A stock take of fashion’s progress on environmental and social sustainability in 2024 reveals a murky picture. Impending regulations across the EU on supply chain due diligence, traceability and forced labor offer policy nudges in the right direction for brands and retailers. Yet, the majority of global players lag behind, whether that’s on measuring and mitigating nature-related impacts , reducing absolute scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions or eliminating petroleum derived based fabrics.
According to the Business of Fashion and McKinsey’s 2025 State of Fashion , only 18% of fashion executives consider sustainability as a top-three risk for growth in 2025, a decline from 29% in 2024. This marries with the broader picture across other industries relayed in Bain & Co’s Visionary CEO Guide to Sustainability which found that sustainability had been de-prioritized to manage growth concerns, rising inflation, geopolitical uncertainty and to pursue the use of AI. With disappointing outcomes from critical events including the UN CBD COP16, UNFCCC COP29 and the INC-5 for the Global Plastics Treaty, action by fashion’s stakeholders that could have been spurred by policy mandates agreed at multi-lateral negotiations have been limited.
They are limited despite the fact that the world is on a sharp trajectory to reach 3.1 degrees, a far cry from the global aim of 1.5 degrees as human activity continues to push the limits of planetary boundaries.
The industry’s actions are also l.