Fashion brands grapple with greenwashing: ‘It’s not a human right to say something is sustainable’

There is a broad greenwashing crackdown across the fashion industry, as regulators around the world try to figure out how to address misleading environmental product claims. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

In Singapore at the start of the month, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition – a non-profit alliance that makes up over half the global apparel and footwear industry – convened for their annual meeting. There was one big question on attendees’ minds: how would the coalition respond to claims of greenwashing?

In June, the use of a tool the coalition had spent a decade building in order to measure the industry’s environmental impacts was paused after the Norwegian Consumer Authority issued a warning that it could not be used to support sustainability claims. By then some major players – including Adidas and Kering – had already opted out of using the tool, called the Higg MSI, with Kering citing concerns about the accuracy of the data.