In order to address this issue, the ILO came up with a two-step approach to their reporting. First, they would release a synthesis report of all factories, highlighting overall trends and problems that need to be addressed in the industry. Then, after a re-inspection for compliance, the ILO would name factories that weren’t complying by the ILO standards for labor rights and working conditions. This allowed for the transparency needed and did so in a more impactful way than comparable private monitoring programs.
The private sector responded positively to the ILO monitoring program, which allowed for risk mitigation for operating in Cambodia. Nike, for example, had left Cambodia due to labor rights scandals tarnishing their brand image. Once the ILO started their monitoring of labor conditions in factories, Nike returned some of their production to the country.
There have been debates whether these private sector fashion brands should financially support these initiatives since they are largely benefitting from them. This idea, however, raises issues of incentives. If the private sector is funding the monitoring, they could be driven by driving profits and improving public image, not necessarily by ensuring fair and safe working conditions. That being said, there is a trend in the market for brands to invest in complying with labor laws, so there is some hope that brands may become more invested in this effort in the future.
As the program continued to grow and response from the private sector was highly supportive of their efforts, Better Factories Cambodia was created to manage and oversee the monitoring program in apparel factories. This monitoring agency was founded in 2009 and has grown to offer training programs to help factories reach the ILO standards.
Although this ILO partnership was revolutionary for it’s time, we are still left wanting more. Working conditions in garment factories are still lacking, as seen by the mass faintings occurring in Cambodia in the summer of 2017. Now that we are creating better systems for monitoring and change, how can we inspire a higher level change in the way we conduct business?
Grassroots Change – A Middle School Robotics Team’s Efforts to Decrease Overconsumption
While visiting family outside Boston during the holidays, I got to catch up with my cousin about her robotics team project to reduce t-shirt consumption in Lincoln, Massachusetts. They had consulted me as an expert for their project back in October and I was anxious to hear if they were able to persuade their town to stop automatically handing out t-shirts for events.
After spending a semester researching large scale multi-stakeholder initiatives to drive change in the fashion industry, it was refreshing to hear about a successful grassroots campaign led by a 6th grade robotics team.
When I jumped on a call with the team back in October, I was excited to hear what kinds of questions they would ask about sustainable fashion. At 11 and 12 years old, I wondered what would resonate with them, and how they would think of solving the problem.
For their robotics competition they were tasked with conducting a research project to decrease water consumption. After doing some research, the team was startled by the 2,700 liters of water needed to produce a t-shirt, and decided to focus on how to reduce this waste. Understandably, a lot of their questions revolved around what I think we can do to reduce water consumption, as well as what I thought of their solution. They had come up with a plan to work with local organizations that give out a lot of t-shirts for events to instead encourage people to reuse their t-shirts and add appliques for subsequent years.
The team reached out to the principle of the local school, Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department, Parent Teacher Organization and the Lincoln School Foundation. Their pitch was well received at all groups, but the most impactful connections were with the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department and the Lincoln School Foundation. Both groups committed include messaging to encourage people to reuse their t-shirts from previous years, and opt to add an applique. The concept reminded me a lot of earning badges in girl scouts or adding stickers on luggage for different cities visited.
The Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department gives out a lot of t-shirts for sports competitions and camps, and the Lincoln School Foundation runs the town spelling bee, which also generates a lot of new t-shirts. Not only was the idea to prolong the use of each t-shirt attractive to help make the town greener, buying less t-shirts meant saving money as well.
After describing their solution, questions on the call soon turned to how best to promote their idea and encourage people to choose the appliques over the new t-shirts. I laughed and said, “well now that’s a marketing problem.” The team is lucky that they are promoting their idea in a tight knit community that cares about environmental issues. Yet, even in a town like Lincoln there are barriers for a project like this to get off the ground. When people expect a t-shirt for every event, activity or competition they participate in, it could potentially be a turn off if they are pressured to then not accept the free t-shirt.
