A cohort of US apparel industry associations have published a new protocol aimed at assisting policymakers in ensuring successful solutions to advance sustainability and social responsibility in the fashion industry.

The ‘THREADS Sustainability and Social Responsibility Protocol – Principles for effective policymaking concerning the fashion industry’ was jointly released by The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), the Accessories Council, The Council of Fashion Designers of America, and the Responsible Business Coalition.

It has been developed on behalf of thousands of brands and organisations to assist policymakers in ensuring their best intentions result in implementable and successful solutions to advance sustainability and social responsibility in the fashion industry.

AAFA director of sustainability, Chelsea Murtha, told Just Style: “Our members work to deliver responsibly made clothes, shoes, accessories, and travel goods to the marketplace, and are on a path of continuous improvement. We need well-crafted regulatory practices in place to do so, and we trust that regulations crafted with these tenets in mind will be able to be effective, measurable, and supported by industry.”

According to the THREADS Protocol, any proposed regulation or legislation should be:

·        Transparently developed and enforced

·        Harmonised across jurisdictions and industries

·        Realistic timelines

·        Enforceable

·        Adjustable

·        Designed for success

·        Science-based

The apparel groups say these tenets will enable policymakers to develop “practical, workable, and effective” regulatory proposals. The protocol expresses that precision and science-based goals matter in efforts to meaningfully address social and sustainability challenges and that the groups’ members are committed to working pre-competitively to achieve the highest ethical, sustainable, and responsible standards across global supply chains and production practices.

“The industry welcomes policymakers’ interest in addressing concerns regarding worker rights, environmental sustainability, chemical management, and human rights matters in global supply chains,” the business groups said. “The involvement of local and national governments, as well as supranational bodies and international organisations, has the potential to build on industry initiatives related to key concerns, establish achievable benchmarks, and catalyse widespread progress.

As stated in the protocol: “Policy proposals must account for the work industry, stakeholders, and governments at every level will need to undertake to achieve the desired outcomes if they are to be effective. Enthusiasm for a desired outcome is not enough. Poorly designed policies divert resources away from successful or promising industry initiatives and instead create barriers to real progress on environmental and social issues affecting the industry.”

By Just Style