“Unfortunately, I think it’s pretty compelling to buy a $7 pair of jeans if you’re not rich,” Ken Pucker, professor of practice at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the former chief operating officer of Timberland, told me last year. “To a consumer, there’s no real functional benefit of sustainable fashion. Just perhaps a psychic benefit that they’re helping the planet.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/30/opinion/forever-21-bankrupt-fast-fashion.html
Engaged citizens can organize to insist that their employers and legislators better represent their interests and those of their children and grandchildren.
https://climatevoice.org/climatevoices-featuring-ken-pucker/
New tariffs and the potential end of a duty-free loophole bring new challenges to fashion brands, resellers and manufacturers.
The trade policy, although a “fine step,” won’t kick consumers’ addiction to low-cost, polluting polyester clothes, according to Ken Pucker, a former Timberland executive who teaches business at Dartmouth College and Tufts University. “Even with the addition of a few dollars of duty to a Shein dress, it will still cost less than half many competitors’ garments,” he said.
https://trellis.net/article/fast-fashion-confronts-a-reckoning-on-sustainability-under-trump-tariffs/?mkt_tok=MjExLU5KWS0xNjUAAAGYmTgzF-jqZWzL04iHD3P5XzrWZxaBESuRN1u_GlwIHVUwb9dAhk-35Plz1K1MrPfqaHiblWbaIozB_3DOiiHV1zMTc70mcOptONXTI10a_w
“Since the outset, Allbirds has been clear that consumers do not buy their shoes because they are sustainable,” said Ken Pucker, professor of practice with the Tufts Fletcher School. “Instead, they seek to make the most comfortable, simple and purposeful products that happen to be lower in carbon.”
https://trellis.net/article/allbirds-wants-footwear-companies-to-copy-net-zero-shoe-design/
Looking for reasons to be cheerful has always been challenging for those working in sustainability, but 2025 is set to be particularly tough.
The new year follows one in which global CO2 emissions hits record levels, and warming crossed the 1.5°C threshold for the first time since records began.
https://real-economy-progress.com/reasons-to-be-cheerful-will-sustainability-change-for-the-better-in-2025/
Reformation’s executives call themselves a walking contradiction by combining rapid creations with an industry-leading phaseout of virgin synthetics.
https://trellis.net/article/take-a-factory-tour-of-the-350-million-fast-fashion-brand-making-surprising-sustainability-gains/
Big brands are focused on buzzy, marketable ‘solutions’ and face little accountability for failing to deliver on decarbonisation targets, but there are ways to unlock more effective action
https://www.businessoffashion.com/opinions/sustainability/fashion-climate-change-commitments-emissions/
Climate issues are near the bottom of the list of apparel execs’ concerns for the year ahead, according to McKinsey’s 2025 State of Fashion report. Here’s how sustainability teams can push ahead.
https://trellis.net/article/sustainability-plummets-as-priority-in-2025-for-fashion-brands/?mkt_tok=MjExLU5KWS0xNjUAAAGXAmGp0G2GPbEnU0HyUwfGxh-bgvsnqPEt_exhawr2gKtx1wVMls7RfKdbQOmsW4KsbmMzeQyyVzKOC-uu5UtKGNYecmf3Lgod6v2Ne7UIrA
Climate change efforts and social protections are at stake following the outcome of the US election. We asked prominent voices for change how they will keep doing the work.
https://www.voguebusiness.com/story/sustainability/dark-times-bright-ambitions-sustainability-leaders-on-finding-the-energy-to-keep-going?uID=c079429c4c8bcfad965db9e40456b31002c73fcb7dd8cecdc470e0fcfbdde17d&utm_campaign=VB_NEWS_MEMBER_SustainabilityEdit_4_071124&utm_source=newsletter&utm_brand=vb&utm_mailing=VB_NEWS_MEMBER_SustainabilityEdit_4_071124&utm_medium=email&utm_term=VB_PaidSustainability
As brands and sustainability leaders descend on New York for Climate Week, we take stock of where commitments lie and what needs to happen for progress to pull ahead.
https://www.voguebusiness.com/story/sustainability/fashions-carbon-footprint-is-outpacing-its-climate-progress?uID=c079429c4c8bcfad965db9e40456b31002c73fcb7dd8cecdc470e0fcfbdde17d&utm_campaign=VB_NEWS_MEMBER_SustainabilityEdit_4_190924&utm_source=newsletter&utm_brand=vb&utm_mailing=VB_NEWS_MEMBER_SustainabilityEdit_4_190924&utm_medium=email&utm_term=VB_PaidSustainability