The key to promoting a sustainable fashion choice is a mix between offering good design and informing the customer. People are naturally going to gravitate to a free or cheap product, but if you show them the impact that even one t-shirt can have on the environment, they are likely to rethink their choices. As seen in Fashion Revolution’s 2 Euro t-shirt social experiment, once people know the harm they are creating with their fast fashion choices they are likely to shift their behavior.
I look forward to seeing how this project plays out in Lincoln and how people react to their idea. They have the first step of getting the big players on board. Now it’s all about how they tell their story with their community and grow the movement.
Dyeing with Avocado and Indigo – Looking at Water Waste in the Dye Process
#HawaiiFiberProject Part III – Natural Dyes
Natural dyes aren’t always the practical choice, but they are certainly an art form. Getting the right combinations and knowing how the dyes will react with fabrics, mordents, and weather is an extensive learning process. Due to the complexities in process and inconsistencies in color, natural dyeing may not be the answer for large scale fashion to become sustainable. To reverse the harm done by this part of the garment industry, we need innovative technologies in dye processes and textile production to address the water waste and chemical pollution caused by modern dye houses. By looking closely at artisanal methods of dyeing, I hope to spark curiosity in finding better solutions. Are there ways to infuse color without wasting water? What about growing materials to have a natural color without dyeing?
Unlike the previous parts of the #HawaiiFiberProject (sakiori weaving and making pineapple fibers) I’m not a novice in natural dyeing. Besides growing up dyeing with Japanese indigo with my Mom and conducting research projects in middle school on how mordents and fabrics impact the dye color, I’ve also taken a natural dyeing course at the Fashion Institute of Technology with Liz Spencer (the founder of The Dogwood Dyer) as part of the Sustainable Fashion Entrepreneurship Certificate.
This project got me daydreaming and I started thinking, Why don’t I start a dye garden?? Then I snapped back to reality when I remembered that I’m starting a challenging graduate program at NYU, training for the NYC Marathon, and promised myself to consistently write for this blog. Unfortunately I just don’t have the time, but maybe one day. During my time back home in Hawai’i, I did have a chance to experiment with wild indigo and avocado pits. Two materials I have never dyed with before, and two materials you can find growing in Hawai’i.
The Process
I scoured the Waimea nature trail for wild indigo, having only seen pictures on the internet, but didn’t see anything quite right. At least, I didn’t see anything that matched the pictures I saw with enough certainty to merit hurting and picking the plant. I returned with my Mom a couple days later to try again. We were about to give up when we spotted a plant near the end of the trail. There were only a few plants here and there, not the big bushes that they can grow into. We picked what we could get, and hoped it would be enough to dye one tank top.
After gathering the leaves (and a few seed pods to try and plant later) we got home and immediately prepared the dye bath. With wild indigo, the leaves must be used fresh, otherwise they won’t be effective. We took all the leaves off the stems and tied them up in an old stocking, then left the leaves to soak in water overnight.
Avocado pits were easier to come by. After gathering a couple from the neighborhood, we supplemented them with a few store bought ones, there were eight pits in total.
Now that I had cleaned my eight avocado pits and let my indigo leaves soak overnight, it was time to start dyeing. I went to the local thrift shop at St. James Church and got two tops, one 100% silk tank and one 100% cotton t-shirt. I found another silk top to throw in the mix when I got home. First, I soaked the tops in water with a bit of soap and rinsed them out.
In the meantime I prepared the avocado dye, boiling the pits along with some of the rinds for a little over an hour. After letting the dye pot cool and steep for about another hour I placed the cotton t-shirt inside. I thought this would only take about 10-15 minutes, but I ended up leaving the shirt in the dye bath for several hours hoping the color would get stronger. Ultimately the shirt came out a very light pink, not what I was hoping for, but still nice.
