Meanwhile in the realm of humans, mighty nations and comfortable individuals stand on small rises, wishing for bigger antlers. 

The birds got to sing and dance. The moose had to grow a huge unwieldy rack and bash heads with it. Maybe once, back in the evolutionary mists, a less elaborate version of that strategy had made some sense. But now he would rather be a bird.

Meanwhile in the realm of humans, mighty nations and comfortable individuals stand on small rises, wishing for bigger antlers. 

They imagine themselves to be the crowning achievements of evolution. And yet no level of magnificence seems to be enough. They are convinced that status depends on becoming ever richer and more powerful, controlling and exploiting more resources, possessing more impressive and intimidating equipment. 

Maybe once, back in the cultural mists, a less elaborate version of that strategy had made some sense. But now it’s mostly disagreeable, inefficient, unfair and incompatible with life on a planet that has declining tolerance for expanding demands.

This is an excerpt from A\J’s Fashion issue

To read the full column, order the Fasion issue to subscribe today.
 

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Electric vehicles would not only lower carbon emissions, but also make our cities quieter and cleaner places. But hardcore science has always had some trouble with this pleasant illusion, given all the energy and materials needed to make an electric car in the first place.

For years now, greens have touted electric cars as a cardinal solution to the world’s problems.

Electric vehicles would not only lower carbon emissions, but also make our cities quieter and cleaner places. But hardcore science has always had some trouble with this pleasant illusion, given all the energy and materials needed to make an electric car in the first place.

Several recent studies have added another obvious qualifier: Electric vehicles can only make a difference on the carbon front if are they powered by low-carbon electricity over their lifetime. And that turns out to be a rare commodity in many places.

Electric vehicles can only make a difference on the carbon front if are they powered by low-carbon electricity over their lifetime.

Let’s begin with manufacturing emissions, because that’s where electric cars have a big problem. It simply takes about twice as much energy to make an electric vehicle as it does a gas-powered one on a per-kilometre basis. And that’s because electric cars have battery issues and lower lifetime mileage. (Cold weather is a killer for electric batteries.)

In fact, the total embedded CO₂ for the making of a gasoline-powered car is 5.6 tonnes. By contrast, it takes 8.8 tonnes to make an electric vehicle and the battery accounts for nearly half of that. 

So electric vehicles arrive on the street with a higher carbon footprint even before you plug them in. And that footprint gets uglier if the electricity comes from coal-fired power.

A clever British study on electric vehicles captured the nuances with an apt title: Shades of Green. In 2013, the report concluded that electric vehicles juiced by coal-fired generation had four times the carbon emissions of vehicles fueled by low-carbon electricity such as hydro dams, geothermal and nuclear power. 

As a consequence, Paraguay, Iceland, Sweden and Brazil topped the list as the greenest and most sensible places on Earth to drive an electric car. 

In contrast, coal-fired India, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia and China ranked as the worst possible countries to champion electric vehicles. Thanks to coal emissions, driving an electric car in these places was just as polluting – or more so – than owning a gas guzzler.

Electric vehicles arrive on the street with a higher carbon footprint even before you plug them in.

The British study also found that the 10 countries with the lowest emissions for electric cars largely depended on hydroelectricity. The select list included the Congo, Norway, Nepal, Mozambique and, yes, Tajikistan. (Dams, of course, have their own ecological cost.)

A new 2015 study by Christopher Kennedy, a University of Toronto civil engineer, highlighted just why low-carbon electricity matters so much. Kennedy calculated that electric cars, high-speed rail and geothermal heating all come to naught unless the electricity powering those green items falls way below a threshold of 600 tonnes of CO₂ for every gigawatt hour of electricity generated. (A gigawatt hour is a massive unit of energy equal to one billion watt-hours.)

Six hundred is an important number because at that threshold, electric and gasoline-powered cars have equivalent life cycle carbon emissions and remain climate disasters. Only four Canadian provinces, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec have beat that target: their hydro and nuclear power delivers electrons to the grid at an amazing 20 tonnes of CO₂ produced for every gigawatt hour. But coal-fired Alberta and Saskatchewan are another story. Their juice comes with a dirty footprint of 750 tonnes or greater.

