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Access to Podcasts, interviews with garment workers and dashboard analysis of living expenditures

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The Garment Worker Diaries collect regular, credible data on the work hours, income, expenses, and financial tool use of workers in the global apparel and textile supply chain in producing countries.

The objective of the project is to have the data inform: government policy decisions, collective bargaining, and factory and brand initiatives related to improving the lives of garment workers.
The project began in 2016 when Microfinance Opportunities, in collaboration with local research firms in Bangladesh, India and Cambodia, collected data from 180 women in each country every week for a period of a year. The project entered its second, scaled up phase in 2018 when it began collecting data from over 1,300 garment workers in Bangladesh. The project is currently in its third phase as we continue weekly phone-based data collection with 1,300 garment workers in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 crisis. The majority of the workers are women and many of them have been participating in the project for over two years. The data will result in a major improvement in the transparency of global supply chains, and will help us understand how garment workers cope during crises, with an eye to how digital financial services might play a role in alleviating economic concerns.
This project is currently led by Microfinance Opportunities in collaboration with SANEM in Bangladesh. A number of other organizations have also been involved along the way, including: BRAC and Bangladesh Country Office of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation in Bangladesh; TNS in Cambodia; and Morsel Ltd. in India. Laudes Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have provided financial support along with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Dhaka. Fashion Revolution has been a partner in spreading the word about the Diaries and engaging stakeholders to advocate for changes in the global supply chain that will improve the lives of garment workers.

GARMENT WORKER DIARIES IS A PROJECT BY MICROFINANCE OPPORTUNITIES, IN collaboration WITH SANEM, FASHION REVOLUTION AND SUPPORTED BY LAUDES FOUNDATION

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The project began in 2016 when Microfinance Opportunities, in collaboration with local research firms in Bangladesh, India and Cambodia, collected data from 180 women in each country every week for a period of a year. The project entered its second, scaled up phase in 2018 when it began collecting data from over 1,300 garment workers in Bangladesh.

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Circular Economy and Sustainability of the Clothing and Textile Industry

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Circular Economy and Sustainability of the Clothing and Textile Industry

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How ethical and sustainable is your favourite fashion brand?

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Good On You is your trusted source of sustainability ratings for fashion. Join more than a million people worldwide using Good On You to shop better and create a sustainable future.

The Good On You app gives you the power to easily check the impact of your favourite fashion brands on the issues you care about. Use the app to discover better alternatives, learn more about ethical fashion shopping, and get exclusive offers from the best brands.

Browse over 3,000 brands, all assessed against our comprehensive rating system. Each brand receives an easy-to-understand rating out of five, from 'We Avoid' (1) to 'Great' (5), and individual scores for its impact on people, the planet, and animals.

If the brand you're looking for isn't listed yet, just hit a button and we'll rate it! And if your favourite brand doesn't make the grade, use Good On You to find sustainable alternatives that meet your needs. You can also use your consumer power by sending a message to brands, urging them to do better.

Just window shopping? Good On You is the world's best source of ethical fashion knowledge: use the app to find sustainability tips, guides, and style edits, and stay up to date with the latest in eco-conscious fashion.

**At a glance**

Find out how 3,000 brands impact on people, the planet, and animals. New brands added every month.
Discover new ethical and sustainable fashion brands that will make you look good and feel great.
Save on sustainable fashion with exclusive offers from high-rated brands.
Read news, tips, and style edits from the world of ethical fashion and lifestyle.
Make your voice heard by sending feedback to brands.

**What they're saying**

"Good On You is my benchmark for ethical shopping." - Emma Watson

"Ethical shopping just got a whole lot easier." - Refinery 29

"Good On You is the place to find brands making genuine efforts to curb their carbon footprint." - New York Times

"Good On You is a must-download for anyone trying to buy better." - Dazed

"The free Good On You app is a useful guide to everything from vegan materials, to how a brand is performing in terms of labour conditions or animal welfare." - The Guardian

Version 5.27.0

Love the idea, the implementation is weird

I absolutely love the idea of this app, and I will continue to try to use it as much as possible! Frustratingly though, the filters often do not do anything (for example, even when I set my distance as 5km and no online stores, it shows Australian stores). Also if you want more information, it just opens a new safari page instead of a new page in the app. If the filters could be fixed, then I would be super happy! I am hopeful the app will continue to expand so that all of the information is self-contained over time. Also, I wish there was a way to see some examples of the items in their little pages, not just separately going to be website, as it makes it difficult to gage if you might actually like the style of a new brand. Overall though, I love the idea of the app and will continue to use it and am looking forward to seeing it grow!

