Conscious Style Podcast
Elizabeth Joy, Stella Hertantyo
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95) Carbon Offsetting: Green or Greenwashing?
Carbon neutral. Net zero. Carbon positive. You may have been seeing more and more claims like these lately from companies, including fashion brands. But in today's Green or Greenwashing episode, we’re diving deeper, beyond the surface of these claims, to see if they really can be trusted. Many of these carbon neutrality claims are asserted based on the company purchasing carbon offsets. This episode was inspired by the UK watchdog, Advertising Standards Authority, recently banning advertisements that claim products are carbon neutral through using offsets due to a growing concern that these claims are misleading consumers. This isn’t just about the fashion industry, but in case you missed it: many fashion brands are using these sorts of claims, especially as global awareness grows around fashion's environmental impact, including its carbon emissions. You may have seen various estimates of fashion's contribution to global carbon emissions ranging from 2 to 10 percent. The Apparel Impact Institute’s latest report puts that number at 1.8 percent. The reality is that the majority of fashion brands do not disclose their full emissions. Fashion Revolution's 2023 Transparency Index found that less than half (43 percent) of brands publish their annual value chain carbon emissions. So we're at the basics here. Over half of brands aren't even telling us what their carbon emissions are. When Fashion Revolution says “value chain”, they mean the full supply chain. So not just the corporate offices, but how these brands make their clothes. Many factories involved with textile production and garment and footwear production are still reliant on fossil fuels, like coal. About two-thirds of textiles are fossil fuel-derived synthetics like polyester. Brands are reliant on polluting shipping methods, and some — especially fast fashion brands — use the speedy but very carbon-intensive shipping method of air freight. So fashion should absolutely be talking about reaching carbon neutrality and decarbonization. But the question is: should their method of using carbon offsets be celebrated? Let’s get into the episode!
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