Sustainability in the garment sector refers to a term where manufacturing apparel and disposing of it is done using eco-friendly methods. While the fashion industry is one of the biggest contributors to pollution, some manufacturing practices can contribute to making eco-friendly garments.

Brands that prioritize sustainability help reduce the negative environmental impact and excel in fulfilling the customer demand for eco-friendly products by doing so and using ethical preparation methods that also ensures the long-term success of brands.

Why Does Sustainability Matter In The Fashion Industry?

Ensuring sustainability in the fashion industry is a major source of attracting consumers from where brands gain customer loyalty with a good message. Using sustainable manufacturing further helps reshape the fashion industry in today’s contemporary market.

Nowadays, sustainability is playing a key role in brand perception. Even major apparel companies are following social responsibility and adopting eco-friendly practices, gaining customer trust and loyalty, amidst which brands like Curves & Hems have built a strong reputation.

What Is A Sustainable Score?

Sustainable score refers to a term in the fashion industry that evaluates a brand’s environmentally oriented practices and ethical production methods. Doing so helps measure it’s sustainability efforts and identifies factors where brands struggle and need improvement.

Some crucial factors contributing to achieving a good sustainable score include waste management, ethical production & overall environmental impact during preparation. Highlighting these ensures brands make their sustainable score transparent to customers and stakeholders.

Key Factors Influencing The Sustainability Scores

Some of the key factors followed by brands that significantly influence sustainability score include raw materials sourcing, using energy-efficient machinery in warehouses, following ethical labour practices, managing carbon footprint, and waste management strategies.

Key Metrics To Calculate Your Clothing Brand’s Sustainability Score

Some crucial metrics are also considered to determine the sustainability score of a brand so that it can be properly evaluated, and a score can be allotted. Some important metrics include material sourcing, production methods, packaging & shipping, waste management & certifications.

Material Sourcing: Organic, recycled, and biodegradable fabrics

Material sourcing is one of the most important metrics in determining the sustainability score, and it is what brands prioritize the most. Companies mostly use organic raw materials such as cotton, bamboo, and hemp to ensure it, while minimizing chemicals and maximizing water.

Furthermore, recycled polyester and some biodegradable fabrics are also helpful in waste management and controlling carbon footprint. Using these sustainable materials prevents environmental harm and creates an environment-conscious customer base.

Production Process: Ethical Labor, Carbon Footprint, And Water Usage

Ethical production is the cornerstone for ensuring sustainability in the apparel industry, guaranteeing safety factors to factory workers,  managing factory operations, and providing carbon footprint efficiency. To achieve it, manufacturers can use energy-efficient machinery & renewable energy sources.

Besides lowering the carbon footprint, water-conserving techniques benefit factories with closed-loop dying procedures. All these factors make the production process quite sustainable, ethically shaping the overall clothing manufacturing.

Packaging & Shipping: Eco-friendly Packaging And Carbon-Neutral Shipping

Besides considering the internal factors, additional factors like packaging and shipping play a key role in sustainability. Most primarily, manufacturers should use sustainable packaging methods such as paper or jute rather than using plastics & non-recyclable materials.

Along with packaging, manufacturers should also use some eco-friendly shipping solutions whereby, most importantly, they must consider electric vehicles rather than fuel-operated cars for delivery. Manufacturers can also place localized production setup to lowers major shipping distances.

Waste Management: Recycling, Upcycling, And Zero-Waste Policies

In the textile and garment sector, waste management control is one of the essential steps for sustainability, along with methods like recycling and upcycling. However, most manufacturers dispose factory residues without further processing them, which is unethical.

Ethical processes like recycling and upcycling should be followed instead of disposing factory residues directly. Additionally, manufacturers can adopt a zero-waste approach and a proper waste management chain involving ethical cycle approaches like reducing, reusing, and recycling.

Another key aspect of waste management includes a take-back scheme where the manufacturers encourage customers to return & repurpose the clothes. Lastly, manufacturers must adopt reliable disposal practices for residues to prevent landfill pollution.

Certifications & Standards: GOTS, Fair Trade, OEKO-TEX, And More

With sustainability being a promising factor in the garments sector, various manufacturers can also avail themselves of a diverse category of certifications that will offer them recognition as eco-friendly manufacturers. Some of the top certifications for sustainability in apparel market include:

GOAT – The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOAT) is one of the most recognized certificates availed by a manufacturer. It follows ecological & ethical criteria; in contrast, Fair Trade certification ensures fair wages & ethical working conditions for factory workers.