To date, the research supports a few clear conclusions. Electric cars aren’t a panacea or even a stand-alone technology for carbon reduction. But when paired with low-carbon sources of gigawatts, electric vehicles can make a significant difference in some parts of the world.

In other words, public policy that adds more green power to the grid and removes cars of any kind from the street is probably the way to go. 

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In January, Greenpeace obtained an RCMP report that identified the “anti-petroleum movement” as a growing and violent threat to Canada’s security. This movement is, the RCMP says, foreign funded, highly organized and “consists of peaceful activists, militants and violent extremists who are opposed to society’s reliance on fossil fuels.”

Wording in the report repeatedly casts doubt on the scientific basis of climate change and indicates that citizens concerned with it are on the political fringe. The report warns that “violent anti-petroleum extremists will continue to engage in criminal activity to promote their anti-petroleum ideology.”

In his Greenpeace blog, Keith Stewart says that it “identifies anyone who is concerned about climate change as a potential … anti-petroleum extremist.” That would likely include US president Barack Obama, who in February called climate change an urgent and growing threat.

Also in January, the Harper government tabled Bill C-51 – the Anti-Terrorism Act. The bill gives expanded powers to Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to gather information about Canadians and share it with numerous other departments and agencies.

Most of the activities listed in the bill are already illegal. But the bill adds interference with “critical infrastructure” and “the economic or financial stability of Canada” to more established threats such as terrorism, espionage and proliferation of nuclear and biological weapons. This raises concerns that the bill is targeted at First Nations and environmental groups. The accusation of interfering with the economic stability of Canada could fall on an entrepreneur who develops a technology for cheap, clean energy, as that could be seen as interfering with the fossil fuel economy.

Critics of the bill claim that it will grant police powers to CSIS, an intelligence agency – a fundamentally anti-democratic move given that CSIS works in secret and without parliamentary oversight. In fact, CSIS was created deliberately in order to separate spying from policing and keep police powers transparent and accountable to the public. Instead, CSIS will be allowed to violate citizens’ Charter rights via warrants obtained during secret hearings where only government representatives will be present. The agency will also have the vague power to “disrupt” threats of terrorism, but it is not clear whether that includes the power to detain and interrogate.

Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien made a submission on Bill C-51 to the House of Commons public safety committee in March. He called the legislation excessive, saying it provides no recourse for those who could be victims of improper applications of it. Therrien, Canada’s privacy watchdog, was not even invited to testify during rushed hearings in which the majority Conservative members of the safety committee used the venue to attack the credibility of the witnesses who were allowed to testify.

Law professors Kent Roach and Craig Forcese produced over 200 pages of analysis on the bill and presented their findings to the Senate in April. The pair “beseech” the government to remove the ability of CSIS to contravene the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, saying that this power exceeds any given to similar agencies among Canada’s allies.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May points out, “We already have anti-terror laws.” She says Bill C-51 is not about terrorism, it’s about creating a secret police. She calls it the death of freedom.

The bill was passed by the Senate in June. 

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At the corner of Jane and Steeles, tucked between York University and Toronto’s Jane-Finch neighbourhood, Black Creek Community Farm (BCCF) is using local food to fuel a social justice movement. Launched in July 2013, BCCF is the largest urban farm in Toronto, growing over 60 kinds of crops, including amaranth, squash, root vegetables and a variety of peppers, on 2.8 hectares of land rented from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

BCCF’s location in Jane-Finch is vital to its mission. Nearly three-quarters of this community’s population are visible minorities and more than one-third of residents live in low-income housing. Jane-Finch has been marginalized and stigmatized for decades by high crime rates and socioeconomic challenges. As a collaborative and immersive educational project, BCCF aims to provide affordable, healthy and culturally appropriate food to Jane-Finch residents while also addressing the challenges facing this neighbourhood.

