HOW DO WE MEASURE SUSTAINABILITY?

There is no distinguished way in the fashion industry to regulate what is sustainable. It is overwhelming for consumers to feel like they are being proactive in their sustainable efforts. Sustainability in fashion means something different for everyone. It can be about earth-friendly textiles, fair pay and safe working conditions, equality between the producer and the merchant, consuming less, or reusing more. Most confusion comes from greenwashing, which is the exploitation of sustainability for the economic growth of a company or corporation. Because fashion is a complicated network of industries that involve countless people, it is equally difficult to determine the true sustainability value of a garment. It is also hard to put a number on priceless ingenuity and designs that are sold in the market place; and ensuring a product’s ecological sustainability is itself another hurdle. The Higg Index neatly organizes the levels of sustainability for everyone involved. Since this book is about local production, sustainability is measured by the materials used and number of people involved. In the opening of each interview, I also asked each designer to define what sustainability means to them. My sustainability measurement is as such: ([h][p]/c ) 2 (w). The hours (h) and persons (p) invovled in producing a collection are divided by the number of looks in their collection (c) squared. This number is then multiplied by the living wage (w) in Toronto in 2017. A higher result from this formula means that more people and materials are involved, and therefore costs are also greater. This measures the social and ecological sustainability of a brand; those with lower numbers hold a higher sustainability rating.