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For a long time, fashion communicators have managed to escape criticism for their role in supporting overproduction and promoting overconsumption, but that is about to change.

The Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook, launched today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Fashion Charter for Climate Change (UNFCCC), calls on fashion communicators to recognise their historic impact when it comes to exacerbating the climate crisis, and to lend their skills towards sustainability goals instead.

“Stories inform the way we understand ourselves, each other, and our place in the world,” says playbook author Rachel Arthur, advocacy lead for sustainable fashion at UNEP. “Fashion’s stories are currently directed towards a linear model of production and consumption. The industry’s dominant narratives will not allow us to reach our sustainability targets.”

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Sustainable fashion communication: The new rules

Among the 13 new commitments added to the UN Fashion Charter at COP26 was a call for fashion comms to be brought in line with the 1.5°C pathway in the Paris Climate Agreement. What does this mean for fashion PR?

This comes after the UNFCCC was updated at the climate conference COP26 in November 2021, and a clause was added committing signatories to shift communications in line with climate goals. It applies to more than 100 signatories and 41 supporting organisations, including Kering, LVMH, Chanel, H&M Group and Puma, but the playbook is hoping for a much broader reach. If the commitment was the ‘what’, the playbook is the ‘how’.

It’s also a timely response to industry-wide caution: international greenwashing investigations are gaining pace, and regulations around green claims are tightening up, from the US to the European Union, forcing brands to backtrack on their previous strategies and rethink communications.

The focus isn’t just on greenwashing or even green claims. “We’re not just talking about how you communicate about your product that might be sustainable, we’re talking about how you communicate everything to do with your brand — from products to events — in a more sustainable way,” explains Arthur.

A roadmap for sustainable storytelling

The guide is aimed at consumer-facing communicators, covering a wide range of job roles, including marketing, branding and advertising; public relations, creative direction and visual media; event production, content or social media at brands and retailers; and those involved in the wider communication ecosystem. This spans agencies, fashion and news media, image makers, digital platforms; entertainment properties, influencers, advocacy groups and educators. Over 160 of these communicators took part in a year-long consultation process, highlighting challenges, case studies and solutions, which formed the basis of the playbook.