OEKO TEX – OEKO TEX is another certification that verifies the absence of harmful substances in the fabric. Some certifications like C2B & C2C ensure that manufacturers manage proper recyclability using sustainable practices. All these tests build a brand’s reputation in the fashion industry.

Step-By-Step Guide To Calculate Your Sustainable Score

Since brands get ranked as reputable manufacturers based on their sustainability score, ensuring sustainability is completely based on a calculation that offers a well-established approach where manufacturers’ sustainability metrics are considered & areas for improvement & excelling are identified.

Steps to Calculate The Sustainable Score

·        Identify sustainability parameters

The first step to identifying the sustainability score in the fashion industry involves identifying sustainability parameters. ESG techniques consider environmental footprint, social responsibility, and governance practices to achieve this.

The environmental footprint includes carbon emissions, water use, waste management, and energy efficiency, while social factors include employee well-being, non-wages, and ethical labour practices. Lastly, governance considers business ethics and transparency of corporate policies.

·        Assign wages based on impact.

Once a brand’s parameters are identified for all categories, these parameters are weighted according to business standards, where each factor is assigned a percentage based on internal policies, ESG rating agency standards, and industry benchmarks.

·        Evaluate and score these factors.

Once the appropriate weightage is assigned, each sustainability factor is closely evaluated, and a score is allotted to the business based on its actual performance. Internal audits and third-party sustainability assessments are usually considered to quantify the same.

·        Calculate the Final Score

After effectively analyzing each factor, it’s time to allocate the final score using a dedicated weightage average formula (Sustainable Score = Σ(Factor Score X Assigned Weightage) that helps to access sustainability performance in a quantifiable way that will further improve goals.

Tools & Frameworks For Measuring Sustainability In Fashion

Measuring sustainability in the fashion industry requires using some important tools & frameworks. This special system delivers accurate data-driven insights into highlighting a brand’s sustainability, although manufacturers may pay to access the inputs and frameworks, that are elaborated below.

Tools like the Higg Index and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s (SAC) help measure product lifestyle impact & assess environmental responsibilities. Some paid tools, such as Carbon Trust & Eco Chain, offer in-depth sustainability analytics & carbon footprint tracking.

How To Use Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) Tools?

Life cycle assessment (LCA) also refers to a tool that helps assess a brand’s sustainability and provide a deep insight into its ethical practices, especially with the help of which carbon footprints, energy consumption and water usage could be highlighted.

Life cycle assessment is used to evaluate the environmental impact of any brand, where several activities are run during the entire production, the consumption cycle, and the disposal. It helps deliver insight into areas where the brand can improve sustainability.

Life cycle assessment is based on a systematic approach where every stage of a product’s life cycle is analyzed. Usually advanced LCA tools, the Open LCA & SIMAPRO focus upon brands’ comprehensive assessment and helps them align with a transparent approach and eco conscious method.

How To Improve Your Clothing Brand’s Sustainable Score

The connection between clothing brands and sustainability is considered the most influential in the fashion industry as it is the only factor attracting more & more consumers. Brands must engage themselves in incorporating certain factors to enhance their sustainable score. Here’s how.

Adopting Better Sourcing Practices

Raw materials in the industry play a key role in ensuring sustainability as, raw material is easily recycled & are biodegradable. Furthermore, the reliance on virgin renewable resources has a minimal impact on the environment, ensuring eco-friendliness while further enhancing credibility.

Reducing Carbon Footprint In Production

Carbon footprint in textile production boasts a major weightage in sustainability scores, so managing it effectively is one of the most compulsory steps for manufacturers. Reduced carbon emissions directly boost the brand’s eco-friendly credentials and conserve the environment.

Partnering With Ethical Suppliers

There are several suppliers & manufacturers in the apparel market who follow ethical practices & also consider fair trade certification as a step towards social engagement & to keep the environment impact-free. Partnering with such ethical suppliers takes clothing brands a step ahead in sustainability.

Conclusion: The Future Of Sustainable Fashion Brands

In this growing era, the demand for sustainable fashion is also increasing & environmentally conscious consumers are relying on the brand’s sustainability. To stay relevant, brands should use sustainable fashion methods to keep the environment safe & the industry can also evolve ethically