Hi there, thanks so much for trying out Good On You and for your feedback!
Reviews like yours truly warm our hearts. We appreciate your support and help in spreading the word about ethical fashion, it means the world to us!
Your feedback helps us make the app better. We're currently working on improved filters and will take your feedback into account.
If you have any other suggestions as you use the app, please send us an email at info@goodonyou.eco!

Cheers,
The Good On You team

Good On You

I stumbled across this app quite by accident. They're well-researched, and after doing my own analysis on a dozen brands and comparing the results, I trust their summaries and refer to them like a dictionary of sorts. If you search up your favorite brands like I did, heaven only knows what you'll find (be prepared to go through the 7 stages of grief & don't get stuck in denial). Incredibly, with the collection of "good" & "great" small ethical businesses on here, you can easily amass a collection of clothing brands that align with your style AND morals (please remember not to buy more than you need and to shop secondhand).

Never have I been more impressed with an app, I've recommended it to everyone close to me & have referenced it on my socials. Oftentimes, I get frustrated with adults who tell me my generation will fix their problems, but with resources like this, i think we're capable. Thank you.

A few recommendations:
-this might just be an issue for my phone, but i can't seem to unfollow a business. This makes it difficult to organize brands (maybe some people would like brand folders too?)
-a 'local' search option or listing where each brand is based would be fantastic, but it's a small issue as some have it in their summaries and if i'm interested it's only a quick google search.

Thanks so much for your review Peter! Not sure why you can't 'unfollow' [="unfavorite" I guess?] a brand. If you click on the brand in you favorites and go to the brand page you can click on teh Favourite button and it will be deleted from your Favorites list.
Good news - we have added the ability to filter search results by country or region as of the latest version! Thanks again for your review and let us know if you have further feedback. Best wishes

Amazing

Never going to delete this app. Recently I've become very involved in the genocide of Uyghur Muslims, including how many companies are using forced Uyghur labor (Nikes, Victoria's Secret, Zara, etc). And I've started boycotting companies that haven't cut all ties with using forced Uyghur labor, but it opened my mind to the fact that many other clothing brands I love could use forced labor as well, just not specifically that of the Uyghurs, which is still absolutely unacceptable. So after coming across this app in an add, I downloaded it. And it's phenomenal. It tells you exactly why a company isn't ethical, whether that be because of lack of living wages or environmental damages, and it also tells you which ones are good and ethical. Just wish some the brand suggestions it gives are more trendy and suited for younger people. But other than that, it's great. :)

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‎Good On You is your trusted source of sustainability ratings for fashion. Join more than a million people worldwide using Good On You to shop better and create a sustainable future. The Good On You app gives you the power to easily check the impact of your favourite fashion brands on the issues you...

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The 2 Euro T-Shirt - A social Experiment

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The 2 Euro T-Shirt - A social Experiment

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The 2 Euro T-Shirt - A Social Experiment

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Why we need a Fashion Revolution? | Orsola De Castro | TEDxUAL

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Case Study 1: Rana Plaza building collapse Bangladesh

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Case Study 1: Rana Plaza building collapse Bangladesh

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Let's Begin...

The first pairs of jeans were designed for durability; denim was constructed as a sturdy weave worn by sailors and miners. But over the course of the 20th century, as the demand for jeans has gone up, their durability has gone down. Today, most pairs last no longer than a year. And each new pair you buy has a much higher cost than you might think. Madhavi Venkatesan traces the life cycle of jeans.

Create and share a new lesson based on this one.

About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here "

Meet The Creators

Educator Madhavi Venkatesan

Director Sofia Pashaei

Narrator Pen-Pen Chen

Music Salil Bhayani, cAMP Studio

Sound Designer Amanda P.H. Bennett

Director of Production Gerta Xhelo

Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal

Producer Bethany Cutmore-Scott

Editorial Producer Dan Kwartler

Script Editor Alex Gendler

See more creators

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The life cycle of a pair of jeans - Madhavi Venkatesan

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The first pairs of jeans were designed for durability; denim was constructed as a sturdy weave worn by sailors and miners. But over the course of the 20th century, as the demand for jeans has gone up, their durability has gone down. Today, most pairs last no longer than a year.

