- This Tuesday, at 11 am, Secretary of State Brune Poirson brings together players from the fashion industry to launch work on an environmental display on textile products
- The sector is regularly singled out for its impact on the environment. From the cotton fields, to the delivery of clothing to the store, via “fast fashion”, this rapid renewal of the collections.
- Pressed to act, the industry presented this summer a “fashion pact” to reduce its environmental impacts. Several voices were raised to point out their weaknesses. Hence the need to add pressure from consumers?
A, B, C, D or E… The “Nutri-Score” has accustomed us to this rating scale to distinguish good (and less good) students on the nutritional values of food products. Same principle for the “energy” label which summarizes to the consumer the energy performance of household appliances, cars, real estate…
Textiles will also soon have to comply with this rating system, this time based on the consideration of several environmental and social criteria. From A, for the least impacting clothing and accessories, to E for the bad students.
This Tuesday at 11 a.m., the Secretary of State for ecological transition, Brune Poirson, brings together around fifty players - from the textile industry to environmental NGOs, including consumer federations - to launch the development work of this environmental display.
A fashion industry in the crosshairs
It is one of the measures contained in the anti-waste law definitively adopted by the Parliament on January 30. Not the one that had received the most attention, although it did tackle one of the industries that generate the most environmental impacts. "For ten years now, the fashion industry has been criticized for its social practices," recalls Eléonore Kubik, project manager for "waste prevention and management" at France Nature Environment (FNE).
These practices will come to light with the collapse of the Rana Plaza, in Bangladeh, on April 24, 2013, a building housing several garment workshops working for several international clothing brands, and which will cause 1,135 deaths.
“For a very short time now, we have also become aware that fashion generates colossal environmental impacts at all levels, continues Eléonore Kubik. From cotton fields to the delivery of items to the store. Without forgetting the problems also posed by these garments, which have an increasingly short lifespan, when they become waste, or the rise of "fast fashion", this rapid renewal of collections. "
More greenhouse gases than international flights and maritime traffic
ADEME (the French Environment and Energy Management Agency) shows the numbers in its note "The reverse of my look", published last September. Fashion emits 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases each year, more than international flights and maritime traffic combined, she said. Its water consumption also poses a problem. It takes the equivalent of 70 showers to produce a T-shirt and 285 for jeans, says Ademe. Finally, it is pointed out for its use of pesticides in cotton crops and chemicals for dyeing clothes, or for plastic microparticles that synthetic clothing releases during machine washing.
Pressed to act, including by Emmanuel Macron, the fashion industry announced on August 23, on the sidelines of the G7 in Biarritz, "a fashion pact" signed by thirty-two major textile groups and in which they undertake to "direct (the) companies towards actions compatible with the 1.5 ° C global warming trajectory" and set themselves the objective of achieving zero net CO2 emissions by 2050.
The problem, denounced by environmental NGOs in August, is that this charter sets out the main lines of work without specifying the actions to be carried out. Furthermore, the commitments made remain on a voluntary basis. Dominique Potier, PS deputy for Meurthe-et-Moselle, then draws a parallel with the commitments made by this same textile industry, on the social side, after the collapse of the Rana Plaza. "There have been too few changes, only statements of principles that were not to scale," he regrets.
Putting textile manufacturers "under pressure from consumers"
Dominique Potier was already rapporteur for the law known as "Rana Plaza", on the duty of vigilance of parent companies and ordering companies, adopted on March 27, 2017. "It requires the largest French companies to set up a plan of public vigilance to identify and prevent risks to human rights and the environment that may be caused by the activities of the company, its controlled subsidiaries or its subcontractors and suppliers, he explains. It gave rise to the first trials in France, currently in progress. Above all, this law is becoming a European directive. "
In the same way, the deputy is also at the origin of this amendment to the anti-waste law proposing "an environmental and social display" on the products of the textile industry. It contributes to the same goal, he specifies: "pushing the textile industry to go beyond simple commitments, this time not by law, but by pressure from consumers".
"We urgently need this type of tool," says Blaise Desbordes, managing director of the Max Havelaar fair trade label. We will not be able to meet the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations and reach them before 2030 if we do not involve consumers. Even at EcoTLC, the eco-organization of the textile sector [responsible for financing the collection and recycling of textiles], this environmental display is mentioned as "a measure that goes in the direction of history" and "that 'have already experienced the Okaïdi and Décathlon chain stores'.
"Environmental AND social"
It remains to discuss the terms of applications. It is this work which begins this Tuesday and which should run over the next eighteen months. Dominique Potier, like Éléonore Kubik and Blaise Desbordes insist on "the need for environmental and social labeling" on textile products. "The two are linked," said the deputy. Every time we make misery, we generate ecological disorders ”.
However, in the press release from the Ministry of Ecological Transition, it is only a question of taking into account "environmental criteria". In the cabinet of Brune Poirson, we try to explain: “In the past, Ademe has already worked on the development of nine generic indicators to measure the environmental impact of a product. We will build on this work by applying it to the fashion industry. However, on the social side, these criteria are still to be established, but we have planned to do so during these eighteen months of work. "
Not mandatory ?
The other big issue in the discussions to come is whether or not to make this environmental labeling compulsory for the entire textile industry. "The environmental labeling will be affixed on a voluntary basis until the European Union adopts regulations on this subject," says one in the entourage of Brune Poirson. It will then become compulsory de facto. "
Dominique Potier also sticks to this establishment in stages. “Too bad, regrets Blaise Desbordes. By getting ahead, France, a big textile market, would drag the rest of Europe in its wake. "
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