BCCF is run by Everdale, a not-for-profit farmer-training organization, in collaboration with FoodShare Toronto, Afri-Can Food Basket and Fresh City Farms. Everdale’s mission is to use a hands-on, farm-based approach to building healthy communities. Launching a farm at Jane and Finch has helped tie social justice to local food: BCCF aims to address food insecurity in the neighbourhood not only by providing access to fresh produce, but by making community members central to the farm’s direction and operations. BCCF also serves as a space to tackle racism and oppression in the food system and sees local food as a key component to addressing both issues. 

At time of press, A\J was notified that the relationship between Everdale and BCCF is in flux. We will provide online updates as more information becomes available.

This is an excerpt from A\J’s Fashion issue

Learn more about the largest urban farm in Toronto and why it matters. Order the Fasion issue to subscribe today to learn more.
 

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Suzy Amis Cameron is a dynamo. With a successful acting and modeling career already under her belt, she is taking on even more roles. She is a global environmental activist, founding director of the ecoconscious MUSE schools, mom to four children and wife to megadirector James Cameron (Avatar, Titanic). 

One of her most well-known projects is Red Carpet Green Dress, an annual event that challenges fashion designers from around the world to come up with an environmentally friendly dress or tuxedo to be worn by celebrities at the Oscars in Los Angeles. Now in its sixth year, the contest not only builds awareness for the ecofashion industry but also raises money for MUSE schools. This year’s winners are Manon Gabard and Tingting Chen, both fashion students at ESMOD-ISEM in Paris.

Gina and Jake on the Oscar carpet.
Image courtesy of A.M.P.A.S.

The stunning blue dress worn by Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) was made with fair-trade peace silk produced without harming the moths and dyed with low-impact pigments. The tuxedo worn by Jake McDorman (American Sniper) was made with hemp silk and plant-dyed pea silk. His whole outfit was sustainable, right down to his hemp boxers.

Amis Cameron spoke to Jessica Burman from Manhattan, in March.

Jessica Burman: What challenges do ecofashion companies face?

Suzy Amis Cameron: Scale is an issue. We’ve been talking to quite a few people about how we can do it. The Ethical Fashion Forum has an amazing database of fabrics, mills and people who dye clothes from all over the world, so I think that there is a way. Reformation, whom Red Carpet Green Dress just partnered with for a collection of six dresses, gets remnants from the big companies who will buy enough fabric to produce, say 20,000 pairs of black pants and will inevitably have thousands of metres leftover. Reformation purchases this fabric at a lower cost and then they might be able to produce 500 pieces from it.

They don’t work seasonally with a summer or winter line. They churn out clothes every month, so if you see something in their store that you want, you had better grab it because it won’t be there in a month’s time. Even their factory is environmentally friendly, with a heat-reflecting roof and a garden in the back. The CEO, Yael Alfalo, is very conscientious, as is everybody who works there. It’s very refreshing.

What do you look for in a Red Carpet Green Dress design?

A variety of things. The look is one thing, but more important is the thought behind the material being used and the process employed. People will send very detailed information about where the fabric comes from, how it’s manufactured, how it’s dyed, sometimes using a zero-waste design where they’re using all the material. There’s a lot of waste in regular fashion. We look for things like reused or repurposed beads, buttons and zippers. All of those elements combined enter into the discussion.

What impact has Red Carpet Green Dress had on the ecofashion industry?

Every year we’ve been able to generate more and more press. It’s been interesting to watch the ecofashion world evolve over the last six years. The first year I did the event, I had planned to do it just that one time, but as I got into it, I realized how difficult it is to source sustainable fabric and dyes. I actually pulled together a group of people involved in ecofashion to brainstorm about these challenges. At first, I would say that there were about six or seven top ecodesigners with their own little mom-and-pop shops, but that number has tripled if not quadrupled since then.

What advice do you have for dressing sustainably?

People often ask me if I dress in an environmentally friendly way every single day. I do my best but there aren’t a lot of choices out there. When I do invest in a piece of clothing, I make sure that it’s something I can wear until I’m 80 years old. When I was 17 and immersed in the fashion world as a model, I started buying clothes with simple, classic lines that I still wear today. That’s one way to look at it, instead of having the right pant leg of the season.

