The tenants of fashion are this: produce as much volume as possible to lower costs and increase your profits. Economies of scale in fashion means making 100,000,000 units with maybe a dollar or two in profit per each unit. Margins are tight along the way, so you have to make a lot, to make a lot of profit. That also means lowering cost at every point in the supply chain, from labor to materials to freight and packaging and so on.
It is against the rules of fashion to choose sustainable options. You can read differently; there’s tons of articles about how sustainability will impact the bottom line long term and so on. But the truth is that at least for the next decade, and most likely longer, making these choices will not make the company more money, and will lower their profit margins.
Read Emily’s latest LinkedIn Article for her thoughts on the juxtaposition between business and sustainability.