Sustainable fashion labels aim for cultural change with similar measures for accessories, toys, beauty products and foodstuffs

Go into a supermarket and you’ll see ‘traffic light’ labels indicating fat, sugar and salt levels on lots of food products.

It’s all about helping shoppers to make healthier choices quickly and easily. So what if the same principle was applied to fashion, but the information on the coloured labels was about brands’ sustainability and ethics?

The idea for Brand Conscience originally came from Carrie Lomas, from Denmead in Hampshire, just before the Covid lockdown in 2020. She was then joined in the company’s founding team by Aimee Dobson and Sarah Bennett.

Its label measures five key areas for sustainability and ethics – factory processes, longevity, recyclability and circularity, manufacturing miles and company kindness.

Each area has a green, yellow, amber or red rating. The aim is to provide consumers with an ‘at-a-glance’ graphic about sourcing, manufacturing and supply of goods, helping them to make informed buying decisions at the point of purchase.

Brand Conscience won the Sustainable Innovation Award at Venturefest South 2022 and is now in talks with brands, retailers and the licensing industry. It hopes to have its labels on fashion items in stores soon. Meanwhile the company has also been approached by other industries interested about using the system on a variety of consumer products.

Eventually the Brand Conscience team would like to see their scoring system on fashion accessories, toys, beauty products and foodstuffs.

Aimee, who is based at the University of Portsmouth’s Innovation Connect centre, knew Carrie because they had played the sport of tchoukball together and both went on to represent Great Britain.

Now they and Sarah work together on developing and marketing their ‘sus’d’ scoring system.

Aimee said: “When you buy a sandwich, you see the traffic light scoring system for things like salt, sugar and carbs. I was surprised that nobody had tried to introduce a similar system for fashion products before. That was where the inspiration came from.”

She added: “Sustainability is very much in the news at the moment, but we don’t see it as just a buzzword. We want to contribute to the bigger picture and bring about lasting change.

“It’s really positive that people care more and are interested in the sustainability and ethics journey. But they can’t look into every part of the supply chain.

“We want it to be clear and transparent for consumers because these days people haven’t got the time to go and research manufacturers.

“Even if they did, they may not be able to find out the information easily. With our scoring system, it’s available at a glance on that little black dress or a white T-shirt.

“It’s a system that’s backed up by data. It’s not just us saying something.”

But they don’t just want to apply labelling to products – they want their scoring to have an influence in the design and manufacturing process too, bringing about a cultural change.

An important part of Brand Conscience’s work is an education programme aimed at helping small and medium-sized businesses to understand and implement sustainability. Carrie has been a guest speaker at events and has also done an online TEDx talk.

Aimee said: “At the moment there is no legislation regarding sustainability that says a company has to do X, Y and Z. We hope that will change.

“Right now it’s a tricky area, as companies are wary of talking about sustainability in case people think they are just greenwashing. But if they don’t tell people, then they may be accused of ‘green hushing’.”

Brand Conscience are working with ark2030 to create an exciting new online programme designed specifically for micro, small and medium businesses to build sustainability into their culture and grow their business with sustainability and ethics at the heart.