Harsh warning against fast fashion
COTANCE, CEC, IFF and IWTO come together to defend naturally durable materials
COTANCE, CEC, IFF and IWTO have issued a joint statement expressing their concerns about the current method used to calculate the ‘Service life’ of clothing and footwear products. The main concern lies in the unit of measurement adopted by the Technical Secretariat, which develops the methodology and representativeness of the default values for durability of clothing and footwear products taken from Higg.
The signatories of the joint statement object to the measure being expressed in a series of ‘uses’ rather than in actual ‘years’. This approach, taken from the Higg Product Module, where ‘expert judgement’ is used, does not reflect the actual lifetime of products or the views of all stakeholders in the industry. Furthermore, neither product segmentation nor default values for service life take into account the unique characteristics of different materials. As a result, the method favours products that are purchased and discarded after a few ‘uses’ and penalises those that are designed to last much longer than the method can deliver.
The organisations, representing the views of the Footwear, Fur, Leather and Wool industries, recommend that service life be expressed in ‘years’ rather than usage and that the durability properties that materials impart to products be appropriately integrated into product segmentation or reference flow. This change will provide a more accurate and meaningful assessment of a product’s lifetime, helping both consumers and manufacturers make informed decisions.