What do you hope to see happen in the ecofashion industry?

I would love to see more of the household-name designers making a difference; however, big names such as Vivienne Westwood will put out a small eco collection and then end up getting attacked about the rest of their line [not being sustainable]. At least they’re taking a step! I’m hoping someone is going to make a line of sustainable clothes that we can wear every single day. Who knows, it might be me.

I hope people will start to look at what they put on their body from both a health standpoint and an environmental standpoint. The effects of fashion on our biosphere are devastating and the chemicals being used to dye the clothes are endocrine disruptors. Making the choice to change the way you dress is a win-win situation for you and the planet. 

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While many clothing companies work to lessen the negative social and environmental impacts of their brands, some designers aim higher. These advocates hope to generate a net positive impact through their revolutionary fashion designs and campaigns around the world.

HAITI  REBUILD globally is a not-for-profit organization founded after the Haiti earthquake in 2010. The organization aims to end poverty through its fashion brand and apprenticeship program, Deux Mains Designs, which employs Haitian artisans to handmake sandals using upcycled tires. To date, the organization has ensured that all participants in the apprenticeship program pass Haiti’s national exams, and financed full-time schooling for 31 children.

TORONTO  Me to We Style was established on the belief that consumers can change the world through ethical purchasing decisions. Created by Oliver Madison and Free the Children founders Craig and Marc Kielburger in 2005, Me to We Style offers items produced with more sustainable fabrics such as organic cotton and viscose from bamboo. Half of annual profits are donated to Free the Children and a tree is planted in the Maasai region in Kenya for every piece of apparel sold. 

TORONTO  Artist, fashion designer, photographer and activist Marie Copps created the Queen of the Arctic campaign to support the Save the Arctic Movement and raise awareness of oil exploration and drilling in fragile arctic regions. The photos feature Miss Earth Canada 2013, Sofiya Chorniy. 

Find out how to win one of three $150 Me to We prize packs!

Check out more designers profiles in the print issue, including: Project Hazina, Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood’s Climate Revolution, 4Love Clothing, Suzy Amis Cameron’s Red Carpet Green Dress, Chanel and Tentree.

This is an excerpt from A\J’s Fashion issue

Get the full tour of net positive fashion including stops in Regina and London, UK. Order the Fasion issue to subscribe today.
 

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The world of eyewear is rife with mass-produced, label-driven brands, but if you search beyond the nearest chain or big-box store, you will likely find some truly remarkable glasses. As the buyer for Insight Eye Care, an independent optometry and optical boutique in Waterloo, Ontario, I have had the opportunity to meet creative designers from all over the world
who appreciate quality, environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

In 2004, brothers Zack and Zoltan of Vinylize Eyewear in Hungary began creating functional pieces of eyewear art with reused materials. Their first line of frames was inspired by their father’s record collection and made with vinyl salvaged from Budapest flea markets. Today, the brothers continue to upcycle old vinyl for their timeless eyewear, producing not only artistic, environmentally conscious frames, but practical glasses that have a long lifespan. A quality, handcrafted frame will typically produce less waste because the product has integrity and longevity. Many mass-produced frames lack such durability and consumers often face another purchase sooner than expected.

Vinylize, Toney, $460, vinylize.com

Completely new ideas are rare in the fashion industry. More often than not, designers simply tweak an existing style or trend. For instance, many eyewear companies are now creating frames from wood – but ROLF Spectacles is doing it better. This family-run company based in Austria began making eyewear by reconfiguring a milking machine, moped brakes and old cylinders into a crafty device for frame construction. ROLF is now winning design awards for spectacles made from 20 different kinds of wood, including bog oak, walnut and pepper beech ethically sourced through European suppliers.

