Greenwashing: How brands use celebrity clout to market ‘sustainable’ initiatives

By Meg Pirie – Stylist and Slow-fashion Activist

Last week, H&M came under fire after Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams was unveiled as their ‘Global Sustainability Ambassador’. The new position is part of the brand’s pledge to ensure that all fabrics are sustainably-sourced and recycled by 2030. And although this may sound like a step in the right direction for the fashion giant, many sustainability experts have called out the brand for greenwashing, believing their tactical use of celebrity clout will merely fuel consumption-driven culture.

Greenwashing is defined as an unsubstantial claim to deceive consumers into believing that the brand, initiatives and/or products are environmentally sound. It’s important to state that H&M was one of the originators of the fast-fashion model, and in 2015 became the second-largest retailer of fashion in the world. In 2019, the Business of Fashion reported an inventory totalling £2.91 billion of unsold clothes and the brand has also come under scrutiny countless times by Clean Clothes Campaign’s ‘Turn around H&M’ initiative, for not paying garment workers a living wage. In addition to all of this, there is evidence of gender-based violence in their supply chain, which Fashion Roundtable have previously reported on. 

One of the primary issues that experts have highlighted is that H&M’s business-model relies on ever-increasing volumes of material output, which ultimately encourages more and more consumption. And while the pandemic has taken precedence in the media of late, we are still very much in a state of climate emergency. In fact, according to last year’s Fashion on Climate Report, the fashion industry is far from being on track to remain on the 1.5-degree trajectory targeted by The Paris Agreement and the report calls for the industry to “think radically and embrace business model transformation” if we are to have any hope of mitigating climate change.

Sustainable-fashion consultant Aja Barber says, “It would seem that H&M is writing the narrative that they are very sustainable while ignoring researchers like the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion who say otherwise. As long as there is no outside independent body who is respected in the field giving H&M major props, it will always be H&M marking their own homework in their marketing and their pronounced declarations of their own sustainability measures and goodness.” 

Brands often use star-power to market initiatives or products. It seems, the larger their following, the less likely consumers are to question their sustainability pledges or goals. This feels duplicitous in itself and offers a way for brands to stay ahead in the ever-competitive marketing environment. Take Love Island Presenter Laura Whitmore’s ambassador-role for Primark’s ‘sustainable’ initiative Primark Cares. The fact that Primark creates such a vast amount of poor-quality fast-fashion products, as well as not being able to guarantee a fair and living-wage for those working in its supply-chain, inherently contradicts this initiative. What we should be asking Primark, is whether their clothing is developed through exploitative conditions? Genuine initiatives are completely transparent and will provide all of this information clearly.

Maisie Williams brings 10.7 million instagram followers to the table. And so the collaboration offers the potential to change a number of consumer’s attitudes towards H&M’s initiatives. H&M like most global brands, presents its concerns for sustainability and harm-mitigating incentives, but maintains its sheer-scale and mass-production. “Until they come up with a way to scale back a little bit and curb their massive over production, their efforts will always seem like a smoke and mirrors show ... I think the relationship of fashion with celebrities has always been similar, so I'm not down on Maisie Williams but it matters because we know that this sort of behaviour is aiding in the climate crisis we all want to fight.” adds Barber. 

Collaborations like this only continue to raise more questions. Unless brands are willing to take a look at their environmental impacts and address the deep-rooted issues within their supply chains, their business models will continue to be unsustainable. Employing celebrities to front these campaigns doesn’t differ from any other fast-fashion model and marks its sustainability goals with insincerity. What brands like H&M and Primark need to realise is that their commitment to sustainability is only showing they’d like to be perceived, a superficial lick of paint, rather than a genuine concern for a habitable earth moving forward.

While initiatives like these are important in the race to mitigate climate change, this profit-driven business model won’t sustain the future of our planet or the garment workers making the clothes. Tired-business structures like these will need a complete overhaul if we are to make a real, positive change.