Tackling the fashion industry’s transparency issue

TWOTHIRDS is an independent sustainable fashion brand built on a community of like-minded people who care deeply about the ocean. We sat down with Guillermo Varela, TWOTHIRDS’ Head of Supply Chain, to discuss supply chain sustainability, the textile industry’s environmental footprint, and how their use of Lenzing fibers supports them in their mission to create clothing with minimal impact on the planet.

1. In 2022, TWOTHIRDS became a certified B Corporation. What steps have TWOTHIRDS taken to attain this achievement?
   
   Guillermo: Where do I start? This was a huge undertaking that took 18 months to achieve, involving countless internal meetings and some critical reflection about our own assumptions and sustainability approaches. Perhaps the most important thing we did was to better understand our supply chain, so that we could prove to just how sustainable TWOTHIRDS is as a business. We also reaffirmed exactly what our mission statement was, so that B Corp™ could envision the positive impact our business would have in the short, medium and long term.
   
   As an independent fashion brand, TWOTHIRDS tries to make changes that ripple out across the wider world, this certification helps those ripples to become waves. We are incredibly proud of this certification as it means that we are 1 of around 6,000 businesses worldwide[1] who meet the rigorous social, environmental, and legal standards that shape the B Corp movement. The B in B Corp stands for “Benefit for All”, and we believe this certification helps pave the way to a fair, regenerative economy that puts people and nature first.
   

2. What do you think is the textile industry’s core issue?
   
   Guillermo: Probably transparency. I was just reading about how many fast fashion clothing return schemes are sending second-hand clothing to incinerators or landfills in developing countries, rather than recycling or reselling them. All fashion brands should be held to far higher standards and be incentivized to craft garments that have the potential to last a lifetime, not just a couple of weeks. When it comes to transparency in business, it’s often said that people wanting to get to the truth should “follow the money”. In fashion, all you have to do is “follow the waste” to find out if brands are greenwashing or not.
   

3. What role does the choice of materials play in improving TWOTHIRDS’ supply chain footprint?
   
   Guillermo: It plays a huge role! In the case of many fabrics or yarns it can be difficult to trace where their raw materials came from. This creates supply chain blind spots which can ultimately render your supposedly sustainable supply chain wholly unsustainable in reality. The more data our suppliers can share with us the better, so that we can build partnerships based on trust and strengthen our supply chain process.
   
   Lenzing is a great example of a long-term supply chain partner that we trust wholeheartedly following many years of consistently delivering high-quality fibers. That is why many of our garments are made using materials made with Lenzing branded fibers, such as TENCEL™ Lyocell or Modal fibers, or LENZING™ ECOVERO™ Viscose fibers, as we know that they share our strong belief in the need for transparency in the fashion industry and our unwavering commitment to creating truly circular fashion.
   

4. What more do you think brands can do to bring meaningful changes to the industry?
   
   Guillermo: Most brands pre-make their collections and attempt to shift stock by using an aggressive sales approach, however, this is a wasteful strategy as it results in an estimated 10-30% of all clothing being unsold. Overproduction – the technical term for this wasteful habit – is a controversial issue and can result in more landfill waste. Instinctively, we knew there was a better way.
   
   Something very close to our heart here at TWOTHIRDS is our PRE-ORDER system, which we think the whole fashion industry should be adopting. By pre-ordering new clothes with us, our customers know we will only source the raw materials we truly need, thereby cutting overproduction to almost zero. Very few other brands operate in this way, and yet it’s proven to cut overproduction, an issue that blights many luxury and fast fashion brands.

[1] https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0995/5544/files/WEB_2022_ECO_REPORT.pdf