ROLF, Foursome 102, $1168, rolf-spectacles.com

For this company, working with wood is not about being trendy, but about trend-setting by using sustainable natural materials to produce a technologically advanced and functional work of art. ROLF frames, for example, have no metal components. In preparation for the release of their inaugural collection, they tested 75 different hinge types before finding a design that highlights craftsmanship and quality.

When I first viewed the ROLF collection, in a handcrafted booth in Milan, I felt like I was stepping into a cottage full of family and friends. One of their European sales representatives offered me a beer and introduced me to Roland Wolf, one of the four founders. Choosing eyewear from ROLF Spectacles is like buying produce from farmers you know and trust – people who care about quality and building relationships.

Another company that pays attention to its ecological footprint is Zeal Optics. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Zeal is the only company in the world to use plant-based materials in 100 percent of their sunglass frames. A few of their models are even made entirely from US-grown cotton, resulting in a product that is completely biodegradable. The cotton-based material, once purified into a mouldable resin, will biodegrade in anaerobic (zero-oxygen) environments. During its oxygenated lifetime, the frame looks and functions like any other high-quality plastic – yet 18 months in a landfill or at the bottom of a lake and it is gone.

Zeal, Memphis, $179, zealoptics.com

Zeal lens plastic is produced using castor beans rather than crude oil, thereby raising the company’s global responsibility to a whole new level – 5,480 to be precise. That is how high, in feet (1,670 metres), Zeal’s home base sits above sea level in Colorado and how many trees Zeal plants each year.

Zeal not only aims to change the eyewear industry with its sustainable practices in manufacturing, but the company is also working toward change in individual lives and communities all over the world. You can follow Zeal’s #exploremore on Instagram, Twitter and the Zeal blog, as an array of “Ambassadors” – athletes, explorers and creatives who exemplify the company’s culture – chronicle their adventures around the world, all through Zeal lenses, of course. For example, Insight Eye Care introduced Zeal Optics to a father-son duo who are travelling through the Canadian wilderness and sharing their journey on their website, explorethebackcountry.com. Zeal has also partnered with not-for-profits such as Second Mile Water, 5 Gyres Institute and Protect Our Winters to address climate change, plastic pollution and access to safe drinking water.

Designers like Vinylize, ROLF Spectacles and Zeal Optics are making waves in the optical industry by choosing strong environmental platforms without compromising on quality and style. As a buyer, it is refreshing to connect with designers who share my values. If you have a heart for environmental sustainability and an eye (or two) for fashionable spectacles, you should introduce yourself to upcycled vinyl from Vinylize, wooden frames from ROLF or biodegradable sunglasses from Zeal. 

While there’s not yet an ecolabel for eyewear, there’s an ecofriendly style to suit a range of budgets. Learn more about ethical spectacles by visiting a local independent optical boutique and exploring your options. Ask the staff a lot of questions about the lines they carry and what sustainability features they offer. Most quality brands have a story. Find the one that speaks to you.  

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H&M was the first major retailer to establish a garment collection program to reclaim used clothes. Some donated items are currently recycled into yarn for new garments. H&M hopes to soon make clothing with 100-per-cent-recycled yarn.

H&M

H&M was the first major retailer to establish a garment collection program to reclaim used clothes. Some donated items are currently recycled into yarn for new garments. H&M hopes to soon make clothing with 100-per-cent-recycled yarn.

In collaboration with World Wildlife Fund, H&M is also reducing water consumption throughout its supply chain, from better cotton-growing practices to water-savvy laundry instructions on all products. H&M’s Conscious collection, identified with green hang tags, offers customers easy-to-spot sustainable and socially responsible garments. Find out more about H&M’s sustainability achievements and processes in their annual sustainability report. 

Patagonia

Patagonia has used polyester fleece recycled from PET bottles since 1993. As of 2014, all of their down products use 100-percent-traceable down from humane farms. Patagonia’s Fair Trade Certified collection, also introduced in 2014, ensures premium wages for garment workers and their Footprint Chronicles offer transparency about their entire supply chain. Patagonia’s Worn Wear program and iFixit partnership also encourage repairing over discarding their garments.

