ACTION PLAYBOOK:
Regulate the Fashion Industry
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Limit and reduce carbon emissions from the fashion supply chain by urging your state legislators to pass legislation.
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Customize and send an email to your state legislators
Double your impact by asking a friend to do this too
Report back
How long does it take? In 15 minutes, you can customize emails to all of your state legislators urging them to act. -
The apparel industry, which is largely unregulated, is thought to account for 4-8% of global emissions—more than France, Germany, and the UK combined.
In the U.S., no state has passed comprehensive legislation that imposes sustainability requirements on companies with a commercial presence in the state.
One proposed bill in New York, the Fashion Act, can serve as a blueprint.
1. Send personalized emails to your state legislators
We know it’s tempting to just sign your name to the bottom of a completely prewritten email, but personalized emails are much more effective. They get processed individually when they reach elected officials, whereas mass-produced letters are batched. Our Slack #wins-shoutouts channel is packed with celebratory posts from changemakers who sent authentic emails to elected officials and received awesome personal responses. It’s always worth it!
✏️ Use the tool below to send personalized messages to your state legislators about regulating fashion emissions.
It’s incredibly important that you customize all the sections in brackets before you send.
Different talking points resonate with different ideologies. The tool below already knows the ideological lean of all state legislators, so after you input your address, if the ideologies of your state representatives vary, you’ll automatically see two versions of your letter: one will have compelling points that resonate with your reps who are climate champions and another version will have language that lands well with any climate obstructionists. You’ll have to customize each separately! If you see multiple representatives’ names listed above the template, all of those folks will be receiving the letter you’re working on; be sure to list out each legislator’s name in the salutation.
2. Instantly double, 5x, 10x your impact
Network effects are powerful. We're not the only ones asking, “What more can I do?” So many folks in your immediate network likely wonder what more they can do as an individual to make a difference. Answering that question for others is an important climate action. Connecting others with opportunities to take productive climate action is a crucial step toward changing cultural norms, normalizing civic engagement on climate, and making real progress.
Spread the word about this Climate Town video and the Action Playbook! That could be…
a post on Reddit or the social media network of your choice
sharing links in a Slack community
a group text
an email listserv
get creative!
You can frame it however you think might be the most effective, but here's a start:
Check out this funny and fact-filled Climate Town video on the fashion industry’s carbon footprint—I promise it'll hold your attention! There’s a 15-minute action to go with it in this Climate Changemakers Action Playbook. I just did it and it was pretty satisfying to channel my climate frustration into meaningful action directed straight at the key decision-makers. Let me know what you think! And if you get a kick out of the video and the playbook, definitely pass it on to someone else who’d be interested. I’m starting to realize just how many people in our network want to do more about climate change but don’t know where to start!
3. Get a response?! Share back.
If you receive a response from your state legislator, please share it with advocacy@climatechangemakers.org. You can simply forward emails or send a screenshot. This enables the Climate Changemakers team to take note of the collective impact of the Climate Changemakers + Climate Town communities.
👎 Did your legislator give a reason it can’t happen in your state? Anything you learn from their response is valuable—including their real or perceived barriers to action—so please report back. We’re trying to grease the wheels for deploying climate solutions, so the more we know, the more effective we can become as connectors and advocates.
👍 Did you get an enthusiastic response? Awesome! In addition to forwarding it along, consider sharing it publicly in the Climate Changemakers Slack #wins-shoutouts channel—others in our community may find it motivating and inspiring. We’re normalizing civic action on climate, and it starts with talking about it.
And that’s it, playbook complete! Feel accomplished.
Thank you for taking action.
Want more action?
Go to the current Action Plan
Congrats, you just took productive climate action.
Or maybe you haven’t yet, and you just skipped down to this section. In any case, here’s some additional info to learn more about the problem we’ve got on our hands.
Learn by watching
Our friends at Climate Town create incredible (and very funny) videos about climate change and we provide specific actions to go with them! The Climate Changemakers Action Playbook you’re reading right now was made specifically for this Climate Town episode. Watch it to learn all about the fashion industry’s climate impact, then come back here to take action.
Learning by reading (3 minutes)
The fashion industry has a climate problem. And it’s not just fast fashion.
Mainstream consumer brands, including many that are perceived as “slower” fashion than companies like Shein or Forever 21, prioritize production speed and cost reduction over limiting greenhouse gas emissions and maintaining high labor standards. According to McKinsey, the fashion industry is responsible for between 4–8% of global climate pollution, a carbon footprint that exceeds the emissions of France, Germany, and the UK combined.
Fast fashion relies heavily on synthetic fibers like polyester, which is derived from petrochemicals and is non-biodegradable. Not only is the production of these fibers energy-intensive, but the poor quality of most fast fashion merchandise leads to an enormous accumulation of waste. More clothing being tossed aside means higher demand for new items, starting the energy-intensive production cycle all over again. To compound that problem, textile waste is often incinerated, which releases even more CO2 into the atmosphere.
After the manufacturing stage of the supply chain, all of this merchandise has to be transported from its point of origin to storefronts and consumers. Increasingly, those start and end points are often on different continents, while consumers expect shorter and shorter shipping times. An entire logistics network that relies heavily on carbon-emitting shipping, trucking, and air freight is intensifying.
The apparel industry also presents environmental hazards beyond greenhouse gas emissions. The industry is responsible for a substantial share of global water pollution, mainly from the dyeing and treatment processes of textiles. And it’s not just synthetic fibers that are the culprit: processing of natural fibers in fast fashion often involves the use of cheap, chemically-intensive agricultural practices that contribute to soil degradation and toxic runoff. What does soil degradation contribute to long-term? If you guessed more CO2 emissions, give yourself a gold star. Compromised soil can’t sequester as much carbon as healthy soil.
There is growing recognition of the need for sustainable practices in the fashion industry, which has started to spur some positive changes. Innovations in recycling technologies, a shift toward using more sustainable materials, and the rise of the circular economy are hopeful signs. But the sheer size of the industry and the appeal of low-priced merchandise means we need systemic change to reverse the upward emissions trends.
In the U.S., the environmental impact of apparel companies is not regulated. State governments have the ability to change that, and one state in particular, New York, has legislation pending that could help meaningfully alter the fashion industry’s emissions trajectory. Our job as constituents is to push our elected officials in every state to support similar legislation.
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