The Unsustainable Sustainability Generation
At first glance, it appears Gen Z are leading the way to a more sustainable planet. This generation contains leaders who push for change and promote their strong values and opinions, such as Greta Thunberg’s involvement in the Global Climate March (McKinsey, 2023b). In comparison to other generations, Gen Z are said to have more environmental anxiety and are conscious of the impact today’s actions will have on the livelihoods of future world citizens (Bechthold, 2023). Alongside Gen Z growing up, social media has increased in popularity, compulsive consumption has taken over and e-commerce has been capitalised on by fashion brands in the form of ‘fast fashion’. Retailers are compressing their production cycles to meet the demand for up-to-date styles at affordable prices. Fast fashion items are typically lower quality and are considered to have built-in obsolescence (McKinsey, 2023a). When paired with the changing trends generated by social media and influencers, a ‘throw away’ culture has emerged. This has had detrimental effects on the environment. Toxic dyes and chemicals used have resulted in pollution of waterways and landfills are filling with unwanted garments. Reports of exploited labour forces have been on the rise due to the constant pressure to turn around high quantities of new designs fast to benefit from economies of scale, low prices and brand exposure. Using labour in ‘low wage countries’ allows brands to keep their costs low but poor regulations have led to workers being paid less than minimum wage and working in conditions that infringe their human rights (Rauturier, 2023).
In response to the controversy around fast fashion and the negative impact it has had, Gen Z have expressed an interest in buying clothes from sustainable brands and don’t mind paying more for clothes than are produced in an ethical way (Petro, 2021). Alongside this, they have put pressure on brands to act in a sustainable manner and heavily scrutinise those who fail to meet their expectations (Gallagher, 2022). Greenwashing attempts are often spotted quickly and social media has allowed for worldwide conversations and has empowered the consumer voice. Re-sale sites such as Ebay, Vinted and Depop have facilitated the wave of second-hand fashion coupled with the concept of ‘thrifting’ which has resulted in more of Gen Z shopping at charity and second-hand stores. Depop has reported that a third of 16–24 year olds in the UK use their site (Fedora Abu, 2019) and in 2021 alone second-hand items displaced nearly 1 billion brand new clothing purchases (Lenon, 2023).
Despite appearing to be taking a united stance against this issue there are inconsistencies in Gen Z’s approach. Strong emotions towards, and engagement with, sustainability are not always reflected in purchasing decisions (Husson, 2023). This has been labelled as ‘The Intention Gap’ (Herron, 2023). Social media has significant influence over the purchase decisions of the generation as users are constantly consuming content and being sold leading to impulse purchases (Maguire, 2022). The cost-of-living crisis, student debts and ill paying jobs have made it even harder to buy sustainable clothes and the social pressure of staying ‘in-fashion’ has put Gen Z in a dilemma (Upton-Clark, 2023). In recent years, fast fashion has developed into ultra-fast fashion. Sites such as Shein operate solely online to keep costs low and allow continuous updates of new pieces (Lenon, 2023).
So what can be done to enable Gen Z to implement a more consistent approach? As shown in this article, it is important not to generalise Gen Z as sustainable or unsustainable. Within all generations there are those who are tailoring their purchase decisions to be more environmentally friendly and those who are not. Socio-economic factors, availability of options and awareness of the issues surrounding fast-fashion impact anyone’s ability to buy sustainable fashion, not just Gen Z. At an individual level, Gen Z must continue to apply pressure to fast fashion retailers through scrutiny and protests. By continuing the conversation about unsustainable practices in the fashion world, awareness can spread and brands can be held accountable. Brands who are integrating sustainability into their practices are seeing benefits such as trust, loyalty and differentiation (Rout, 2023). Tom’s Trunks is a UK based ‘slow’ fashion brand who use sustainable practices and ethical factories. The ‘Pre-Loved’ feature on the website allows customers to re-sell their unwanted clothes and there is the option to have the clothes repaired if they get damaged at a lower price. This is an effective solution to fast fashion alongside the high quality, limited lines they offer in trying to prevent customers having to buy too regularly (Tom's Trunks, n.d.).
With social media having a substantial influence on the purchasing behaviours of Gen Z, the integration of sustainable fashion is crucial. Success has already been demonstrated in the case of Love Island now being sponsored by eBay UK after being sponsored by fast fashion sites Missguided and I Saw it First (ITV Media, n.d.). With fashion and style being a key component of the show, and it mostly being watched by 16-34 year olds (Kapur, 2019), this switch has put pre-loved fashion in a positive light to the generation which is under pressure to be keeping up with trends.
To supplement awareness and environmentally conscious decisions, clear and honest marketing is required. Greenwashing involves brands making inaccurate statements that imply they are being sustainable or eco-friendly (Chan, 2023). H&M has been under scrutiny for portraying their clothes as more sustainable than they are in their marketing campaigns. By labelling a line of clothes ‘Conscious Choice’, it was argued that customers were misled to think that sustainable practices were being used (Ferris, Lawlor and Ketterer, 2023). Therefore, stricter criteria is needed to regulate marketing and regular reporting is needed to monitor the accuracy of claims for the benefit of customers and the reputation of brands. Some governments have already introduced legislation for more detailed fashion labels. The EU has proposed the ‘Eco-Design for Sustainable Products’ which increases transparency around durability, traceability and the materials used in a product (Safdie, 2022). With fast fashion being a global issue, an international label of fast fashion that flags to customers what they are actually buying alongside a worldwide criterion for what makes a fast fashion brand would maintain a degree of consistency when tackling this issue.
Undoubtedly, Gen Z’s environmental concern is going to increase in the future, however so is its role and responsibility in combating the issue. At a wider glance, fast fashion is one of many contributors to environmental damage but it is a key example to demonstrate that there are other factors involved in acting sustainably other than the intention to do so, indicated by the concept of ‘The Intention Gap’. Looking to the future, it is important for institutional and corporate change to occur but also an accurate depiction of consumer purchasing behaviour is required to prevent false representations of entire generations so that awareness on such issues can result in a degree of accountability.
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