Nike

Created so that their product creation teams can make more sustainable design choices, Nike’s Considered Design Index aims to reduce waste and toxins in Nike apparel, footwear and equipment. The Index assesses the environmental footprint of Nike products, in terms of solvent use, waste, materials and energy.

Nike is also addressing workplace conditions in its supply chain by establishing and enforcing codes of conduct and collaborating with governments, manufacturers and other stakeholders to affect industry-wide change.

Levi Strauss & Co.

Levi Strauss & Co. made recent headlines when CEO Chip Bergh advised consumers to never wash their jeans. Consistent with Levi’s broader sustainability initiatives, Bergh says spot cleaning is better for both the denim and the environment. 

Icebreaker

Among other initiatives, Icebreaker places great importance on the treatment of the merino sheep that produce wool for their products. The workers raising the free-range sheep in New Zealand’s Southern Alps follow Icebreaker’s strict welfare code. Icebreaker provides customer visibility into these practices through their Baacode program. Each garment is labelled with a code that can be used to trace the wool back to its source, allowing customers to see the sheep who produced it and the growers who raised them.

Eileen Fisher

Popular American women’s wear brand Eileen Fisher, available at stores across Canada, offers garments made with natural dyes and sustainable fibres such as hemp and organic linen. The company also works toward community development and fair wages throughout its supply chain.

Mountain Equipment Co-op

MEC produces an annual scorecard summarizing their performance in terms of the environmental and social impacts of their products and factories, as well as the well-being of workers. Categorized into five sections, the scorecard indicates whether yearly targets were achieved and what the next goals are. The summary is emailed to all members and is available for download on their website.

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Think back to the old folk tale “The Little Red Hen.” In the tale, the red hen’s friends sit idly while she grows the wheat to get the grain to make the flour that eventually makes the bread – that, of course, all the animals want to eat. The moral of the story is contribution and collaboration, but the tale has further meaning to us today. We place high value on convenience and accessibility, both in our food and in our clothes. A new wool sweater looks good on the sale rack, but would we still want it if we had to spin the wool and knit it ourselves?

Thanks in part to a boom in production after the Second World War – and automatic washing machines – fashion has become less expensive and more plentiful, while laundering time and effort have plummeted. But the increased convenience of purchasing and cleaning our clothes has fuelled our consumption habits and contributed to environmental and social harms worldwide. Before you run off to a naturist group, consider the following ways to reduce your fashion footprint.

How many items do you have in your closet? 
According to Elizabeth Cline, author of The Good Closet and Overdressed, in 1930, the average woman in the United States owned a total of nine outfits. Today, the average woman buys 60 new items of clothing each year. With a shelf life of about 3.5 years for each item, that amounts to over 200 items per woman at any given time. 

Inventory your closet

Count all the clothes in your own closet. The results might scare you – but keep going. Include the shoes, belts, undergarments and other accessories. Write it all down: 20 pairs of socks, five belts, three pairs of jeans and so on. If you haven’t worn any of these items in the past year, they’ll need to go. We’re looking at you, Professor Emeriti. How many tweed jackets are stashed in your closet? Enough to make a hipster say “deck”?

Now make some goals. How much of this inventory can you eliminate? What is the minimum number of each item you can live with? (No one needs more than three fun-run shirts at any given time.) You might also note where your clothes were manufactured and if any items carry eco- or fair-trade labels or other messaging. 

Apply the 6Rs of fashion

Eco-stain be gone! Counting all the clothes in your closet may be humbling, but the 6Rs will help rub out that garment-hoarding guilt.

1. Repurpose Turn old socks into puppets or toys for your pet iguana. Shred that worn-out “I climbed the CN Tower for WWF” shirt into cleaning cloths.

2. Restyle Remember the wool sweater you accidentally felted by putting it in the dryer? Cut off the sleeves and you’ll have stylish leg warmers – or make DIY Sweater Mittens!

3. Reclaim Pass on your treasures by organizing a clothing swap with friends or neighbours. Buy and sell clothes at a consignment or thrift shop. 

