The flip-side to form-fitting fast fashion-viscose, is being called out by the Changing Market Foundation, the organization that actively campaigns for better corporate practices in the fashion and apparel industry, as a serious sustainability concern.
Highlighting viscose’s harm to the eco-system, they pressed upon the fact that the industry is continuously failing to address the issue. The global viscose market will rise to US $ 15.9 billion by 2021 from its present worth of US $ 2 billion dollars.
Their investigation of the viscose supply chain found that several factories, especially in China, dump untreated waste-water into nearby water bodies which further destroys the local agriculture due to toxic runoff. These alarming revelations made the foundation release a set of guidelines called the Roadmap, that direct the brands to clean up the viscose’s damage.
Seven bigshot retailers including Inditex, H&M, Asos, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, C&A and Esprit, have endorsed Roadmap since its release. The director of this campaign, Nusa Urbancic said that despite the fact that several influential high-street retailers are working towards sourcing responsible viscose, the industry still needs to address this issue as an emergency.
He said that, “It’s time for luxury brands, high-street retailers and online stores to wake up and ingrain responsible sourcing into their policies. It’s a shame that most brands have so far failed to engage with our campaign and lack substance when it comes to responsible sourcing commitments and transparency.”
Supporting the Supply Chain Transparency initiative, these seven retailers have thus released their viscose policy and the entire supply chain stakeholders for viscose. Most famous example is H&M, who announced it is working towards achieving a 100 percent renewable and circular business model at the at Copenhagen Fashion Summit.
China launched an initiative called the Collaboration for the Sustainable Development of Viscose seeing that it houses 9 out of every 10 viscose suppliers in the world and it urges its members to adhere to the best practices of industry.
The other big supplier that embraced the Roadmap’s emissions parameters is Lenzing, that manufactures Viscose in China and Austria and is a supplier for big names like Asos, Inditex, H&M, Tesco, Esprit, C&A and Next.
It is also embraced by the parent company of Zara, Inditex, as their director of sustainability, Felix Poza, stated that, “Committing to collaborate on the Roadmap toward responsible viscose is crucial. By working together in this way we are able to align our expectations of viscose manufacturers and build the critical mass necessary to accelerate positive change.”
