Government urges clothing industry to be 'greener'
The Government has at long last recognised the environmental and ethical impact of the clothing industry, many years after the rest of us, but at least they’ve got there eventually. The government launched a drive yesterday to get the clothing industry to reduce its impact on the environment. Joan Ruddock addressed the first meeting between representatives from the fashion and textiles industry and environmental and ethical groups. Ms Ruddock is the minister for climate change, biodiversity and waste. She told the meeting that the environmental issue is becoming increasingly important to consumers and that many people in the industry were already looking at ethical sourcing and working in a more environmentally friendly way. So basically what she is saying is that the clothing industry has never cared about the environment or the exploitation of its workers, but now people are more aware of these issues, they are changing their attitude.
She went on to say “There are people taking an active role in ethical sourcing, designing and producing clothing throughout the supply chain...That's why Defra is aiming to work collaboratively with the clothing and fashion industry to improve the sustainability of clothing.” The government plan is to draw up a ‘road map’ to examine the social and environmental impact of each stage of the manufacturing and retailing process. That’s great, but will it translate into any kind of regulation? Knowing our government, probably not.
