Jacinta FitzGerald is the chief executive of Mindful Fashion New Zealand, a clothing and textiles industry organisation that aims to strengthen the industry to create a sustainable and circular future.

Ten years ago when the Rana Plaza factory complex in Bangladesh collapsed, killing 1100 people and injuring a further 2500, I was trying to end my relationship with the fashion industry where I had been working as a designer. We’d been together for years but no longer wanted the same things. 

I loved the creativity of fashion and valued well made clothes that functioned and fit, they brought me joy. But fashion was starting to show its irresponsible side, ever cheaper prices and lower quality, huge volumes of clothing fighting for space on the rack. We were headed in different directions. 

The Rana Plaza disaster demonstrated how dire things had become, the entire fashion system wasn’t working. It catalysed an uprising from people, like me, who didn't want to be part of an industry that was showing such blatant disregard for human life. 

At the same time the industry’s enormous environmental footprint started to be exposed. Fashion Revolution was born and the global campaign has had huge success illuminating the big issues; workers rights, lack of transparency and environmental degradation. 

Advocacy from a range of NGOs has targeted brand commitments and spurred action and we’ve seen a monumental shift in mindsets with shoppers. 

However, 10 years on, inequality is rising globally, and with it complex environmental challenges. We are now facing a climate crisis and a rapidly closing window to reduce emissions and protect nature. Are things changing fast enough?

Globally the fashion industry has made big strides in transparency. Where once we had little visibility of where our clothes were made, more brands are now publishing factory lists, and in some cases tracing right back to the farm for their raw materials. 

We have some good examples of this in New Zealand. Transparency is an enabler; once a brand knows who their suppliers are, they can make improvements and show accountability.

However the Transparency Index, which assesses 250 of the world's biggest brands and retailers, shows that 50% of major global brands still disclose no information at all about their value chains. If those businesses don't know their suppliers, how do they know about their practices, and how does the customer know the background of their clothing? Knowing your suppliers and being transparent about this relationship is entry level sustainability practice.

Progress has also been made on worker safety and working conditions in global garment factories. Many local and global brands have established long standing relationships with their offshore factories, and we have seen significant improvements to workers’ rights. Although here too the Transparency Index finds gaps, with some of the multinational retailers assessed refusing to sign the Bangladesh Accord for workplace safety, and no progress on living wages over the last three years from any of the 250 companies in the Index. 

There’s also far more awareness and action on environmental issues like water use, chemical pollution and emissions. There are good examples of brands that work with suppliers right through their value chains to make their textile production with the lowest environmental impact possible. 

In New Zealand where our local businesses are predominantly SMEs, we’ve seen a big increase in the use of certified materials including GOTS and Fairtrade with verifiable standards of best practice. 

However, Textile Exchange, a global NGO driving industry wide adoption of low impact materials, say change is not happening fast enough around the world to achieve its target of a 45% reduction by 2030 in greenhouse gas emissions from global materials production, due to increasing volumes of materials produced as well as the petrochemicals rampant in synthetic material production. 

While the industry is making progress on sustainability, the need to accelerate action grows stronger. The amount of clothing produced has ramped up, the frequency and length of time we wear our clothes has declined, and clothing waste has become a significant problem. 

In New Zealand, textile waste is one of our fastest growing waste streams with 35,000 tonnes of clothing estimated to go to landfill each year. Auckland’s Redvale landfill alone receives 70 trucks of clothing waste each week. 

Vast quantities of clothing enter our country, and while there are some local solutions such as Little Yellow Bird’s Circular Cotton initiative, Usedfully’s Fibre to Roading and Upparel’s onshore recycling solution, we have no national system to tackle what comes in or the resulting mountain of waste. 

Policy and legislation to address fashion's social and environmental impacts is coming fast in global markets and New Zealand should take note. We need system-wide national policy solutions to tackle fashion’s big issues in areas such as modern slavery, due diligence and product stewardship, and we need to find ways to incentivise businesses putting people and planet alongside profit.

We all have an important role to play. Industry must innovate and strive ambitiously to meet best practice for its people, meet emissions targets and move towards a circular economy, Government needs to support best practice through policy, and all of us who wear clothes engage with fashion in a considered way. It’s a shared responsibility.

At Mindful Fashion we've created a platform for the industry to work together on some of these complex challenges. We are collectively shaping a full circle, thriving future and we are supporting industry members to step up their ambition and unite behind a common sustainability agenda, particularly around climate action and circular economy. 

We have businesses partnering closely with their suppliers to connect Kiwis with their clothes, using better materials year on year, providing lifetime warranties for their clothing and taking steps to reduce their footprints. Businesses that are working hard to make quality clothes, to grow skilled local jobs, and to respond more accurately to market demand. This brings me joy!

We’ve made progress but there is much more to do to bring our vision of a fashion ecosystem where people, nature and business all thrive in Aotearoa to life. 

We need all businesses to step up their sustainability work in this critical decade; to radically reduce their emissions, move towards a circular economy where we keep good quality clothing in use, and ensure people are at the heart of the change. This is a future heading in the right direction and something I want to be part of.