Tailoring a Better Fashion Industry

While generating an expected $1.84 trillion in 2025 (1.6% of global GDP), the fashion industry remains almost entirely unregulated, relying on a linear model of take-make-waste that exploits the world’s finite natural resources and its labor force.  

The production of 100 billion garments damages the Earth in myriad ways. It pollutes clean air and clean water systems with toxic chemicals, contributes to global GHG emissions, fills oceans with microfibers, degrades soil, creates industrial and post-consumer waste on a gargantuan scale, destroys forests, and threatens biodiversity.  

Contemporary labor practices in the industry are referred to as a “modern day slavery” characterized by poverty wages. Only an estimated 2% of garment workers make a liveable wage, leading to malnourishment, insufficient health care, inadequate housing, and other related problems.  

Furthering the impact, according to a study by the Cornell Chronicle, if current warming trends persist, the four most exploited garment-producing countries – Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Vietnam — could expect a 68.8% loss in industry earnings, followed by a 34.5% employment drop, threatening a larger economic crisis for these same garment workers.  

The industry is trapped in a cyclical loop where, without regulation, fashion production grows and the negative consequences enlarge. Voluntary sustainability efforts on the part of companies or consumers are ineffective.  

But now in the U.S., legislation is emerging in various states imposing long-overdue regulations and restrictions that have the power to reshape the future of fashion. These fashion act bills signal a shift, one that acknowledges the industry’s harm and holds the potential to disrupt the enduring cycle of exploitation.  

Let’s Talk Business  

There are currently four fashion act bills that propose action in New York, Massachusetts, Washington and, most recently, California. Each bill demands environmental due diligence — a process that requires companies to identify, cease, prevent, mitigate, account for, and remediate actual and potential adverse impacts to the environment in their operations. In practice, this means corporations face obligations to disclose supply chain data, report environmental harm, and set targets to reduce their ecological impact.  

Obligating supply-chain mapping requires companies to disclose the name, address, parent company, and product type of each Tier of the supply chain — which is depicted below. This creates transparency and traceability in the production process of each garment, so that your shirts can be traced from a piece of raw cotton all the way to the clothing rack at your local mall.  

Fast Fashion Supply Chain Tier (2025-26) 

In terms of supply chains, currently New York and Massachusetts bills are asking for supply chain mapping of Tier 1 through Tier 4, Washington asks for 50% of a company’s total supply chain activity, and California asks for reporting of 80% of Tier 1 by 2027, 75% of Tier 2 by 2028, 50% of Tier 3 by 2030, and 50% of Tier 4 by 2032. Each percentage refers to the share of total production or sourcing activity those suppliers represent. 

Companies must also adhere to OECD guidelines integrating responsible business practices into their operations including: contract renewal, longer-term contacts, price premium, providing reasonable assistance to suppliers to meet environmental standards (such as carbon reduction targets), as well as developing pricing models that account for the cost of sustainable investments. 

Failure to comply with fashion act regulations would result in significant penalties. After receiving notice of non-compliance and a three-month correction period from the Attorney General, companies may face fines of up to $15,000 per violation per day in New York, $5,000 for a first offense and $10,000 for repeat offenses in Washington, and a civil penalty of 2% of a fashion seller’s annual revenues in California and Massachusetts. 

Companies resist these policies because global economies, shaped by the industrial revolution, have become economies of scale where increased production lowers average costs. This model maximizes profits and enables brands to offer lower consumer prices to stay competitive in a saturated market, normalizing overconsumption. It’s a consistent trade-off of ethical responsibility versus capital gain, and the winner has always been clear. Requiring companies to report and trace their environmental and human rights violations threatens to upend this system, which is why the fashion acts are essential.  

This is what the fashion acts will do.  

Tailored Laws 

As the first fashion bill to be introduced, New York’s Fashion Environmental Accountability Act (S4558A/A4631A), serves as a model for other states. The Act mandates greenhouse gas emissions reporting, with establishments of quantitative baseline and reduction targets. Tier 2 dyeing, finishing, printing, and garment washing suppliers must also sample and report wastewater chemical concentrations and water usage. Reporting must also include the fashion seller’s annual volume of material produced including a breakdown by material type. 

As the model, the New York Fashion Act has set the standard for Massachusetts, Washington and California’s bills as these require the same conduct. The Acts diverge in the way they integrate with existing state policies, along with slight variation in requirements. 

Here’s how:  

Massachusetts’ An Act to Establish Environmental Accountability in the Fashion Industry (H420) mirrors the New York Fashion Act, having received input from its architect, Maxine Bédat, during the development of the legislation. This collaboration underscores the power of collective action in creating policy movements across states.  

Washington’s Washington Fashion Sustainability Act (SB5965/HB2068) emphasizes transparency by requiring companies to publish environmental due diligence online, enforcing public disclosure and incentivizing a clean manufacturing process. Other bills that support fashion regulation include establishing a producer responsibility for textiles. An Extended Producer Responsibility taxes brands for the collection, sorting and recycling of their waste through payment to a registered private collection agency to support recycling or waste management programs and cover the costs of end-of-life management. 

Washington has also proposed, Washington Transparency in Supply Chains, a bill that mandates brands that gross more than $100 million to report efforts to address human trafficking and forced labor in their supply chains.  

California’s Fashion Environmental Accountability Act of 2025 (AB405) builds on the state’s strong environmental framework, which includes the “Safer Clothes and Textile Act” and the “Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024”. The newly proposed bill incorporates greenhouse gas emission reporting on Scopes 1,2, and 3, however the act applies only to corporations with over $1 billion in revenue, unlike other states which set the threshold at $100 million.  

California also has imposed legislation set for garment workers, such as “The Garment Worker Protection Act of 2022” which served as a model for the Federal FABRIC Act, holding garment factories and corporations liable for labor violations, while banning companies from producing “at a piece rate”, which effectively prevents wage theft.  

These Fashion Acts represent immense progress, signaling a chance for revolution — they are mandating reporting and implementing restrictions on an industry which relies on exploiting marginalized communities and using the environment for profit. When passed, these bills may be the starting point for a transformation of global development.  

Your Turn to Act…  

These bills are currently in their most critical stages where the voices of the public are vital.  As headlines become echoes of the crises, words, actions, and contributions have strength and can influence the passage of these bills.  

Legislation only gains momentum through the support of the public. “There can be 5,000-6,000 bills filed every session, so it’s less about people thinking it’s a good idea, and more about it rising to the top of people’s attention levels. A lot of it is about starting a conversation and making people more aware of it,” says Kira Arnot, Chief Staff Leader to Representative David Rogers, sponsor of the Massachusetts Fashion Act.  

Reach out to your state representatives or senators and ask them to cosponsor fashion act bills — or encourage them to create one. You can also submit testimonies in support of these bills and sign petitions, such as EARTHDAY.ORG’s petition addressing the U.S. Administration. 

One of the most effective ways to contribute to these movements is through lobbying,  which entails advocating directly with lawmakers to influence their vote. Lobby days allow communities to get in front of legislators, have meetings with them, and one on one use their voice to express what they want to see change.    

Pullquote: “There’s been so much media out there about how nothing matters. In this instance it really, really does. Showing up and getting on that bus or signing that petition, does have real consequences and makes an impact. There are things that we can do, and we must do,” Bédat tells Earth Day. 

Upcoming lobby days include New York’s on May 6th where the community is encouraged to come and show their demand for the passage of the act.  

If passed, the fashion acts could become the most powerful tool to reign in an industry long left unregulated …but the future of fashion relies on you. Want more action? Sign the Fashion Industry Must Change petition.

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