For the indigo tops I submerged them in the dye bath several times for 15 minutes at a time, letting the shirt oxidize in between. I love the pale blue that came out of the wild indigo, it ended up being stronger than I had anticipated, so that was a nice surprise. I tried dying one piece in the indigo and then in the avocado, hoping for a purple color. The color ended up being a light green instead of purple. The original shirt had a yellow tinge and the light indigo color made it green, unfortunately the avocado had little to no effect.
It was exciting to wake up and see how the shirts dried the next day to view the colors in the natural sunlight. I’m happy with the result, even though the colors didn’t all come out as vibrant as I had hoped for. If anything, it makes me want to try again with different combinations. Maybe I needed more avocado pits? What if I had tried using a mordent?
The Takeaway
It’s a rush to take something from nature, and through a few steps, revive an old garment with a new color. Like the other parts of the #HawaiiFiberProject, natural dying can be extremely time intensive. From foraging for the materials, preparing the dye bath, and the actual dye process itself, this project took me two full days. If I had done any special techniques like resist dyeing or shibori, it could have taken at least one more day. I also didn’t use any mordents in my dye process, which would add a level of complexity. Yet, because I didn’t use mordents I’m a little worried about the color fastness of the dyes. Fast fashion uses a host of synthetic dyes that are made to stay colorfast, withstand multiple washings and high heat. All these qualities come at a price though, these dyes tend to contain carcinogens that enter the waterways if left untreated, causing harm to the communities nearby.
It’s not unheard of for companies to use natural dyes in their products, but it takes a dedicated and understanding consumer for this to be successful. Natural dyes lose their vibrancy over time and require special care, something many customers have no patience for. It’s also important to question if natural dyeing is truly sustainable on a large scale. Are there better options? Maybe for smaller boutique brands, natural dyes are a viable option. But what about on a large scale? Most of todays clothing is not made in small batches, is there a way to fit sustainable dyeing practices into large scale production?
Leaders in the fashion industry are starting to emerge with answers to these problems, with reduced water dyeing, or entirely waterless dye processes. Levi’s did a study to pinpoint the best ways to incorporate sustainability along their supply chain, and concluded that the dye process was an area they wanted to focus on. Their Water<less denim line emerged from this research and is committed to using less water in the dye process. Nike and Adidas are cautiously supporting waterless dye technology, with cost being a major barrier. Either the consumer needs to demand these products, or there needs to be breakthroughs in technology to make this a cheaper endeavor. Consumer demand tends to drive innovation and new technology, if there’s money to be made off of it, they will make it.
By cleaning up this area of the garment industry, this would drastically change the game for sustainable fashion. I hope it’s something that people start to think about more when they purchase a new piece of clothing. If a shirt was dyed and finished with harmful chemicals, what does it mean if that shirt is now rubbing against your skin? Is there any impact? And if there is, should we be concerned? My instincts are telling me that we should be.
Introducing the #HawaiiFiberProject
I’m back home in Hawai’i for about three weeks and am unbelievably excited about the #HawaiiFiberProject. There are three parts to the project, sakiori weaving (recycling old textiles), alternative fiber production (mainly pineapple and industrial hemp), and natural dyeing. During my time back on the island I aim to get to the roots of fiber and textile production, with the goal of accompanying each project with deeper research into how these core elements extend into the larger fashion industry.
I may pick up some other projects depending on what I can squeeze in. I would do infinite projects if I could, but I am supposedly on vacation, so I will be seeing friends and family, going to the beach, and just plain relaxing from time to time as well.
I chose these topics because they were projects that I can do with my Mom, who’s a textile artist, and also because I had some cool pieces in mind that I really wanted to make. I’ve never woven before, or made pineapple fibers, so there will be a big learning curve. I already started extracting pineapple fibers and setting up the loom for weaving, so far my hands are kind of sore and each step has been tedious and time consuming, but it’s very satisfying to create something with my own hands. My Mom is also pretty entertained by watching me, she keeps chuckling in the background.
These new research posts will be the start of a new chapter for Ethical Fashion Nerd, where I will produce more in-depth essays in addition to my regular journal posts. The nerd in me is so thrilled and can’t wait to get started.
