8 Sustainable Fashion Organizations To Support
While shopping consciously can be a great way first step to living more sustainably, individual choices can only take us so far. A mindful decision made by a single person is practically insignificant in comparison to the colossal impact that global corporations have. That’s why it’s all the more important that we organize collectively.
Environmental activism goes beyond our personal choices. It includes getting politically involved and dedicating some time to collective organization so that we can maximize our impact. It’s true—there’s power in numbers and there’s power in unity.
To help you get started, here are 8 organizations that advocate for sustainable fashion.
1. Fashion Revolution
Fashion Revolution has been in the sustainable fashion game for over a decade now. They were created in response to the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013 where an eight-story commercial building used for clothing production in Bangladesh collapsed.
Fashion Revolution strives to raise awareness about worker and environmental rights within the fashion industry. They advocate for a global fashion industry that conserves and restores the environment, and values people over growth and profit. Some of their key campaigns include Fashion Revolution Week; Good Clothes, Fair Pay; and Black Friday.
Fashion Revolution Foundation is a registered charity in the UK and while they primarily rely on community funding for their campaigns, they’re also sponsored by several larger organizations including the British Council, European Union, and Laudes Foundation. Fashion Revolution USA secures all funding through the Social Good Fund.
2. Remake
Remake is a global advocacy organization that is fighting for fair pay and climate justice in the clothing industry. They aim to end poverty wages, unsafe working conditions, and gender-based violence in the garment industry.
Remake is a sustainable and ethical fashion organization that primarily approaches fashion through the lens of workers rights. They believe that by paying garment workers a living wage, we can begin to reduce the social and environmental harm caused by the fashion industry. Some key campaigns include #PayUp, #VictoriasDirtySecret, The FABRIC Act, and International Accord.
Remake is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. They scored an 81% this past year on Charity Navigator and had 15 points taken off because their financial statements were missing. Learn more about the organization by reading their latest impact report.
3. Clean Clothes Campaign
Clean Clothes Campaign originally started as the Schlone Kleren Campaigne in the Netherlands in 1989 but has since expanded to be a global network consisting of 235 organizations operating in 45 different countries. They operate horizontally, with regional coalitions that move quickly to organize and effectively advocate for urgent concerns in specific geo-political regions. Some key campaigns include Good Clothes, Fair Pay; Ending Uyghur Forced Labor; and Pay Your Workers.
Because their network is so expansive, each organizational network garners their own annual reports. You can access all of the documents here.
4. Fair Wear Foundation
Fair Wear Foundation advocates for garment workers rights. They were founded in 1999 with the mission to fight against low wages, precarious employment conditions, sexual harassment, gender-based violence, and many more injustices in the fashion industry.
Their main programming is targeted towards workplace training, pushing for living wages, remediating worker issues, taking action in production countries, and working with brands and influencers to changewhat happens through social dialogue.
Learn more about their organization by reading their annual report.
5. Centre for Sustainable Fashion
Sustainable fashion begins with design. The Centre For Sustainable Fashion is a university in London that is working from within to create change. Their curriculum questions and challenges the status quo and investigates existing systems within the fashion industry to transform it into one that recognizes ecological context and honors equity. Some ways in which they fight for sustainable fashion include research, knowledge exchange, policy advocacy, and of course, education.
According to their website, the university does not make a profit but rather reinvests it all back into programming. Here is some more information about their financial situation as well as their plan for the next ten years.
6. Slow Fashion Movement
To truly address sustainability in fashion, we have to look at the rate at which we’re producing and consuming garments. Slow Fashion Movement does just that.
Slow Fashion Movement is a volunteer-led coalition that advocates for sustainable fashion. They aim to unite people globally and locally to take collective action for climate justice. Their most well-known campaign is Slow Fashion Season, an initiative aimed at inspiring individuals to not purchase any new clothes for an extended period of time.
Slow Fashion Movement is an NGO that formed out of the idea of Slow Fashion Season, which I participated in in 2019 and 2020. All their funding comes directly through donations collected by CollAction in the Netherlands.
7. Slow Factory
Slow Factory is an environmental & social justice nonprofit organization. While they’re not exclusively a sustainable fashion organization, a lot of their work does overlap.
With the rise of greenwashing and misinformation even in the slow fashion sphere, Slow Factory strives to empower the masses through education, system redesign, and an open and strategic narrative shift. Some of their main programming includes free education and training on issues in sustainability, an editorial platform for independent research, and incubator challenges for ambitious youth thinking up creative solutions.
Check out their reports and downloads here.
8. Sustainable Fashion Forum
The Sustainable Fashion Forum is a media company that organizes conversations within the sustainable fashion space. They aspire to bridge the gap between industry insight and consumer action. Once a year, they host a conference with industry experts to spearhead meaningful conversations at the intersection of fashion, sustainability, ethics, and culture.
This organization is a community-first platform but does take advertisements and sponsorships. While I trust that they’re selective with their partners, please do your own due diligence and always consume with a grain of salt.
As the sustainable fashion industry grows, there’s no doubt that more and more organizations will pop up. For the time being, here are eight organizations to consider when looking to get involved in collective action. A few additional organizations like Fashion For Good, Global Fashion Agenda, and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition came up in my search for this list but I chose not to include them because it looked like a few of their partners were actually huge contributors to the injustices in the fashion industry. I found it to be a conflict of interest but you can certainly do your own research and decide for yourself.
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