Brand and retail giants like DuPont, Marks & Spencer, H&M, Waitrose,WalMart, Sainsbury, Tesco and Timberland have started to recognise sustainability as an opportunity not a threat and are actively implementing and enforcing sustainable sourcing, design and production policies throughout their supply chains, said the ASBCI.

Not only is this saving them money in materials and energy costs, but consumers are rewarding companies that demonstrate an active commitment to ethical and environmental trading policies with more business.

Hana Ben-Shabat, vice president, retail and consumer goods practice, A.T. Kearney Consulting Group, explained that sustainability is one of the top five issues impacting the global clothing market and is now recognised as such on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

She warned: “For suppliers, being green and ethical will no longer be an option, it will be a necessity. Currently, 60 per cent of buying groups said they would deselect suppliers who failed to meet sustainable criteria. This figure rises to 70% within the next five years.”

Dr Dorothy Maxwell, consultant to DEFRA’s sustainable clothing project, SCP, is heading a major UK government initiative aimed at working with the industry to develop a sustainable clothing future or “roadmap.”

The DEFRA project, due for completion later in 2007, acknowledges the unavoidable truth that at every stage of the garment life cycle, we are living beyond the resources of just ‘one planet’.

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