Sustainable, Ethical, Eco-friendly: What is the difference?

A clear breakdown between the three.

Sustainable Development: Meeting the needs of the present with compromising the needs of the future.

Sustainable Fashion — planet > everything

This refers to clothing that is produced with environmental costs in mind. For instance, it considers the usage of pesticides in growing cotton, the usage of natural fabrics, the dyes used for various colours, water and waste treatment and energy reduction. With fashion being the second most polluting industry in the world, the sustainable fashion industry strives to mitigate carbon emissions by utilizing higher-quality fabrics and methods for clothing to last.

Ethical Clothing — people and animals > everything

This reminds me of all the ethics classes I ever took for my Philosophy BA.

This refers to the entire production process from cotton seed to finished product, focusing on the fair treatment of the people at every stage on the supply chain: how garment workers are treated and paid, their safety (no sweatshops, child labour, worker abuse, or slavery involved). Sometimes, sustainable fashion and animal treatment are considered under “ethical fashion.”

Eco-friendly Clothing — sustainable + ethical + possible company recycling programs and initiatives

Girlfriend Collective — Eco-friendly athleisure made from recycled water bottles, a.k.a. my dream client. If you are seeing this Girlfriend Collective, holler at your girl!

This can be seen as a melting pot of sustainable and ethical clothing as well as any recycling policies or programs the company has put in place. Eco-friendly fashion refers to how the clothing was made, including how the cotton was grown, how the garment workers are treated and paid, as well as their safety in addition to the transparency of the company’s corporate social responsibility practices.