Over the past few years, we’ve spent a lot of time warning about greenwashing in fashion – brands using sustainability buzzwords to make their products seem more eco-friendly than they actually are.
Lately, we’ve noticed greenwashing has become less and less of an issue. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean fashion is becoming more sustainable. Rather than becoming more sustainable to live up to their marketing, brands are dropping sustainability initiatives all together.
Many companies are pushing their targets back by decades, and some are eliminating them altogether. Sustainability, once a major point of pride for many brands, is beginning to disappear from the conversation.
There are a few big reasons for this. We see three major forces at work: politics, affordability, and accountability – all of which are woven together.
Accountability in the Fashion Industry
There is no universal sustainability standard to which companies should adhere. Brands establish their own goals and (especially in the US), much of the responsibility for reporting progress is voluntary.
The first goal of any for-profit business is to make money. Without regulations or accountability, it’s easy for environmental and labor commitments to be pushed aside in favor of profitability.
During the pandemic, when no one was shopping and stores were shuttered, the wastefulness of the fashion industry was laid bare. There was a moment of optimism about where the fashion industry could go. Companies promised to reduce their footprint, raise their labor standards and become more transparent about their supply chains. In dark times, that was a bright spot.
However, making a promise and keeping one are two different things.
When brands miss their own sustainability targets, there’s usually no consequence beyond public criticism. If they stop reporting progress altogether, customers have even less information to hold brands accountable.
As customers, we can ask questions and vote with our dollars, but regulating a global industry is beyond our reach.
The Politics of Sustainable Fashion
The political landscape has changed, too.
Since returning to office in 2025, President Trump has moved U.S. environmental policy away from many federal climate initiatives. His administration withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement and has pursued broad deregulation of environmental policy.
Beyond the impacts to federal agencies, these political decisions shape how businesses plan for the years ahead.
In addition to deprioritizing climate work, Trump’s trade policies created challenges for the global market, putting pressure on both households and businesses to keep costs down.
This brings us to one of sustainable fashion’s biggest hurdles: affordability.
Many brands have been innovative with fabrics and circular strategies, only to find that the profit margins are untenable. They can be creative and resourceful until the cows come home, but if shoppers can’t or won’t pay the premium for better materials and production practices, companies have a powerful incentive to return to what sells.
Buying Clothes During an Affordability Crisis
We do not believe it’s fair to put the responsibility for fixing fashion on consumers. When groceries, housing, childcare, healthcare, and other necessities are expensive, asking someone to spend substantially more on a sustainably made shirt is completely disconnected from reality.
As the affordability crisis intensifies, we’re surrounded by an online culture influencing us to buy more, faster, and cheaper. The result is a contradiction: even as we struggle against the rising costs of everything, our consumption and waste are increasing.
Globally, approximately 92 million tons of textile waste ends up in landfills every year. Clothing production doubled between 200 and 2015, while the amount of time garments were used declined by 36%.
The consequences extend far beyond landfills. The people making our clothes are also increasingly exposed to the effects of climate change, including dangerous extreme heat in major garment producing regions.
And yet consumption continues to rise, with ultra-fast-fashion companies making it cheap and easy to buy new clothes.
Between low prices, influencer culture, endless microtrends and the little dopamine hit that comes from buying something online after a terrible day, we’re asking individuals to fight against a mighty system.
This is why we believe sustainable fashion needs more than marketing and good intentions. We believe it needs regulation.
The EU’s new fashion rules
Europe recently gave us an example of what regulation can look like.
Beginning July 19, 2026, the EU enacted a significant new sustainability rule: large companies are no longer allowed to destroy unsold clothing, footwear, and accessories. Instead, they must keep products in use by reselling, repairing, or donating it to charity. Medium-sized companies will become subject to the ban in 2030.
If you’re wondering why destroying unsold clothing was ever a thing to begin with, you’re not alone. According to the European Environment Agency, an estimated 4-9% of all textile products put on the market in Europe are destroyed before use, representing between 264,000 and 594,000 tons of textiles destroyed each year.
Online returns are a large part of the problem. In the EU, the average return rate for clothing bought online is around 20%, and dealing with the returns is a huge and expensive challenge for brands. Most returned clothing is resold or sent to outlets, but some companies destroy it – resulting in negative effects on the environment and climate change.
The new rule makes destroying clothing a more difficult option. Now businesses will need to get creative with circular initiatives and rethink how much they produce. The goal is to significantly reduce the amount of clothing that ends up in landfills, and it has repercussions for companies that do not comply.
We’re thrilled to see this kind of action in the EU, and we hope policies like this will influence the US and the UK. For now, any company that does business in the EU will have to comply, and that’s a great start.
What have we learned about sustainable fashion?
Over our more than a decade in business, we’ve learned some things about sustainability along the way. As we’ve seen sustainability fall in and out of fashion, we’ve noticed that it’s one of the first things brands cut to increase profitability. When sustainability exists primarily as a corporate initiative or marketing strategy, it's much easier to cut when priorities change.
For Passion Lilie, sustainability is who we are. It’s baked into everything we do. That means thinking about sustainability when we choose our materials, determine production quantities, build long-term relationships with artisans, develop circular fashion initiatives, and make decisions throughout our supply chain.
That’s why we’ll continue to pursue sustainability with every fiber of our being, and we’ll report our progress every year. We’ll work toward a more accountable fashion industry by participating in Fashion Revolution Week and contacting our representatives. We hope you’ll join us!
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