Organic Costs More For a Good Reason

Thursday 05th of April 2012 04:33:49 AM

Organic Costs More For a Good Reason

Fashion and textile production has trended towards reducing its environmental footprint, but this comes with a price. It costs more to produce eco-friendly fashion and organic clothing. The question is whether consumers are willing to pay for the extra costs in order to protect the environment.

One of the problems retailers are dealing with is that shoppers don’t understand exactly what they are paying for when buying eco-friendly clothing. Alex Smith is a consultant with the Ethical Fashion Forum. He pointed out that people are more than happy to pay more for clothing and textiles when they know a stated percent of the sales price is going to charity. These same people may not be willing to pay the extra price for organic or eco-fashion white t-shirts only because they don’t understand that the extra money actually represents an investment in a sustainable environment. ‘Sustainable’ is a bit of a vague term and consumers like hard facts.

The facts are that sustainable clothing with a fair trade mark indicates that some amount of the revenue is being returned to the producer. It means a fair wage is being paid. It also means that the clothing was produced using the most environmentally friendly methods to reduce carbon emissions and the use of chemicals.

The market for eco-friendly clothing is mostly in developed markets like the U.S., and western and southern Europe. The market is expected to grow though. This is true for producers also. Places like Brazil and Peru are leaders in the use of natural materials and environmentally friendly dyes.

The key to the growth of sustainable and organic fashions including tees and, polo shirts and sweaters is consumer education. The more people understand the importance of sustainable fashion to global efforts to reduce carbon footprints, the more they will be willing to pay. It’s all for a good cause.