The fashion industry accounts for as much as 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Academic and policy experts discussed legislative initiatives that could help it become more sustainable at a recent Yale School of the Environment panel discussion.
The $2.5 trillion global fashion industry touches every person in the world. Its operations intersect with countless other industries, and the scale of its environmental impact is massive. Fashion disposal alone, which, according to a December 2024 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, has been increasing over the past 20 years, particularly in the U.S., due to the rise of “fast fashion,” harms the environment in a myriad of ways from releasing greenhouse gases and the leaching of contaminants into soil and water as it decomposes in landfills. The GAO recommended that Congress consider directing a federal entity (or entities) to coordinate and take federal action to reduce textile waste and advance textile recycling. However, devising and implementing policies that successfully bridge the chasm between an industry with a global revenue estimated to be near $2 trillion and environmental sustainability is no easy feat.
“We’re in a ‘policy possible paradigm.’ For too long, policy has been a stranger to fashion. Now, we need it from every angle — environmental, social, economic,” said Michelle Gabriel, program director of MS in Sustainable Fashion at IE New York College.
For too long, policy has been a stranger to fashion. Now, we need it from every angle.”
Gabriel and other policy and academic experts, including Joshua Katcher, the North America Hub strategist at Canopy, and Martin Suuberg, an adjunct environmental policy lecturer at Tufts University, are spearheading legislative efforts aimed at making the industry as a whole more equitable and sustainable. They spoke about the current landscape of environmental regulation in fashion ⎯ from addressing waste and emissions to enforcing supply chain accountability ⎯ during a panel discussion, “Navigating Environmental Policy in Global Fashion: Present Practices and Future Directions,” at Kroon Hall on March 31, 2025. Below are three key takeaways from the talk, which was hosted by the Yale Center for Business and the Environment and Industrial Ecology and Green Chemistry Learning Community at the Yale School of Environment.
Suuberg, with his background in waste management, spoke about Massachusetts’ journey from landfills at danger of reaching capacity to textile waste bans as an example of a policy solution. In 2022, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) implemented a textile waste ban, recognizing that a significant portion of its textile waste could be reused or recycled, diverting it from landfills and incinerators. While the ban prohibits the disposal of textiles in regular trash, MassDEP combined the prohibition with the development of infrastructure to increase textile collection for reuse and recycling.
“The traditional model is something gets produced, something gets used, and then it gets disposed of, and at that lowest level it's the government trying to figure out where it's going to go,” Suuberg said. “One of the things that I think the [Massachusetts state ] government did well and is continuing to do, is recognizing the need to engage people other than just the government,” Suuberg said. “Waste is a discussion between the producers, the consumers, the municipalities that often have the job of figuring out where all the waste goes, the haulers, the markets, and the people that are going to invest in technologies, if that’s what’s needed to recycle materials or reuse materials.”
Concerned by the widespread deforestation caused by the demand for human-made fibers like viscose and lyocell (sourced from trees), Joshua Katcher, an advocate for ancient and endangered forests, believes that incentives and subsidies are crucial for their protection.
“As the demand for these products increases, which it is, the threat to ancient and endangered forests increases,” Katcher said. “These are the forests that represent the biodiversity-rich areas that are relied upon by Indigenous communities and that support some of the most important carbon sinks in the world.”
According to Katcher, the private sector is already sourcing about 54% of products from low-risk forests, but he said policy could help scale that.
“There needs to be support for subsidies to help bring down price premiums. Often, one of the biggest barriers to getting these innovations commercially scaled is not that it isn’t a wonderful innovation or a wonderful product. It’s not that it doesn’t feel nice or perform beautifully,” he said. “It does all those things, but when it gets to the market, even if it’s a little bit more expensive, it won’t be pulled through.”
Greenwashing has plagued the fashion industry, and Gabriel said legislation could help to combat outdated data and unchecked claims.
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“The lack of transparency limits the progress on every other initiative that we want to do here because we cannot necessarily holistically acknowledge what the issue might be,” Gabriel said.
Legislation, like the proposed NY Fashion Act, which Gabriel has worked on, would require brands to uphold environmental standards through mandatory reporting.
“The hope of many of these pieces of legislation (is that they) force a circularity of the processes within the entity driving the outcomes,” she said.
Gabriel, Katacher, and Suuberg acknowledged that while the challenges are immense, so is the potential impact of successful policy development and implementation.
“We require policy from all angles to support a green, just transition and a more economically viable industry,” Gabriel said.