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The life cycle of a t-shirt - Angel Chang

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BlockTexx - Australia's first textile recycling facility

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BlockTexx - Australia's first textile recycling facility

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Updated May 01, 2013 08:02:51

The deadly collapse of a building in Bangladesh has sparked serious questions about the fashion industry's use of sweatshops and cheap labour.

More than 380 people died when the eight-storey Rana Plaza building collapsed on the outskirts of the capital last week.

Some 2,500 people have been rescued alive but hundreds are still missing, and voices of survivors have now faded from the twisted wreck.

Famous fashion brands like Benetton and Mango have been implicated in the disaster.

But many more companies - including ones in Australia - source their products from Bangladesh, the workhorse of the international fashion industry.

They are now under serious pressure to ensure workers are not exploited or forced to work in deadly conditions.

Karen Webster, the former director of the Melbourne Fashion Festival who now represents Australian designers, says the disaster has affected the local industry.

I personally feel completely devastated about it. I think from a fashion industry perspective it's been a major wake-up call for all people.

"I personally feel completely devastated about it," she told 7.30.

"I think from a fashion industry perspective it's been a major wake-up call for all people.

"Every company is reassessing how they get their garments produced - not even just those large-scale chains, even smaller independent businesses.

"Anyone who's producing offshore would have to be looking at how their garments are being produced and making sure they are being made in adequate conditions."

The fashion industry provides jobs for millions of people in Bangladesh, and accounts for 80 per cent of the nation's export earnings.

But it can be dangerous work. In the past decade almost 1,000 workers have died.

Police have arrested the owner of the building and three proprietors of export-oriented garment factories for forcing the workers to work in the building despite it developing visible cracks a day before the tragedy.

The owners of three of the factories based in the destroyed building have also been charged with negligence causing death.

A string of Australian companies including Kmart, Target, Big W and Cotton On sell products that are made in Bangladesh.

All say they insist on strict guidelines on safety and workers' rights, and conduct regular audits of their Bangladeshi suppliers.

But no company would speak to 7.30 on camera and explain in detail just how they ensure safe working conditions are met.

For David Jones there are more serious implications because of its contract with Spanish clothing label Mango.

Mango products were made in the Rana Plaza building, and David Jones is now reconsidering its relationship with the brand.

The department store says it is now talking to Mango to make sure better standards are met before the label is sold in DJ's stores later this year.

But that is the sort of commitment Michele O'Neil, the national secretary of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia, does not trust.

If companies aren't disclosing to the public their supply chain and every one of their suppliers, there's a reason for it.

"Those companies need to answer why they're making in Bangladesh and they need to be completely transparent about their supply chain," she said.

"If companies aren't disclosing to the public their supply chain and every one of their suppliers, there's a reason for it."

7.30 asked each company for a location of their Bangladeshi suppliers, and for a copy of their audit reports. None was forthcoming.

"I don't think you can trust any company that says it employs its own auditors to check its own factories," Ms O'Neil said.

"You can't trust that. It's not a valid process.

"You need to know names of the factories and addresses and details of the factories, because if you don't go to that level, how can it ever be independently checked and verified?"

Ms Webster hopes the disaster will also spark meaningful change for consumers.

"I think we need to reassess how we are buying clothes," she said.

"Maybe we need to just stop and think. Do we need so much cheap stuff in our wardrobes? Should we sit back and start buying less, buying better, buying local?

"This is what the public has to start asking about their own fashion wardrobes - do I really need a $5 t-shirt?"

Topics: accidents, disasters-and-accidents, fashion, retail, industry, business-economics-and-finance, bangladesh, australia, asia

First posted April 30, 2013 19:30:10

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Factory collapse a 'wake-up call' for fashion industry

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Updated May 01, 2013 08:02:51 The deadly collapse of a building in Bangladesh has sparked serious questions about the fashion industry's use of sweatshops and cheap labour. More than 380 people died when the eight-storey Rana Plaza building collapsed on the outskirts of the capital last week.

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Explore and critically reflect on your own clothing relationship with clothes

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Explore and critically reflect on your own clothing relationship with clothes

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1. Do you think that you have enough, too many or too few clothes?

2. How often do you buy clothes? Do you only buy them when you know you need something specific or are you more of an impulse shopper?

