Photo: Peter White/Getty Images
One solution has become particularly popular for brands that want to get away with greenwashing: stick an influencer on it. From Boohoo naming Kourtney Kardashian its 'sustainability ambassador' to Shein's infamous influencer trip to promote its 'innovation centre' in China, the use of influencers has become a common tactic to draw attention to half-hearted eco initiatives - and to create a to create a buffer between the brand and the public reaction.
Lately, we've seen influencers emerge as the faces of PR campaigns like Pretty Little Thing's resale site Marketplace and H&M's Conscious line - spinoffs launched explicitly as a remedy for a brand's negative impact on the planet and usually accompanied by a big, but somewhat vague, environmental promise. For example, H&M plans to use only sustainably produced materials by 2030. Boohoo strives for CO2 reduction across the entire value chain.
But part of the reason why greenwashing has become so ubiquitous - and, in many ways, so successful for brands - is that influencers don't only practice greenwashing when a brand pays them to do so. They reap the benefits of associating themselves with environmental language. while maintaining an audience and lucrative returns by promoting fast fashion products.
It's easy to find these types of influencers (in fact, it's arguably easier to find an influencer who nods to being environmentally conscious than one who actually is). A prominent example is US-based influencer Reese Blutstein, who is known to her 353,000 followers on Instagram for her 'sustainable wardrobe', which focuses on vintage clothing and recurring outfits. For years, she has spoken to various publications about sustainability and the need to wear what we already have and increase scrutiny of fast fashion practices. However, she has entered into several collaborations with some of the biggest players in fast fashion, such as Zara, and has written a long, valuable message about her intention to make the brand more sustainable in the long term, saying: "It was never my intention to be a voice of public social commentary".
The story continues
Related: 'People believe that people like themselves': meet the TikTok stars on the shop floor
Others are more subtle. Anna Newton, better known as @theannaedit, blogs about taking a minimalist approach to fashion, advocating a capsule wardrobe and only buying what you need, or what you'll wear again and again. But in addition to promoting fast-fashion brands like Arket and Sézane, framing their clothes as capsule wardrobe-friendly, Newton puts together massive roundups of almost entirely fast-fashion items full of affiliate links (paying her a commission). This specific type of ecological influence is very common. Monikh Dale (365,000 followers) similarly takes this sustainably minimalist approach to fashion, encouraging her followers to shop greener and avoid fast fashion, while making money from affiliate links to clothing from brands like & Other Stories and H&M, and collaborates on "sustainable" lines from fast fashion brands and retailers, including Mango. Any time spent on these corners of TikTok and Instagram will reveal an endless array of influencers pulling off this performative bait-and-switch, collectively reaching tens of millions of followers.
Some of this serves fast fashion brands created by influencers themselves. The most obvious example is Tala, owned by influencer and entrepreneur Grace Beverley (over a million followers). Originally offering a limited line of leggings, sports bras and tops, the brand now sells a variety of loungewear, outerwear, accessories and sportswear that it says is made from primarily recycled and 'natural' materials, ethically made by highly paid employees. Beverley, as founder, heavily promotes the brand to her over one million followers on Instagram and TikTok, in addition to promoting her own green lifestyle.
On the surface, this all sounds well and good. But if you look closer, you see something less green. This autumn, Tala launched several new product lines, one of which sold a million pounds worth of stock in one day, amounting to more than 6,000 units (this pace of new releases is not unusual). It partners with fast fashion companies, sells its clothing through Asos and works closely with Fila. The products are also only partially made from recycled materials and often from recycled polyester - the sustainability of which environmentalists like to emphasize is limited.
Independent ethical shopping site Good On You gave Tala an overall sustainability score of 3 out of 5, which it characterized as "a start" in terms of the company's sustainability efforts. Not the worst offender, but certainly not the fussy approach to sustainability you'd expect given the green marketing - an approach Actually taken by companies like Organic Basics or Girlfriend Collective, which appear to support their green claims. Tala's website notes that it is simply trying to make more sustainable choices, and that sustainability is a "journey"; no final destination".
A similar half-hearted 'we'll try' approach is being taken by other sustainable brands. An example is Matilda Djerf's Djerf Avenue, which conveys an image of ethically made basic principles. However, it superficially describes its core values as the 'pursuit of sustainability', which - like Tala - it sees as a 'journey and not a destination', emphasizing all this with the comment that 'achieving absolute sustainability is a challenge is because of its environmental impact. associated with production processes".
The message that connects all these influencers is that they want to push you to think more sustainably - just enough to meet their brand needs - but never hard enough to create the disruptive change that would lead to a significant impact on the environment to lead. The language is universally apologetic and soft. Tala's web page, which justifies why she is participating in Black Friday, states: "Let's be real. As a fashion company, the 'holiday period' is an important time of year. And furthermore, we don't believe that yelling at people to stop consumption altogether is really the answer to changing the entire industry."
There is an instinct around these green influencers and brands to champion the good things they do, especially when compared to the wider fast fashion and influencer industry. A brand like Tala is undoubtedly better than a brand like Shein, and pseudo-green influencers encourage slightly less consumption than someone like Molly-Mae Haag. But that doesn't make any of this truly green, nor does it make it "sustainable" to profit from products that seem more environmentally friendly than they really are.
As a lifestyle influencer, you must constantly capture the attention of your audience. This means showing them something new and usually - on a daily basis - finding new products and services to keep that attention. This is why fast fashion and influencing have always been such a happy partnership. But true sustainability requires something opposite: slowing down and being satisfied with what we have and only what we need. It's hard to see a future where this fundamental truth fits in these two symbiotic industries.
