Meet the New Standard Institute
In 2013, former lawyer Maxine Bédat co-founded Zady, an online boutique dedicated to sustainable clothing lines. Long before transparency became a mainstream term, on Zady, detailed descriptions of its supply chain, from the farmers who grew the cotton to the women dyeing the fabric, accompanied each item’s listing. When Bédat couldn’t find a company that knew its supply chain as thoroughly as she wanted, all the way down to the raw materials, she decided to create one herself, launching a line of sustainable basics to sell on the site. “ And that’s when we started to discover the true impact of our clothing and how very few people were talking about it,” remembers Bédat.
It certainly shook things up. “We got all of this outreach, from customers but also from big brands saying “Thank you so much for putting this out; it really has helped our team understand our impact.” I shouldn’t have been shocked but I was. This isn’t just citizens not knowing; the brands themselves don’t have any idea either.” Zady was named one of the world’s “Most Innovative Companies” in retail by Fast Company; Bédat was picked by Oprah as one of her Super Soul 100, leaders elevating humanity. Almost more importantly, her experiences with Zady planted a seed for Bédat latest, ambitious venture: New Standard Institute, a ‘think and do tank working to transform the global apparel industry into a force for good.’
Almost every brand has launched some kind of plan for sustainability - yet very little seems to be shifting. Statistics are misty and old-world systems (of exponential growth and profit before all) are holding it back. Based on three vital pillars: Research, Activate and Accelerate, NSI works to enable fashion to achieve critical, science-based environmental and social objectives - and to unify fashion around those objectives. “There are still a lot of basics we don’t fully understand,” admits Bédat. “We need to have answers to these questions so that we can move beyond this very wishy washy world of sustainability to something with real drive and real purpose to exist; to have an industry that actually lives within planetary boundaries.”
Research - thorough, critical, ongoing - is the backbone to everything. “We look across impact categories and find out what information - academic literature and peer-reviewed reports - is already out there,” says Bédat. “A lot of the data comes from non-profit organisations - and some comes from very ‘for profit‘ organisations. We’ve tried to collect everything that circulates and rated it for reliability: gold standard being peer-reviewed and to ‘Do Not Use, caution’ - which would be facts that we cannot actually find a primary source for. Those are quite amazing because, if the internet says it and then one reliable source hasn’t fact checked it properly, it becomes very hard to close that Pandora’s box.”
Take the unverified statement that fashion is the second most polluting industry on the planet - or how many women there are working in the industry. Once all the information is collected, it will become - another important buzz word - open source. “The idea is that, once we’ve launched the information platform, anybody can suggest a contribution and we would review it to make sure it’s put in the right category,” says Bédat. “The hope is that NSI becomes a community tool that everyone from a brand to an influencer can use to make sure they’re not repeating false information.” So, no, although it is one of the worst, fashion is NOT the second most polluting industry on the planet.
Getting active
NSI takes place at a time when the clock for humans and animals on this planet appear to be running out. But, even with the most heartfelt intentions, most sustainability initiatives become ‘greenwashing’, white flags in high seas, when placed against the tonnage of new clothing being churned out on a daily basis. “It’s great that companies are making commitments but our job from the NGO community is to make sure that those commitments are actually being matched,” reflects Bédat. The pandemic hasn’t helped. “A lot of companies made 2020 commitments, which have quietly been passed by. There’s enough research around industry self regulation to show that it doesn’t work.”
There’s no surprise here. Without a standardised and legally binding framework to govern the information brands have to disclose - and with shareholders clamouring at their backs for dividends - it’s hard for brands, no matter how internally motivated, to make the right choices. “We need organisations and institutions to put the right kind of pressure on brands to make sure they’re creating a real commitment to action,” says Bedat. “And, to have more confidence in those commitments, we need transparency and disclosure from companies now. Because, currently, all we have are these big commitments but none of the companies are actually showing ‘this is where we are right now’ and ‘this is what we’re doing right now to get to that commitment’.”
A Roadmap to Rebuild for four major stakeholder group - citizens, media, SMEs and larger brands - is designed to transform intent into action. ”We developed a Master Class, a snapshot of the industry’s impact, from raw materials to end-of-life,” says Bedat. “Then we asked, well, we certainly know what the problems are - but what is it going to take for those problems to be addressed? That was when we began to think about stakeholders. There’s a lot of finger pointing, where brands may say, well, we need consumers to care and so we can only respond to consumer demands. But those consumers - or citizens - aren’t always told about the problems in the media so how are they expected to care?”
Hitting the deadline
With that statement, Bedat hits on an area of increasing scrutiny: fashion media’s role in this equation. So much fashion content is still being produced as if the world is not on fire. “We’re beginning to see an awakening,” muses Bedat. “In a democracy, the media plays a central role in informing citizens about the world. If the media is just presenting pretty products, citizens are less aware. Traditionally, you have fashion media and you have the business climate - and [this meant fashion] wasn’t getting scrutinised the way other industries were. The media plays a central role in telling the full story of fashion and that includes both the beauty and the creativity, but also how that’s come to be and what the industry is doing.”
To give the fashion press their dues, it’s not always easy. Wade through press releases proclaming some sort of sustainable initiative and language is, at best, vague and unspecific. The Roadmap gives an example: ‘only works with suppliers and factories that are certified in sustainable sourcing and practices.’ “We’d recommend following up on what certifications these suppliers/factories have, including sharing proff - a copy of the actual certificate from the certifying agency with the requisite details.” Standards themselves are often difficult: a Bluesign apporaved textile could assure safe use of chemicals within a textile mill but with limiless use of synthetic pesticides on the farm.
Forget Paris’ utopian goal of 2050; like all other even moderately serious attempts to mitigate the climate emergency - such as the European Commission’s pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and Boris Johnson’s target of 68% reductions in the same time frame - 2030 is NSI’s pole in the ground for action. “If a company is making a commitment to 2050, they’re kicking the can down the road,” shrugs Bedat. “The executives who are putting these targets in place probably won’t even be executives by then. 2030 is the turning point for climate scientists. Fast fashion companies that say they’re working on it and that we’ll see progress soon, well, we need progress now. This is just a matter of simple maths.”
A countdown on the NSI shows that we have just over 3,000 days to save the world. Three thousand days; under 10 years, during which time we have to stop humans from decimating wildlife, churning out greenhouse gases, devouring natural resources and throwing everything we use into landfill, incinerators or the ocean. “We just have to roll up our sleeves and figure this out,” says Bedat. “It’s not to say ‘down with all industry.’ All of this stuff is highly accessible but the industry is not addressing it. It’s a matter of going into the mills, working with suppliers, making sure they’re running energy efficiently and that they‘re running on renewable energy. This is not rocket science. It’s not even that expensive. It’s just a matter of will.”
”We cannot afford to wait until 2030 to find out if the world has achieved its sustainability goals. By then it will be too late.