3. How many unworn clothes do you have in your wardrobe? What are the three main reasons for that?

4. What do you do with your clothes when you realise that you no longer want or need them?

5. Where do you buy your clothes? Do you source clothes in other ways such as lending, making or swapping?

6. How do you feel about second-hand clothes?

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By amplifying the voices and experiences of these women, consumers can become aware of how their clothes are being made.

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Bangladeshis buried the dead Wednesday in Dhaka. The collapse of a clothing manufacturing center killed more than 400 people. Credit... Munir Uz Zaman/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Ever since a building with garment factories collapsed in Bangladesh last week, killing more than 400 people, Western apparel companies with ties to the country have scrambled to address public concerns about working conditions there.

Benetton repeatedly revised its accounts of goods produced at one of the factories, while officials at Gap, the Children's Place and other retailers huddled to figure out how to improve conditions, and some debated whether to remain in Bangladesh at all.

At least one big American company, however, had already decided to leave the country - pushed by the last devastating disaster, a fire just six months ago that killed 112 people.

The Walt Disney Company, considered the world's largest licenser with sales of nearly $40 billion, in March ordered an end to the production of branded merchandise in Bangladesh. A Disney official told The New York Times on Wednesday that the company had sent a letter to thousands of licensees and vendors on March 4 setting out new rules for overseas production.

Less than 1 percent of the factories used by Disney's contractors are in Bangladesh, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The company's efforts had accelerated because of the November fire at a factory that labor advocates asserted had made Disney apparel. The Disney ban also extends to other countries, including Pakistan, where a fire last September killed 262 garment workers.

Disney's move reflects the difficult calculus that companies with operations in countries like Bangladesh are facing as they balance profit and reputation against the backdrop of a wrenching human disaster.

Bangladesh has some of the lowest wages in the world, its government is eager to lure Western companies and their jobs, and many labor groups want those big corporations to stay to improve conditions, not cut their losses and run.

But as the recent string of disasters has shown, there are great perils to operating there.

"These are complicated global issues and there is no 'one size fits all' solution," said Bob Chapek, president of Disney Consumer Products. "Disney is a publicly held company accountable to its shareholders, and after much thought and discussion we felt this was the most responsible way to manage the challenges associated with our supply chain."

The public disclosure of Disney's directive came two days after officials from two dozen retailers and apparel companies, including Walmart, Gap, Carrefour and Li & Fung, met near Frankfurt with representatives from the German government and nongovernment organizations to try to negotiate a plan to ensure safety at the more than 4,000 garment factories in Bangladesh.

Protesters at a May Day rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh. They shouted for better working conditions in the nation's garment factories. Credit... Wong Maye-E/Associated Press

With 3.6 million garment workers and more than $18 billion in apparel exports last year, Bangladesh is the world's second-largest apparel exporter after China.

Walmart, Gap and other companies said on Wednesday that they were already taking action, including paying for Bangladesh factory managers to be trained in fire safety. But labor advocacy groups are pushing them to do more, especially to help finance factory improvements like fire escapes.

"Companies feel tremendous pressure now," said Scott Nova, the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a factory-monitoring group based in Washington. "The apparel brands and retailers face a greater level of reputation risk of being associated with abusive and dangerous conditions in Bangladesh than ever before."

On Wednesday, thousands of people continued to gather around the collapsed Rana Plaza building in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital. As emergency personnel dug through the rubble for yet another day, many relatives of the missing carried signs, holding out diminishing hope that a loved one would be found. A mass burial of unclaimed bodies was conducted as the death count climbed above 400.

In Rome, Pope Francis voiced sympathy for Bangladeshi garment workers on Wednesday, saying he was shocked to learn that many of them earned just $40 a month. "This is called slave labor," he said.

European Union officials called for immediate safety improvements, and said they were considering changes in Bangladesh's duty-free and quota-free status to encourage more responsible management by the country's garment industry.

With some labor groups urging Western companies to stay and fix problems rather than leave, Disney said in its letter to licensees that it would pursue "a responsible transition that mitigates the impact to affected workers and business." It set out a yearlong transitional period for its contractors to phase out production in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Belarus, Ecuador and Venezuela by March 31, 2014.

