How is sustainability measured in the Indian fashion industry?

Having stringent laws in place can help build a sustainable future of fashion in the country

"Every single day, every one of us starts the morning [by] getting up and getting dressed. 'What are we going to wear?' But the question we don't ask ourselves is, 'what did it take to make the clothes that I'm going to wear?' The answer to that question is an answer we don't want to hear," said New York senator Kristian Gillibrand, who, in May this year, announced a new piece of legislation that would address labour concerns and workers’ rights in the United States garment industry. The Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change (FABRIC) Act of 2022 addresses the exploitation of garment workers while creating massive $40 million investments in apparel manufacturing, with the goal of cementing the United States as a centre of responsible apparel production.

Although a major progress, this is but a small step towards building an ethically sound and sustainable future for fashion. The fashion industry, which has largely been unregulated, is slowly waking up to the mess it has avoided for long: the human and environmental mess it has left in its wake. As the industry now tries to get its act together, we delve into why it needs serious policies–and policing–to keep everyone accountable.

Accountability in the eyes of law

Apart from the FABRIC Act, ahead of New York Fashion Week earlier this year, a new piece of legislation was put forward by the New Standard Institute. If passed, New York’s Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act (Fashion Act) will be the first in the United States to impose obligations of sustainability on fashion's biggest names. The act aims to hold major fashion brands accountable for their role in the climate crisis and will apply on fashion and accessories labels with more than $100 million in annual revenue, and operating out of New York. This includes luxury labels and fast fashion brands alike. The intent is to try and end fashion’s destructive impacts on the environment and worldwide exploitation of garment factory workers. Designers like Stella McCartney have already lent their support towards the bill.

The European Union also introduced a draft legislation called the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles which proposes actions for the entire life cycle of textiles products while supporting the ecosystem in the green and digital transitions. It addresses the way textiles are designed and consumed, including looking at sustainable technological solutions and innovative business models.

While the West is taking steps towards holding the industry accountable when it comes to sustainable practices, where does India stand? We are aware of the toxic wastes flowing in our rivers, along with the untreated chemical waste from the industrial areas of North India, which are clogged with garment and footwear manufacturing units. In the ‘Made-in-India’ era of the country, while there are multiple developmental schemes and initiatives to support India’s textile and handloom sector–such as the Integrated Processing Development Scheme (IPDS) or Market Development Assistance (MDA)–there aren’t any set laws that measure how these fabrics are sustainable, right from the time of harvesting the crop to the end product, as Saahil Tiger Nandrajog, founder and CEO of Tiger Marrón points out.

“Sustainability is not a time stamp. It's not one thing that happens at one time or just one product. Sustainability has to come from the supply chain. This is something that brands and companies don’t get right. People need to reverse one or two stages to get a holistic look at their supply chain,” says Nandrajog, who specialises in luxury fashion accessories and home accessories. He recently launched a collection of vegan leather bags, and insists that by ‘vegan’ he means that it’s a product that is the outcome of a series of sustainably driven processes, including the methods of production and procurement of raw material used to finish and dyes.

According to Sahar Mansoor, the founder of Bare Necessities—a company that provides eco-friendly and sustainable products and educational services—sustainability can be measured through awareness, which can make an impact on the consumer. But that’s on a personal level. The case is different when we look at sustainability in the larger scheme of things. “You cannot change what you cannot measure. With the amazing work of climatologists and scientists over the past years, we now have access to a catalogue of data on environmental datasets and metrics largely with satellite data and artificial intelligence. We have access to air pollution data in different cities and counties. With LEED and BCorp certifications we can measure and track the environmental footprint of our built environment and keep a check on the social and company governance,” says Mansoor, who built her organisation on the mantra of ‘make zero-waste a norm, not the exception.’

While one may argue that India is still at a nascent stage when it comes to sustainability norms, the overall economic growth of the country usually takes precedence over the environment. But that’s not to say thatIndia hasn’t taken steps towards building a sustainable future. In April this year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) looked to formally adopt Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) as a metric for measuring corporate performance. This essentially requires the top thousand companies ranked by market cap to compulsorily include Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) in their annual reports, given to stock exchanges. In the following month, SEBI formed an advisory committee for ESG-based matters for the securities markets. “This is a great initiative to push the idea of sustainability and to think of running businesses holistically. Unfortunately, there is no universally accepted definition of ESG. Therefore, there is an allegation of greenwashing involved,” says Mansoor.

Without awareness, transparency and education, it’s impossible to catch the false and misleading marketing around the environmental impact a product has. So what’s the way forward in fashion when it comes to building the blocks of a sustainable future?

A communal stand

Here’s another question to ponder upon: with more new brands coming out with collections featuring sustainable garments and eco-friendly lines, how can we, as consumers, know that these brands are actually doing the work behind the scenes, without transparency and legal regulations? Archna Yadav—lawyer and founder of Ma’at Advisors, a boutique fashion law firm—explains that currently, in India, the laws are not structured around the fashion industry specifically. “Something like a Fashion Act can only happen when the industry comes together as a community and demands the government and the ministry to add stricter regulations for sustainable practices,” says Yadav, who believes a central voice, an organisation or a union can streamline the scattered acts of sustainability in the industry.

Mansoor, on the other hand, insists that to bring about such a change on a large scale, takes time as it will require deep-rooted systems to make mighty shifts. “What would help though, is to keep a communication channel on sustainability going. Sustainability communication is an art, which can be mastered only when there is a change from within an organisation. It can be of value when it represents a broad mission that speaks of the people and the planet. Practising sustainability is something that the government can definitely incentivise and we can hope that someday there will be laws around it as well,” she says.

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