Greenwashing
The fashion industry spends more on sustainability marketing than on sustainable manufacturing. "Conscious," "eco-friendly," and "green" are marketing terms with no legal definition. Learning to read through them is a core consumer skill.
Fit connection: A brand that's opaque about sustainability is often opaque about sizing too. Transparency in one area signals integrity in others — opacity signals the opposite.
of green claims made by EU fashion brands found to be exaggerated or false
European Commission Greenwashing Report, 2021
of sustainability claims by H&M, Zara, and ASOS found unsubstantiated by Which? investigation
Which? Consumer Research UK
legal penalties issued globally for fashion greenwashing in the past 5 years
Changing Markets Foundation
Common Phrases — and What They Actually Mean
These are real phrases used in fashion marketing, decoded.
A sub-line using marginally less synthetic material — the rest of the brand's range is untouched. H&M's Conscious collection was found to contain more synthetic fibers than their standard range.
No regulatory definition. Any brand can use these words on any product. They are legally meaningless without a supporting certification.
Often means recycled polyester (rPET). Recycled plastic still sheds microfibers at the same rate as virgin polyester. Recycled ≠ sustainable.
Switching from plastic bags to recycled paper mailers while the garment inside is still made of virgin polyester. Packaging is ~3% of fashion's environmental impact.
Usually achieved entirely through purchased offsets — not through reducing actual emissions. Offsets are not equivalent to avoided emissions.
Marketing copy that obscures whether workers are paid a living wage, have safe conditions, or have any verified labor protections.
What Actual Credibility Looks Like
Third-party certifications with public audit trails
B Corp, Fair Trade, GOTS, bluesign®, and OEKO-TEX® all require third-party audits and publish results. They are imperfect, but they are not self-reported.
Published supplier lists
Brands that publish their factory list have made a commitment that is verifiable and costly to break. Patagonia, Eileen Fisher, and Nudie Jeans all do this.
Specific, measurable targets
"We aim to use 50% recycled materials by 2027" with annual reporting is meaningful. "We are committed to sustainability" is not.
Honest discussion of trade-offs
Genuinely transparent brands acknowledge where they fall short. A brand that claims to be perfect in every area is marketing, not reporting.
How PWW Cuts Through the Noise
The PWW Integrity Score is built entirely on verifiable, third-party criteria — certifications, published policies, and documented labor practices. We do not score marketing language. A brand with a compelling sustainability story and no certifications scores the same as a brand with no story at all: zero on those metrics.
We also apply the same transparency standard to fit: if a brand doesn't publish accurate size charts or doesn't maintain consistency across seasons, that's a transparency failure — not just an inconvenience.