New York State introduces the ‘Fashion Act’ in a historic step towards supply chain accountability

Brian Kavanagh

Originally published in Tittle Press

New York – The State of New York has introduced legislation that will accelerate the urgency for fashion businesses to conduct their manufacturing more responsibly. A generally unregulated industry that contributes heavily to world greenhouse gas emissions at levels of 4-8.6 percent, pollutes billions of gallons of water-dye textiles, and has—knowingly or not—benefited from exploitative labor practices in the downward race to sell the cheapest clothes. and fastest.

The Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act would shift responsibility away from consumers for navigating green laundering and require fashion retailers and manufacturers who do business in the state—those with annual worldwide gross revenues in excess of one hundred million dollars—to map the chain. their supply, disclose the environmental and social impacts of their activities, and set binding targets for increasing those impacts. This will affect brands from the biggest luxury multinationals, like LVMH, to fast-fashion electronics sellers, like Shein.