At times it is incredibly hard to be optimistic about the fashion industry, with its £1 bikinis and £0 boots. Fashion is the world’s second-largest industrial polluter, accounting for 10% of carbon emissions. Microscopic fibres from synthetic clothing are now found in waterways and food chains, while piles of unwanted clothing dumped in countries such as Ghana are so big they can be seen from space. Despite all this, the cycle of newness and shopping continues.
When an email arrived in my inbox from Fashion Revolution, the non-profit social enterprise founded in the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza factory disaster, I was curious. The group has become the world’s largest fashion activism movement. In the decade since it started campaigning, it has sparked an international movement with its Who Made My Clothes? campaign and launched the Fashion Transparency index to measure how open and accountable major fashion brands are about their human rights and environmental practices. But, for all of its efforts, greenwashing in the wider industry remains rife – particularly in April, around Earth Day. So, how much has actually changed?
Guardian asked experts what there is to be positive about.