Title:Fashion Forward

Georgetown alumni and students focus on promoting a more sustainable approach to clothing manufacture and purchase

If you ever stay in an old house, likely one of the first features you’ll note is the lack of closet space. Generations ago, people simply owned far fewer items of clothing and footwear—in large part because apparel was so much more expensive.

With the invention of synthetic materials such as polyester, export of production to locations overseas, and improvements in the efficiency of the supply chain, clothing has become significantly cheaper. In 1901, the average U.S. household allocated 14% of total spending for apparel; a century later, even with Americans buying many more clothes, that percentage had dropped to around 4%.

Clothing consumption continues to skyrocket, quadrupling over the past 20 years. This exponential growth has put tremendous strain on environmental resources—water in particular. And because of the use of fossil fuel-based materials, textile production accounts for approximately 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.

In addition, the availability of plentiful supplies of cheap clothing has led to a “throwaway” mentality. On average, Americans dispose of approximately 81.5 pounds of clothing per person each year.

Taking action

Recognizing the need to move from a linear to a more circular economic model, U.S. apparel manufacturers have been taking important steps to enhance fashion sustainability, with Georgetown alumni helping to spearhead initiatives at several companies.

“The industry as a whole is on a spectrum,” says Alicia Chin (C’08), director of sustainability & social impact for the emerging brands at VF Corporation, encompassing Altra, Smartwool, and Icebreaker. “But most companies are starting to invest in sustainability and social responsibility.

“Are we where we need to be? Absolutely not. Are we going to get there without more regulation? I don’t know. Regulation can be a powerful lever.”

While changes in approach by large apparel companies are key to improving sustainability, smaller scale efforts can also make an impact. On the Georgetown campus, one such effort is Georgetown REUSE, a nonprofit corporation started by six undergraduates in Fall 2021.

Co-founder and outgoing COO Stephane Granato (SFS’24) explains that the initial impetus for the group was realizing that clothing and other items collected during the Office of Sustainability’s end-of-year Move Out Drive—some practically brand-new—could be resold and reused, essentially creating an on-campus thrift store.

“Move Out Drive is definitely a time when you see how important it is to have grassroots organizations that are collecting used goods,” Granato says. “What makes us unique is that we collect goods in May and store them for resale in the fall, when the demand is high.”

Getting to net positive

As a 30-year veteran of womenswear company Eileen Fisher, Amy Hall (SLL’83) has helped to pioneer the apparel industry’s movement toward a more sustainable and socially responsible business model.

Hall—now serving in an advisory role after a number of years as the company’s vice president of social consciousness—notes several key milestones in Eileen Fisher’s evolution. “Our first toe in the water was in the late 1990s, when we started to pay attention to human rights issues,” Hall says. “That was prompted at the time by the news about sweatshops.”

In the mid-2000s, the company shifted to the use of organically grown cotton to mitigate the impact of chemical pesticides and fertilizers on the environment. Although environmental and social issues are intertwined, Hall notes that consumers had a more difficult time grasping the importance of the shift to organic materials.

“It was so much easier to create an emotional connection around human issues in our supply chain,” Hall says. “But the truth of the matter is that environmental issues are human issues as well. We need to correct our mistakes so that we can survive on this planet with healthier ecosystems.”

A pivotal moment came in 2013, when Eileen Fisher herself took her first supply chain trip to China, at that time the base of manufacturing for the company. “She came back with her perspective completely changed. She learned firsthand about factory conditions. She learned how the global water crisis had a direct impact on our supply chain,” Hall says, explaining that the mulberry trees essential to silkworm production were threatened by drought.

“She said, ‘We’re not doing enough, we need to accelerate our work,’” Hall continues. “We pulled together a team and set very aggressive goals including 100% organic and 0% toxicity for certain fabrics.

“We knew we were being bold. But if you just set goals that are easily achievable then that’s where you’re going to stop. What we wanted to do was pull ourselves beyond our comfort zones.”

Alongside increasing commitment from individual industry players, Hall has seen progress in the development of overall industry standards, pointing to the global nonprofit alliance Cascale as a prime example. Cascale’s membership is comprised of organizations across the supply chain, including 300 leading consumer brands, manufacturers, retailers, trade association, and NGOs.

“The group has created a set of environmental and social metrics used by well over half of apparel and footwear companies, allowing our work to be compared against each other, apples to apples.”

Hall also notes that Eileen Fisher has been a Certified B Corporation since 2015—a designation given by the nonprofit network B Lab Global to companies that meet high social and environmental performance.

Voluntary industry efforts have had a moderate impact, Hall says, emphasizing that regulation to enforce, incentivize, and in some cases, penalize brands will result in more significant change. “All of that said, we still have a huge amount of work to get to net positive,” she says. “The elephant in the room is how we create viable business models around making less. Right now, we’re just making more stuff than the planet can manage.”

‘Putting our stake in the ground’

Like Hall, Alicia Chin of VF Corporation notes that industrywide regulation may be necessary to mitigate some of the more harmful aspects of apparel manufacturing. While there has been no federal legislation to date, states are taking action. In November 2022, for example, Massachusetts issued a regulation banning disposal of textiles in landfills.

“There’s been legislation in California and New York banning PFAS chemicals, which can be used in waterproofing for example, that are known to have long-term health and environmental impacts,” Chin says. “That has driven companies to really prioritize phasing them out.”

After working on sustainability issues for a variety of organizations, including the National Hockey League, Chin jumped at the opportunity in 2020 to work for VF Corporation, manufacturers of such iconic activewear brands as The North Face, Timberland, and Vans. “I’ve always wanted to get into apparel because the industry has been doing so much collaboratively over the past decades.”