In that letter, Josh Silverman, executive vice president for global licensing for Disney Consumer Products, wrote that because Disney did not do manufacturing itself and licensed its brand for so many goods produced in so many countries, "we must rely more heavily upon our licensees and vendors to help ensure working conditions that are consistent with Disney's standards."

In deciding in which countries to permit production, the company relied heavily on the World Bank's Governing Indicators, which evaluate performance on issues like government effectiveness, rule of law, accountability and control of corruption. Disney decided to prohibit production in several dozen countries that had a combined low score on the World Bank indicators.

Western retailers and brands that sell apparel made in Bangladesh say they use only factories that monitoring firms have inspected and approved. One prominent monitoring group, the Business Social Compliance Initiative, based in Brussels, has acknowledged that it had approved two of the factories inside Rana Plaza, although it said its inspections did not consider the structural soundness of the building.

A Disney sweater that was found in the remains of the fire last year that killed 112 workers in a garment factory near Dhaka. Credit... Ashraful Alam Tito/Associated Press

Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, said on Wednesday that her country's government building inspectors were so ineffectual that it was vital that Western companies make sure that their inspectors also examined the structural integrity of factory buildings.

Adam M. Kanzer, managing director and general counsel at Domini Social Investments, praised Disney's move.

"Disney is trying to focus their effort where they feel they have sufficient leverage and buying power and where they're really involved," he said. "They don't have much of a presence in Bangladesh. At the same time, I feel that Western companies that have a significant economic presence in Bangladesh should stay there and try to fix these problems."

After the Tazreen fire last November, Bangladeshi labor groups said they had found Disney-brand apparel and production documents inside the factory. Disney officials deny that any licensees had production there.

On Wednesday, Kevin Gardner, a Walmart spokesman, said his company "has been advocating for improved fire safety with the Bangladeshi government, with industry groups and with suppliers." He added, "We know that continued engagement is critical to ensure that reliable, proactive measures are in place to reduce the chance of factory fires."

The Children's Place, a New Jersey-based apparel chain of 1,100 stores that obtains about 15 percent of its total goods from Bangladesh, said it was working with Bangladeshi officials, retailers and nongovernment organizations to avoid future safety problems. The company said it "will be active in supporting important, systemic reform."

The Disney letter listed 172 countries where it would allow its contractors to produce branded merchandise, emblazoned with popular characters like Wreck-it Ralph, Buzz Lightyear, the Little Mermaid and Mickey Mouse, as well as toys and other goods. But in 101 of those countries, it said it would let licensees do production only if independent monitors approved the factories.

A Disney official said production in Haiti and Cambodia would be allowed only in factories cooperating with the Better Work program, a partnership of the International Labor Organization and the International Finance Corporation, that works with government officials, factory owners and labor groups to ensure safe and decent workplace conditions.

The Disney official said the company would consider permitting its licensees to again produce in Bangladesh and Pakistan if those countries get the Better Work program to help their factories.

Dan Rees, director of Better Work, said that before his group would get involved in Bangladesh, the country needed to enact stronger labor protections and stop suppressing trade unions.

"Disney has sent a strong message to the excluded countries that if they're willing to take responsibility for labor standards, Disney will take another look at them in the future," he said.

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Some Retailers Rethink Role in Bangladesh (Published 2013)

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Ever since a building with garment factories collapsed in Bangladesh last week, killing more than 400 people, Western apparel companies with ties to the country have scrambled to address public concerns about working conditions there.

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Goal 12 - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

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Cotton production linked to Aral Sea environmental disaster

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Cotton production linked to Aral Sea environmental disaster

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This article was written in 2014 - what is the state of the Aral sea today?

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hat do the catwalks of Paris have to do with 25,000 miles of exposed sea bed thousands of miles to the east? While all eyes have been fixed on designer collections and members of the front row, the true cost of the fashion industry has been revealed in a shock announcement by NASA that the Aral Sea in Central Asia has now completely dried up.

The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth largest lake, home to 24 species of fish and surrounded by fishing communities, lush forests and wetlands. While the lake was salt water, the rivers that fed it were fresh water. In the 1950's the Soviet Union began using the rivers to irrigate the surrounding agricultural area, a process that has been continued to this day by Uzbekistan's brutal dictator Islam Karimov.

The exposure of the bottom of the lake has released salts and pesticides into the atmosphere poisoning both farm land and people alike. Carcinogenic dust is blown into villages causing throat cancers and respiratory diseases.

