Nowadays in fashion, the words “eco-friendly,” “organic” and “sustainable” get bandied around a lot. Which is a good thing. Except that sometimes it can hard to tell the difference between a brand that’s actually helping to make the planet a better place–and one that’s just riding the eco bandwagon with a less-than-well intentioned “organic” label.

“Yes [companies are cashing in on consumer's growing environmental awareness by labeling their clothes "green", without actually changing their production process too much],” Timo Rissanen, Parsons‘ Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Sustainability, told me. “The industry on the whole and marketing in particular have little integrity.”

“‘Green’, ‘eco’, ‘sustainable’ and the rest are nice but meaningless, feel-good marketing terms,” he added.

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