Overseeing the emerging brands at VF, Chin notes the importance of setting quantitative goals at the individual brand level. “It really helps to build credibility, especially among younger consumers.”

Icebreaker, for example, made a commitment for its performance apparel to be 100% plastic-free by 2023, reaching an impressive 96.14% by the target date. “The brand decided, ‘We’re going to put our stake in the ground,’” she says. “Setting that goal really rallied our product team, and helped us make decisions when it came to material choices and financing.”

VF brands are in the vanguard among apparel manufacturers in terms of transparency, highlighting the interconnection of environmental and social issues. “We’re very proud of the fact that we know exactly where our wool comes from,” Chin says. “We have 10-year contracts with about 70 growers, and are committed to their livelihood.

“For Icebreaker, we publish our entire supplier list, from the farm to the yarn spinner to the garment manufacturers. That’s really important to our brand, being accountable for what happens across our entire supply chain.”

The challenge, however, is convincing consumers that a product made more sustainably, but sold at a higher price, is actually a better bargain.

“It’s a constant struggle for us in terms of communicating the value,” Chin says. “At Smartwool, we sell merino wool socks that are $20 a pair. You can easily get a five-pack of cotton or polyester socks for $5, but they may not last long.

“So we lead with the quality, and really lay into the performance benefits that real wool provides—it’s breathable, it provides thermal regulation so your feet don’t stink, and so forth.”

Looking to the future, Chin says, “we’re continuing to lean into circularity for our business models, how we potentially grow and gain more revenue without having to produce more. At Smartwool, we have an innovative program called the Second Cut Project, where we recycle old socks and turn them back into yarn to create new products.

“For Icebreaker, the nature crisis—biodiversity, soil health, water—is the next big topic coming after climate change. It’s a very complicated topic. But, being a brand that is so rooted around natural materials, it makes sense for us to establish ourselves in that space.”

‘Our Common Home’

Members of the rising generation of Hoyas are also doing their part to promote a circular economy—including students involved with Georgetown REUSE—encouraged by the university-wide commitment to sustainability.

The Georgetown community has embraced “Care for Our Common Home” as a core value, drawing inspiration from Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, which calls for new dialogue on the future of the planet. Among many initiatives, the university launched the Earth Commons Institute (ECo) in 2022, a hub for environmental and sustainability innovation, research, and education.

Georgetown REUSE was established the previous year, growing from an idea to a thriving enterprise with a current team of 60 student volunteers. The initiative began when three members of GREEN (Georgetown Renewable Energy and Environmental Network), the largest sustainability-focused student club on campus, began to brainstorm about starting a clothing thrift store on campus.

After their first successful foray selling reused clothing collected from the campus Move Out Drive, the trio—Rita Alan (SFS’24), Stephane Granato (SFS’24), and Brooke Hodge (SFS’24)—recognized the need to formalize their business model.

The group set about incorporating in Fall 2022, “not knowing what we would end up getting ourselves into,” Granato says. “From September through March, we had to problem-solve a lot of issues. What kind of business license do we need? How do we get insurance? We had that sustainability ethos in mind, and that’s what really drove us to put in a lot of time and a lot of hours.”

At the same time, the organization’s members entered a number of university pitch competitions to raise revenue, with great success, including a first-place prize of $15,000 at the Georgetown Global Impact Pitch Competition.

Today, Georgetown REUSE sells reused clothing weekly at the university farmers’ market and provides five industrial donation bins around the Hilltop. “It’s actually mentioned now on campus tours as an example of environmental initiatives on campus,” Granato says. In addition, the organization recently launched an online store.

“We get feedback all the time from students that it’s a great idea,” he adds. “A lot of students love thrift store shopping, but there are not a lot of options close to Georgetown. We fill that niche. They like that they can pick up a pair of jeans at an affordable price, but also make a positive environmental impact.”

The organization’s success is the result of collective effort, Granato says, highlighting the work of co-founders Paul Aversa (SFS’25), Eleanor Hohenberg (C’25) and Elizabeth Packard (C’25). “Beyond the founders, our board members and team of volunteers have made huge contributions to our success, hauling boxes, sorting clothes, working farmers’ markets. We’ve built a community of students with that sustainability ethos. Working together has allowed us to make a solid and strong impact on campus.”

Moving to the next level

As awareness and activism around the issues of fashion sustainability continue to grow, Chin and Hall are often asked for advice—especially from young people—on how to make an impact within the apparel industry.

“Sustainability roles are still few and far between. I’m a one-woman team for three brands,” Chin notes.

“I tell people that if you really want to have a sustainability role, start out by focusing on data. That is where a lot of entry-level positions are, that’s where the need is: understanding how to do a carbon footprint or a life cycle analysis,” she says. “But if you’re sustainability-minded, you can bring that ethos to any job—you don’t need to look for the title.”

Hall offers similar counsel. “Don’t just aim for a job inside the little sustainability team. Do the thing that you love and marry it with your values—that will take the company a long way. If you love to write, join the marketing team to help the sustainability team get their message out. If you’re really good at numbers, join the finance team and help the company become better at reporting out not just its financial results but also its sustainability results.

“Without the people on all of those other teams who have the same value set, nothing will happen,” Hall emphasizes.

“We really need people with big imaginations, creativity, and vision to move us to the next level,” she continues. “Find businesses that fully embrace you for who you are so that you can bring your vision and your values and apply them on the job. And if you can’t find a company that will do it, create your own.”