The fashion industry is linked to this horror of dictatorships and environmental devastation by the fact that the crop being grown with the river water is cotton - 1.47m hectares of cotton. A hugely water intensive crop, one shirt can use up to 2,700 litres.

"Conventional cotton (as opposed to organic cotton) has got to be one of the most unsustainable fibres in the world," says fashion designer and environmentalist Katharine Hamnett. "Conventional cotton uses a huge amount of water and also huge amounts of pesticides which cause 350,000 farmer deaths a year and a million hospitalisations."

Reflecting on the loss of the Aral Sea, Hamnett states: "This is not just climate change this is an extinction issue. As Vandana Shiva said 'no species has deliberately designed its own extinction', but with industrial agriculture we have. The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world, causing human misery, enormous cost of life and gigantic environmental devastation."

The harvest of Uzbek cotton is taking place right now - it started on the 5 September and is expected to last until the end of October. The harvest itself is also a horror story, on top of the environmental devastation, this is cotton picked using forced labour. Every year hundreds of thousands of people are systematically sent to work in the fields by the government.

Under pressure from campaigners, in 2012, Uzbek authorities banned the use of child labour in the cotton harvest, but it is a ban that is routinely flouted. In 2013 there were 11 deaths during the harvest (pdf), including a six year old child, Amirbek Rakhmatov, who accompanied his mother to the fields and suffocated after falling asleep on a cotton truck.

Campaigners have also managed to get 153 fashion brands to sign a pledge to never knowingly use Uzbek cotton. Anti-Slavery International have worked on this fashion campaign but acknowledge that despite successes there is still a long way to go.

"Not knowingly using Uzbek cotton and actually ensuring that you don't use Uzbek cotton are two completely different things," explains Jakub Sobik, press officer at Anti-Slavery International.

One major problem that Sobik points out is that much of the Uzbek cotton crop now ends up in Bangladesh and China - key suppliers for European brands. "Whilst it is very hard to trace the cotton back to where it comes from because the supply chain is so subcontracted and deregulated, brands have a responsibility to ensure that slave picked cotton is not polluting their own supply chain."

The two issues - of environmental destruction and forced labour - are intrinsically linked. "Changing the policy that puts farmers and citizens in the position of forced labour to harvest cotton is the essential first step to addressing the overall picture," states Matt Fischer-Daly from the Cotton Campaign, an international coalition working to end Uzbek slavery. "Farmers free to diversify their crops and escape local government controlled monopolies are the lynch pin to changing the ecological impacts."

With cotton one of Uzbekistan's largest cash crops (pdf) accounting for 11.3% of the country's export earning in 2010-2011 and with little criticism of President Karimov's human rights record by his allies in the US and UK, there are serious hurdles to overcome. Hurdles that could be lessened if fashion conglomerates demanded higher standards.

This could be done by brands implementing legally binding contracts with suppliers that ensure suppliers and sub-suppliers do not ever purchase Uzbek cotton. The contracts could be verified using traceability systems and social audits, a process that requires time and money but which is fully achievable. Hamnett advises another key step - phasing out conventional cotton and investing instead in its far more sustainable counterpart: organic cotton.

The environmental impact of losing the Aral Sea is not yet known, what we do know is that the cotton that destroyed it, is cotton picked by forced labour and destined for European shops. This is the reality of a subcontracted deregulated industry not bound by any global environmental or minimum wage legislation.

There was nothing accidental about what is happening in Central Asia, a catastrophe that has provided irrefutable evidence of the damage being done to our planet by the fashion industry. We can either focus on Paris Fashion Week or we can act now to save our world. But to ignore the industry's role in the loss of the Aral Sea is to ignore the destruction of our planet.
Read more like this: The sustainable fashion hub is funded by H&M. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox

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Cotton production linked to images of the dried up Aral Sea basin

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hat do the catwalks of Paris have to do with 25,000 miles of exposed sea bed thousands of miles to the east? While all eyes have been fixed on designer collections and members of the front row, the true cost of the fashion industry has been revealed in a shock announcement by NASA that the Aral Sea in Central Asia has now completely dried up.

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News article - End to Uzbek cotton boycott

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News article - End to Uzbek cotton boycott

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After a dozen years, the Cotton Campaign has finally announced the end of its pledge, signed by 331 brands and retailers, to boycott Uzbek cotton on account of forced labor.