Business

H&M, Boohoo, ASOS, Asda Greenwashing Accusations

Fashion brands called out for taking advantage of the consumer appetite for more sustainable goods and dishing up empty promises. The fashion industry emits about the same quantity of greenhouse gases per year as the entire economies of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined. According to global management consulting firm, McKinsey, by 2030, it will need to cut its emissions by about half—or else it will exceed the 1.5 degree pathway to mitigate climate change, set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and ratified in the 2015 Paris Agreement. With the world now waking up to the realities of climate change, consumer preferences are changing. In what is sure to be an upward trend, in 2020 McKinsey research revealed that 67% of consumers consider sustainable materials to be a factor in purchasing a fashion item. As one of the most competitive market sectors, it’s perhaps no surprise that fashion brands are clambering to make more sustainable products in what is a win/win for them and the environment. But, are their products as green as they say they are? Well, the short answer is, not always. And sometimes, not at all. H&M taken to court over greenwashing claims Chelsea Commodore, an expert in sustainability marketing, has filed a complaint in New York in which she accuses H&M of greenwashing with “‘misleading’ environmental scorecards” associated with clothing in the brand’s Conscious Collection. Commodore says that “a majority” of H&M products that are marketed as being sustainable are “no more sustainable than items in its main collection, which are also not sustainable.” The scoring system H&M used for its clothing is called the Higg Index. Despite a number of brands adopting the Index as a measure of their sustainability, it has long faced criticism from environmental groups for being misleading. Asos, Boohoo and Asda under fire for sustainability claims Asos, Boohoo and Asda's clothing brand George have also made the headlines in recent weeks for misleading the consumer over the green credentials of some of their fashion products. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said vague slogans for their clothing ranges could give the impression the clothes are “more environmentally sustainable than they actually are”. The UK competition watchdog first started looking at the claims in January and an initial review found concerns about “potentially misleading green claims”. It said it was focusing on Asos, Boohoo and George to “get to the bottom of its concerns”. The investigation is still ongoing and the CMA has made its current position very clear: “Should we find these companies are using misleading eco claims, we won't hesitate to take enforcement action – through the courts if necessary,” said Interim Chief Executive Officer, Sarah Cardell.