Fashion forward: A roadmap to fossil-free fashion

The fashion industry pollutes the planet and the communities that form the backbone of its supply chains with more climate pollution than aviation. Yet it needs increasingly value-driven customers if brands are to return from the brink of disaster wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. This report outlines 5 steps fashion brands must take to drawdown their emissions rapidly, including setting ambitious climate commitments with full transparency, centering renewable energy in supply chain decisions with specific commitments to phase out coal, advocating for renewable energy policies in supply chain countries, sourcing lower carbon and longer lasting materials, and reducing the climate impacts of shipping.

We have 10 years to more than halve global greenhouse gas emissions if we’re to avoid climate catastrophe. The dip in greenhouse gas emissions from the global slowdown could be easily wiped out as fashion brands ramp up production and sales if they fail to act now to reduce their reliance on dirty fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas or use greenwashing to cover up their inaction.