To see more of the day to day process, I’ll be posting regularly on social media (mainly Instagram) about the #HawaiiFiberProject, follow along @ethicalfashnerd.
Conscious Running – From Mind to Shoes
Today’s post is an exercise in how I approach a clothing buying decision. I’m highlighting an area that is tough to shop sustainably, running gear. I have some go to brands, but it’s an area where there is constant innovation and I’m always looking to discover new products.
But first, a quick ode to running. I was never much of a runner when I was younger, I hated it in high school. I tried running a bit in college, but never more than a couple miles and it always felt like a chore. I didn’t fall in love with running until grad school, when I was living in Japan for a year. I made a commitment to myself to run every day for the rest of the year, this was at the beginning of December. Then January rolled around and I just kept running.
I used the time to clear my mind, listening to the sound of my breath; feeling the air fill my body and then letting go. Suddenly running wasn’t something forced and painful, it was something I could use to be with myself and let my anxiety melt away.
When I started my conscious fashion lifestyle, running gear was top on my list of items to research. I’m breaking it down by shoes and clothes, since my thought process was different for each.
Shoes
It’s been a hard fact for me to swallow the fact that no matter what I do, I have to buy new running shoes regularly otherwise I’m putting my body at risk of injury. There is nothing that I can do to make the shoe last longer after I’ve run 300+ miles on them. (If you have any ideas on how to do this, please share!)
Since I’m training for the NYC marathon, that means I have to buy new shoes every 3 to 4 months. Because of that, finding a shoe that is recyclable and low impact is important to me. You might be shocked to hear this, but I wear Nike. Nike Flyknits. I chose these due to the FlyKnit design that knits the top of the shoe with zero waste. Then, when I’m done, I just take them into a Nike store or send them in to be recycled.
There are other brands with innovative technologies as well. Adidas, for example, has created a shoe out of recycled water bottles. Newtown Running is the first running shoe B Corp brand. There are also other alternatives to Nike for shoe recycling, such as Soles 4 Souls and Shoes for Planet Earth.
Clothes
When I first started running, I would just scrounge up old T-shirts and gym shorts for my runs, I didn’t really care what I looked like. As I spent more time running and realized how a cute running outfit could motivate me to push myself harder, I started looking into sustainable (and somewhat affordable) running clothes. Generally speaking there are two types of sustainable running gear, recycled polyester/plastic or natural organic cottons/merino wool.
There’s a lot of interesting innovation and creative new brands in the world of recycled polyester/plastic. One of my favorite new pair of leggings is from Girlfriend Collective, which makes their products out of recycled water bottles in an SA8000 certified factory in Vietnam. For more of a boho chic vibe, Teeki is another great recycled water bottle legging brand, but they’re not quite as practical for running. You can also sort products on Nike by those using recycled polyester. Threads 4 Thought is another great brand using recycled polyester, and their clothes perform well for running. Once you start looking, you’ll realize that these products are popping up all over.
On the flip side there is the all natural way of merino wool and cotton products. Wool is literally a miracle fiber, it is moisture wicking and unlike polyester will not lock in bad odor. It also miraculously has the ability to keep you both warm and cool. Icebreaker has some amazing merino wool running gear that is ethically sourced in New Zealand. Cool new it activewear brand, Outdoor Voices, also has a merino wool collection, among others.
Of course you could do what I do what I first started running and wear second hand t-shirts and old running shorts. But, when you run as much as I do, it’s important to have gear that will make you feel empowered to perform your best.
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Once you discover which materials fit into your conscious fashion world, it’s easier to move forward from there. I like the idea of having an activewear brand that collects materials to recycle or will take back their products to recycled for you, in effect closing the product lifecycle loop. Patagonia is committed to making all their products renewable, but it would be great to see this extend beyond sustainable fashion’s poster child.
I’m always open to hearing about new brands and ideas if you’d like to share. Leave a comment or send a note!