The Sustainable Future of Fashion PR
Easy Consulting Studio is a big fan of working with brands in the fashion industry that practice sustainability and corporate social responsibility through public relations or community relations. The fashion industry has a complicated relationship with CSR through a history of fast fashion brands that create thousands of items in production facilities that are labour and resource-intensive that, in some cases, lead to human rights violations and environmental degradation.
Today’s informed consumer is choosing not to support fashion brands or companies that fail to protect workers or the environment. Sustainability issues are increasingly affecting shopping decisions, with customers choosing to align themselves with brands that clearly convey sustainability aspects through their marketing and packaging. Brands that appear inauthentic — through common concepts like green washing — risk damaging their reputation.
Public relations and communications experts should work with fashion brands to understand the landscape around CSR and sustainability. Ultimately, corporate social responsibility comes from a brand’s core values and operations. A fashion brand or company should decide upon how to implement business decisions that will resonate with their audience, align with their brand, and allow them to make an impact from a place of principle. CSR can not be a forced initiative.
Fashion brands with CSR initiatives can work with PR experts to ensure that before reaching out to editors or landing press, all claims communicated are authentic and that they are completely ethical to the core. PR professionals will need to dig deeper with clients to get the full story and help build a compelling pitch for editors. Here are some things to consider before promoting your brand to the media:
What labour standards do you enforce?
How do you demonstrate your commitment to sustainable labour practices?
Do you have anti-discrimination or anti-harassment programs in place?
Where are your suppliers based and how well do you know them?
How do you seek to reduce your Carbon Footprint?
Businesses in the fashion industry and beyond should implement these CSR initiatives to support their PR strategy.
For more information on this topic on how fashion brands are contributing to changing the narrative around sustainability issues, read this article from the Globe & Mail called “Fashion, reformed: Here’s how to make your closet a haven for sustainable clothes,” where Easy Consulting Studio founder Sharla was quoted for her experience about shopping sustainably.