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The path to greater sustainability requires broad social commitment.
Susanne Breit-Keßler, former regional bishop of the Munich-Upper Bavaria church district, has been an ambassador for the Green Button since 2019.
In the interview she talks about her commitment to more fairness in the production of textiles.
WORLD:
Why are you committed to sustainable textiles?
Why is this topic important to you?
Susanne Breit-Keßler: From a
very personal point of view, I want the clothes I wear not to be used to exploit others.
Fashion that I like should give the people who manufacture it the opportunity to earn a fair living safely and safely and to feed their families adequately.
Children must not be involved in this work process - they should be protected children worldwide, be allowed to play and learn for their lives.
Bishop and ambassador for the Green Button: Susanne Breit-Keßler
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WORLD:
What do companies have to do to ensure the fair production and fair trade of textiles?
Breit-Keßler: It is
very important that companies know their supply chain.
Only then can they identify risks and implement improvements: Is the cotton produced sustainably?
Are the seamstresses paid fairly?
Do you have complaints?
What are the suppliers doing to combat child labor?
In other words, companies have to do their due diligence.
That is precisely the aim of the Due Diligence Act that the Federal Government would like to initiate.
The Corona crisis has shown how important it is for companies to work together with their suppliers on a long-term basis in partnership.
In Bangladesh alone, orders worth three billion euros were canceled at the beginning of the year.
A disaster for the suppliers and their employees.
If I have known the supplier and have valued it for years, then I am more willing to work together to find a way out of the crisis.
Solidarity is particularly important in times of crisis!
WORLD:
What do the producing countries have to do?
How can you support them?
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Breit-Keßler:
The companies in the production countries are no different from us: First and foremost, they want to earn money.
Unfortunately, far too often this leads to environmental and social standards being lowered in order to produce even cheaper.
Here the production countries are in demand, but also we consumers: Production countries must set minimum standards - whether for minimum wages, fire protection or freedom of trade unions.
We consumers can pay attention to sustainably produced textiles when shopping and thus increase the demand for fair working conditions.
As a state seal, the Green Button gives guidance as to which textiles meet high social and ecological requirements.
WORLD: In
your opinion, what has changed socially on this topic in the meantime?
Breit-Keßler:
The topic of sustainability has arrived in society overall.
When it comes to fashion: More and more people - especially women - want to buy fair clothes.
They rightly do not want to base their chic on the misery of others and they want to do something for climate justice.
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WORLD:
What annoys you about the shopping behavior of many people?
Breit-Keßler:
Every German citizen buys an average of 60 pieces of clothing a year and wears them only four times!
I hate “fast fashion” that tries to hammer into you that you have to keep buying something new.
The time between the latest design from fashion designer to mass-produced goods in the store is getting shorter and shorter.
The permanently renewed and less durable material is intended to entice customers to make new purchases.
This is irresponsible from a sustainability and social point of view.
And: You should have so much self-confidence that you make yourself independent of what others want to tell you about fashion.
I have clothes that are ten or twenty years old and look great.
True elegance does not become obsolete!
WORLD:
What do you personally pay attention to when it comes to sustainability?
Breit-Keßler:
My mother said the award-winning sentence: “We are too poor to be able to afford something cheap.” In other words - quality is the order of the day so that something lasts a long time.
For every piece that I buy new, one has to go.
In this way, I never have a cluttered, but a well-stocked wardrobe.
And I stick to the “thirty ways” method - I think about whether I will wear a piece of clothing or the long-awaited shoes more than thirty times.
That is a probability calculation.
But it stops me from buying it when I realize that the part will probably eke out its life behind closet doors.
It's clear to me: what I want must have been produced under fair conditions.
I only buy what has been awarded the Green Button or an approximately equivalent seal.
WORLD:
What contribution can the church make to sustainability?
Breit-Keßler: From an
individual perspective, everyone should only buy fairly produced and traded, sustainable clothing. If the church as an institution with its diakonia wants to follow up its many wise words with appropriate deeds, everything that is needed in work clothes and textiles - such as flat linen for clinics, for old people's and nursing homes -, food and furniture, must be fair and sustainable shop. That would be a concrete contribution to combating the causes of flight and to global human dignity.