Does Anyone Still Care About SUSTAINABILITY?What went wrong on the path toward conscious fashion

By: Karlyne Manrique

At the beginning of the 2020s, sustainability was the central topic in content aimed at the fashion industry, and it was forecasted to be a key topic in its future. Social media was filled with information preaching methods to “run a sustainable business,” although many of those messages seemed to speak to an audience unrelated to this industry or simply rambled on about utopian advice that was hardly applicable to industrial production, generated from ignorance and idealization.

In 2025, those types of content that once sharply condemned companies not on the path to sustainability seem to have lost interest in the topic, shifting instead to speak about other viral subjects.

Was there ever a genuine concern about fashion’s environmental impact, or was sustainability simply a topic ‘used’ to stir controversy and gain likes?

What failed on the road to sustainability? The death of the green fashion utopia

Perhaps disappointment around the topic began with the fading of the green utopia due to multiple viral greenwashing scandals in fashion, which associated sustainability with yet another deception from an industry that can’t shake off its superficiality stigma.

Content that replicated and distorted information taken from elsewhere about how sustainable practices could be applied in a company, how long and costly it is to do so, or its complexity, began pointing fingers at those who didn’t immediately jump on the trend, causing — of course — those who most needed to listen, business owners and consumers, to stop doing so. And so, the path to sustainability faded among many other viral topics and disinformation.

For there to be effective communication about how to implement sustainable practices within a company, one must not only understand what they consist of but also how and in what timeframe they should be applied. All of this must be approached realistically, considering that these changes are to be implemented within companies that have had established processes for many years. The reality is that these are changes that must be implemented gradually, but the first goal is to get business owners to see the viability and benefits of it.

What does it mean to be sustainable in fashion?

Traceability is the key word here, and it means knowing where the materials you use in production come from, as well as the energy used in the manufacturing process. All of this must be measurable and verifiable to avoid falling into greenwashing practices.

Initiatives like We Fundamentally launched a partnership with Green Story to help small slow fashion brands begin this green path by subsidizing their access to a platform that will allow them to measure the impact of their products and offset their environmental footprint.

Although this is an excellent initiative, the primary goal that must be recovered is involving the national and international fashion giants in gradually integrating these processes, since they are the ones with the most environmental impact. All of this must be done without once again using the term «sustainable» solely as a marketing tool.

Greenwashing and viral cases

Unfortunately, the word “sustainable” started to be used as a marketing strategy to boost sales and give brands an added value, leaving aside the original purpose of improving the industry and its environmental impact. The suggestion of applying circular, conscious, and sustainable fashion processes has also been a frequent strategy used by some retailers to earn status in the minds of young consumers — without verifying or clearly explaining how they are being sustainable.