The Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook, co-published by UNEP and UN Climate Change, provides a shared vision, principles and guidance on how to align consumer-facing communication across the global fashion industry with sustainability targets.
It shows how fashion communicators – marketers, brand managers, imagemakers, media, influencers and beyond – can help advance towards the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals through 1) countering misinformation, 2) reducing messages perpetuating overconsumption, 3) redirecting aspiration to more sustainable lifestyles, and 4) empowering consumers to demand greater action from businesses and policymakers.
It recognises the fashion sector as one of global importance, but one struggling to address its wide-reaching impacts, with unsustainable patterns of consumption and production contributing directly and significantly to the triple planetary crisis, as well as the interlinked issue of social injustice.
While addressing production impacts is essential, doing so alone will not be sufficient to transform the industry in time. Shifting consumption patterns must be a core priority, which means confronting the dominant linear economic model and its accompanying narrative of newness, immediacy and disposability. The Playbook invites all fashion communicators to the table, emphasising for the first time in the sector the importance of the role of storytellers as enablers and drivers of systemic change.
Relevant resources:
- Interactive version - playbook
- UNEP Fashion Communication Activities
- Sustainability and Circularity in the Textile Value Chain - A Global Roadmap
- Sustainable and circular textiles