4. Repair Dust off your grandmother’s darning egg and fix those holey socks tucked in the back of your drawer. Online DIY videos can walk you through a range of clothing repairs.

5. Replace Don’t just add a new piece of clothing to your closet. Choose a languishing item already there, replace it with your new find – then use the first four Rs to send old clothes on a new journey.

6. Rent Rather than buy a new outfit for a special occasion, consider renting. A number of online stores offer this service, including Toronto-based companies Rent Frock Repeat and Your Favourite Dresses. 

Limit your laundering

With many so-called sustainable fashion initiatives out there, knowing where to shop can be confusing. Some companies have installed solar panels but fail to pay their workers fair wages. Others promote sustainable fabrics but also create 52 microseasons of clothing a year to encourage consumption. Still other companies make public commitments to reduce hazardous chemicals in their supply chain but do not follow through on promises. Who can you trust?

Recent life cycle analyses show that the biggest environmental impact from clothes stems from the laundering process – especially drying. Levis Strauss & Co., for example, found that 60 percent of the climate impact of a pair of 501 jeans occurs in the hands of the consumer, and 80 percent of that from tumble drying. Fashion sustainability expert Kate Fletcher reports that, on average, 82 percent of energy use and half of air emissions from a piece of clothing come from laundering.  So when you next head for the laundry bin, think carefully: Do I really need to put that shirt in the wash? Can I spot clean it or simply air it out instead?

RELATED: A Better Kind of Green Washing

Cut through the greenwashing 

The Ecolabel Index provides some guidance, but also lists 109 different ecolabels for the textile industry alone (buy our Fashion issue to see our top recommended Ecolabels). The Greenpeace campaign Detox Catwalk, which aims to eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals in clothing manufacturing, also rates companies as Leaders, Greenwashers or Laggards in terms of transparency and follow-through on detox commitments. And in 2013, Greenpeace International tested 82 children’s textile products purchased in 25 countries. Their findings were published in a report called “A Little Story About the Monsters In Your Closet,” which includes the chemicals they discovered and what brands they were detected in.

We’ve expanded on tips from Huffington Post blogger Ava Anderson to suggest six key ways to beat greenwashing: 

1. Don’t be persuaded by fancy clothing labels or alluring advertising. Look for specifics about sustainability and labour practices, rather than broad claims.

RELATED: See how Patagonia and Icebreaker do this in Big Brands Try Sustainability on for Size

2. Learn which textiles have a lower environmental impact – organic cotton, recycled polyester, linen, bamboo and wool, for instance – and which should be avoided.

3. Support your local indie clothing stores. It is much easier to ask them questions about the origin of clothes because they are generally more involved in the supply chain. Building a relationship with a specific store also builds trust.

4. Avoid getting drawn into celebrity endorsements. 

5. Start a movement – wear your clothes inside out to increase awareness of clothing labels.

6. Most importantly, ask questions at the point of purchase – the more questions asked, the more things will change. Demand transparency when buying new clothes (and we don’t mean mesh singlets!).

Create a YOUniform

Rather than follow fashion trends, develop your personal style. In the words of Coco Chanel, “Fashion fades – style remains.” Chances are Coco would be unimpressed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s choice to wear only hoodies, t-shirts and jeans. Nonetheless, Zuckerberg – like Steve Jobs with his black mock turtlenecks, jeans and running shoes – has created a “YOUniform.”

While a YOUniform won’t inherently lower your clothing footprint, it does lower the impulse to renew your wardrobe each season to match the latest trends. The YOUniform may also eliminate clutter from your closet and from your daily regime. Barack Obama wears only two colours of suits because he wants to pare down decisions, according to an interview in Vanity Fair: “I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”

Last but not least, a YOUniform allows you to create and display your own personal style, even define your personal brand. Johnny Cash was the man in black. What will your YOUniform be?

Use The Ultimate Eco-Conscious Shopping Decision Maker to put all this advice into action:

Original concept by bloggers Anuschka Rees (into-mind.com), and Emma Vitz (thiskindchoice.com).

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