ESG Outlook is Sourcing Journal’s discussion series with industry executives to get their take on their company’s latest environmental, social and governance initiatives and their own personal efforts toward sustainability. Here, Matthew Betcher, creative and marketing director of ALLIED Feather + Down, discusses how even companies working with low-impact materials should explore how to remove every unnecessary chemical possible.
Name: Matthew Betcher
Title: Creative + Marketing Director
Company: Allied Feather + Down
What do you consider your company’s best ESG-related achievement over the last 5 years?
While over 5 years ago, I still think our biggest achievement was the development of the industry-wide Responsible Down Standard (RDS). Looking at how ALLIED thought about the bigger implications of such a certification has led to a way of thinking within our brand and company that continues in everything we do—even in our newest programs and developments.
The down industry was mired in misinformation about animal welfare practices that continue to this day. The need to build an industry-wide certification for animal welfare was brutally apparent, but real issues of animal welfare within the supply chain are relatively small in relation to the volume of down collected, with down being a very small by-product of the food industry. It would have been easy to stop there, but the importance of building such a standard in a way that could also provide considerable positives to the farmers involved was critical.
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And when it comes to traceability within the family farm/collector part of our supply chain, opening offices in rural parts of the world and building small schools that teach these collector communities how to read and write so they can help provide the needed traceability in a difficult to trace product, continues to add value to these regions today. So, when we developed our newest performance technology, ExpeDRY, it was critical we look beyond just materials. The fact that performance is based on a gold finish has led us to source our gold from recycled electronics, helping to increase recycling and reduce landfill reliance.
What is your company’s latest ESG-related initiative?
As we already work with a very low-impact material, we are now diving into our global chemical usage and removing every unnecessary chemical we can.
When we started to think about the next generation of water-resistant down, for example, our question was not, “how can we increase performance?” but rather “how can we keep performance without chemical additives?” Even though our WR treatment has been C0 for years, we acknowledge how far behind we all are in chemical management. What is “safe” now is often found to be harmful just years later. This is where we—particularly in the outdoor industry—are with C0 water resistant treatments. Why not figure out how to maintain performance without chemistry at all? This is what led to the development of our new chemical-free ultra dry ExpeDRY down.
What do you consider to be the apparel industry’s biggest missed opportunity related to securing meaningful change?
Our industry needs to be very honest with itself. All the talk about carbon neutrality and even science-based targets is all a myth. We are all just making more stuff and our entire existence is based on selling through season after season. And stop planting trees to make yourself feel better. Consumers are changing, the world is changing…yet it’s the same mythologies employed to make us feel better about the real lack in inclusivity, diversity and environmental impacts. Only when we acknowledge that can we start to build products and business development strategies that actually minimize impact.
What is the biggest misconception consumers have about sustainability in fashion/accessories?
I think the biggest misconception in fashion is that luxury equals impactful and unnecessary, and cheaper equals a more sustainable and inclusive option—when we know that the opposite is true. Down in particular has been seen as an expensive and technical or luxury material, while many consumers think “recycled” polyester fills are more sustainable. An LCA was published in 2019 that shows down has 85-97 percent lower impact than a recycled poly alternative. But the “luxury must be bad” caused by some brands’ use of excessive leather and furs has permeated general thinking.
There is also a misconception that vegan automatically equals sustainable, so we see a number of products all claiming to be the “sustainable” down alternative products, but in no way is that backed by research or science.
What is your personal philosophy on shopping and caring for your clothes?
Simple. Buy better.
It is critical to know about a brand’s social and environmental practices. It is also equally critical to look at that through a very sensitive bullshit meter. Some of the most renowned “sustainable” brands are simply great marketing agencies. I am personally starting to look away from any brand that speaks too much of “sustainability.” It’s like anyone who calls themselves punk is decidedly not punk.
When you walk through the textile sourcing shows, it is now in every booth you see the words “sustainable,” “eco,” “ocean,” “green,” “nature,” etc. but without a single explanation of what that means. The synthetic fiber industry every year comes out with a new “more sustainable” product, but compared to what? Is a non-naturally-biodegradable fiber more “sustainable” than running a trawler into the side of an oil tanker? Maybe, but don’t we have better options?
I look forward to the day when the entire industry doesn’t have to use any of these terms (or can’t, which seems to be the way things are moving). So when I see brands who don’t plaster this all over their messaging and simply highlight all elements of their products, have a clear and robust level of transparency and traceability and talk about doing “better,” I’m interested.
Any final thoughts?
The fashion—and particularly the outdoor industry—has been involved in extensive greenwashing for decades. It’s time to be honest and come clean; do the homework and understand the real benefits and impacts of your materials choices. I think only then we will see real products using a variety of natural materials and by-products that can change the current trends, and do not seduce solely by their “origin story” but consider the entire life of the product.