Indeed, bBrands and retailers are on board with the idea of sustainability. Many are setting targets to green their supply chains. However, the committed may still be too few and their commitments still too small. Brands are thinking about sustainability but because of the price sensitivity, they are also concerned whether their customers understand about sustainability versus the price. Brands that haven’t woven sustainability into the fabric of what they do are finding themselves hard-pressed to get consumers to pay up for a more eco-friendly product.

For example, Geetanjali Woollens which has been recycling post-consumer clothing for 40 years. The company gathers post-consumer apparel from waste collectors in the US, Europe, Australia and Japan, sorts it by fiber composition, then sorts it again by color. Each color gets shredded into fiber, spun into yarn and finds its way into sweaters, accessories, beanies and socks—each produced without dyes and chemicals, and substantially less water.

Brands can make the product but what if they are not able to sell it? Geetanjali finds retailers take in just a fraction of the nearly 25,000 kg of clothing Geetanjali recycles every day. This is not sustainable because as a factory Geetanjali has workers to pay, bills to pay.