Key takeaways:
Luxury fashion and fragrance companies used sustainability-related terms in their 2018 annual corporate reports six times as often as they did 12 years ago, reflecting the importance of the issue to their customers.
The rate of growth in mentions of eco-friendly terms has slowed in recent years as companies grapple with a long-term solution to sustainability issues.
Sustainability is very much in vogue — at least in the corporate lexicon. High-end fashion and fragrance companies used the words “sustainable” or “sustainability” at least once every four pages in their 2018 annual reports, according to a Vogue Business analysis of the financial documents released by ten industry giants.
This is six times as often as the same reports 12 years ago when the terms appeared once every 25 pages. The upward trend has continued even as many fashion companies now publish separate sustainability and social responsibility reports.
The boom began in 2014 when the rate grew to 13 mentions for every 100 pages. Kering, in particular, used the terms 50 times that year in a 39-page report. Among the highlights: its crocodile conservation and sustainable use programme and a partnership with the London College of Fashion to encourage young designers to pivot towards sustainability.
The words “environment” and “environmental” has been commonly used for longer. The terms are also historically used at a higher frequency in writing and were used as often in 2008 as sustainability-related words are now. Environment consciousness in corporate speak peaked in 2015 when it appeared in two out of every five pages in annual reports.
Fashion brands have been reluctant to talk about sustainability. One reason is that they fear being accused of “greenwashing”, says Sebastian Boger, partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group. Thus, the rise of the words reflects how the sustainability movement has gained momentum. Nearly three-quarters of consumers globally say they would change where they shop if it reduced their environmental impact, according to a 2018 Nielsen survey.
But growth of these mentions is slowing, which echoes worries that the industry is not moving fast enough. Progress made by fashion firms in adopting certain sustainability recommendations has slowed by a third in the past year, according to the most recent Pulse of the Fashion Industry report. “Most of the leading players had already a couple of years ago pulled the levers [that were technically possible and made financial sense],” says Boger, one of the report’s authors.
The hesitance suggests the future of eco-friendly fashion is still up in the air. “Sustainability is a pretty broad word, and I could almost say that nobody in this industry knows what the end goal looks like,” says Boger. “Does it mean that you have circular consumption or that high-quality production means products last much longer?”
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