Are we tired of sustainability? Experts and retailers break down the dangers of greenhushing
Sleek, simple, vegan, and sustainable. Sounds great, right? That’s exactly what I thought when I recently went online in hopes of copping a new everyday bag. Like most consumers of my generation, I was looking to make a more conscious choice. After typing in the search terms “sustainable handbags” and filtering out the affordable options, I stumbled upon the exact same model sold by two different retailers—Noirvere and OOOMay.
According to some internet sleuths, I was looking at straight-up scams. Apparently, these bags weren’t at all the eco-friendly staples they claimed to be. Instead, they were made from harsh plastics, mass-produced in Chinese factories, and dropshipped to unsuspecting customers, from the same factories that supplied the likes of SHEIN and Temu.
The problem is that there’s no firm market definition for labels such as ‘vegan’ and ‘sustainable’, making it easy for brands to use them, even without real efforts to be more environmentally conscious. This isn’t just what most of us now know as greenwashing—it’s also greenhushing, the act of keeping sustainability practices veiled and obscured, instead of being transparent with consumers. And it comes at the cost of the trustworthiness and authenticity of these brands and markers.
SCREENSHOT reached out to experts, advocacy groups, and retailers to uncover how consumers can be persuaded to purchase sustainable clothing at a time when the label has been obscured and nearly lost all meaning.
Does ‘vegan’ mean ‘sustainable’?
“One of the biggest myths is that ‘vegan leather’ is sustainable. Most vegan leathers are just plastic—polyurethane (PU) or PVC—which will never fully biodegrade. They might be vegan, but they aren’t planet-friendly. Vegan PU leather isn’t the solution—it’s just a plastic problem rebranded,” said Roberta Lee, a stylist and one of the UK’s leading consultants for sustainable fashion.
Animal protection group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), which uses a specific set of standards to certify brands as ‘vegan’ and ‘cruelty-free’, also had a couple of notes on the matter of vegan leather.
“Vegan leather, by definition, is leather that does not come from an animal’s body—that can mean everything from polyurethane to pineapples,” PETA Vice President of UK Programmes & Operations, Elisa Allen, told SCREENSHOT.
“This also means that those concerned about the carbon footprint of their wardrobes [should] choose from one of the many plant-based vegan leathers on the market—such as cactus, apples, mushrooms, corn, and grapes—as those have a significantly smaller environmental impact than animal leathers,” the VP continued.
The Vegan Society, another advocacy group that authenticates products as vegan, added that vegan doesn’t always mean cruelty-free: “Sometimes there can be confusion between ‘cruelty-free’ labels and ‘vegan’ labels. If a product is labelled vegan, by The Vegan Society’s definition, this should mean no animal has been harmed or used in any way throughout the process, including testing practices. However, ‘cruelty-free’ does not necessarily mean the product does not contain animal ingredients.”
In regards to the sustainability of real leathers, PETA cautioned: “Consumers need to be aware that leather is not necessarily plastic-free (…). A synthetic coating on animal skins is used to keep them from decaying naturally, which can also keep them from being biodegradable.” This statement highlights the need to look beyond the buzzwords and at the full potential lifecycle of materials.
And where better to get this information from than a company website, right? However, many brands don’t publish detailed breakdowns of their materials and production processes.
Does every fashion brand need a ‘sustainability and ethics’ site?
“Sustainability without transparency is just marketing,” Lee argues. “If a brand doesn’t have two simple pages—a sustainability page and an ethics page—then something isn’t right. Transparency should be non-negotiable,” she added, condemning every hint of greenhushing on a brand’s website.
SCREENSHOT was also able to speak to Jordan Razavi, founder and CEO of the ethical and future-focused clothing retailer OMNES, to get a better idea of the challenges sustainable brands are facing in still making consumers believe that the label is more than just an empty marketing phrase.
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“I think you need to look at a brand as a whole to get a good idea of how serious they are about their social and environmental responsibility,” Razavi stated. “But really it comes down to trust. Brands need to prove to customers that they are trustworthy by being transparent, and a key part of this is that we as brands need to build strong and trust-based relationships with our suppliers. We are trying our best to build long-term partnerships so that we can help our customers feel confident in what we are offering them.”
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Are we tired of ‘sustainability’?
Still, consumers feel a sense of fatigue, exhaustion, and even faint annoyance when it comes to the topics of sustainability and vegan fashion. One consistently feels hounded to ‘do the right thing’, even if it is becoming increasingly difficult to decipher what that is. Many businesses are taking advantage of this confusion by slapping on ominous buzzwords and letting consumers assume the best.
And when every purchase feels like a hard-to-crack moral test, it’s no wonder many just want to give up and buy whatever’s cheapest.
If consumers feel that way, why should brands bother to make a real difference? I put this question to Razavi, who argued that sustainability isn’t just a moral choice, it’s an imperative to ensure our survival: “There is no profit on a dead planet, and businesses need to understand that consumers on the whole understand this and want to be able to make better choices.”
He also reaffirmed that it was on businesses to restore the authenticity of these labels, rather than on consumers to cut through their noise: “Our consumer data shows that one of the main reasons people both discover and shop from OMNES is that they are actively searching for more sustainable options when it comes to their wardrobes. This just goes to show that the customer is out there.”
@omnes_official Putting our money where our mouth is 🗣️🌍 Plus our graphic dsigner put blood, sweat and tears into this so someone needs to see it 😭 #Meme #sustainability #OMNES #planetok
♬ original sound - OMNES
“We don’t believe in quick wins and that’s what some of these major players are looking for. Brands have a responsibility to create well-made and considered products—it shouldn’t be put on consumers alone to do all the research—though of course we do encourage this as well! But this is where we as brands have the resources and vision to prioritise sustainability and help consumers make the best choices they can, as easy as we can.”
Of course, Roberta Lee and Elisa Allen had similar thoughts when I asked them why the cause should still be worth it to consumers and brands.
“Sustainability isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress. But progress only happens when brands are held accountable,” Lee answered.
“Leather takes around one billion animal lives every year, each of them an individual who was terrified and confused and desperately wanted to live. No jacket or pair of shoes is worth that suffering—and that’s exactly what we tell consumers.”
So, while the cause might have been obscured through corporate greed and a lack of literacy around what certain labels mean, the call to act is still very clear, according to our experts. And that might be something worth considering while going shopping next.
