Once upon a time, if you did an online search for a “sustainable fashion brand” in India, only a handful would show up. Now every other brand markets itself as “green”, “slow”, “eco”, “organic”, or any buzzy term that sings the tune of sustainability. At the time of writing this, my inbox has seen, in a day, PR pitches for a “sustainable” leather shoe brand (oxymoron?), “environment conscious” T-shirts (2,700 litres of water make one tee) and “vegan” skincare lotions (available in three different sizes of plastic bottles). Besides the approaching World Environment Day (5 June), the other reason for the constant “hellos” from “green-esque” brands is that for the past few years the one thing people can’t stop talking about—and something that has gained more traction in the pandemic era—is sustainability.
That’s good. The latest data shows global warming could cross the limit of a 1.5 degrees Celsius rise in temperature, set as a control target.
