Sustainable and eco-friendly fashion has been a marketplace staple for some time, catering to consumers who hold high ethical standards in terms of their buying habits. However, during a time where fast-fashion has become a dominant force in the industry due to high accessibility to current trends and low prices, it puts environmentally focused labels on an uneven playing ground as the mass market gravitates towards cheaper deals in exchange for keeping up to date with trends.

For up and coming brands directed towards environmentally conscious consumers, it’s important that they prioritize sustainability from the beginning so that they are able to be transparent with their audience. Up and coming brands can do this by reducing the scale at which they produce products, therefore slowing down the manufacturing process in order to facilitate an eco-friendly turnout.

Furthermore, sustainability reports should be made public, disclosing information such how a brand’s materials are sourced, how the supply chain functions, and why the brand focuses on sustainability overall. These strategies work to avoid deceitful marketing techniques such as greenwashing, which is used to lead customers to believe that they are practicing sustainable buying habits, when in reality they are not.

By communicating an authentic brand story about the reasoning behind enforcing sustainability, brands can create messaging that resonates with consumers whose environmental values align with theirs.

I asked our PR & growth experts: How can emerging fashion brands clearly communicate their sustainability practices with consumers in a manner that is easily accessible and transparent? What PR strategies can fashion brands use to create engaging sustainability reports without losing consumer interest? How do sustainable practices within fashion brands impact consumer trust over time?

Here are the experts' insights.

• Focus 10% of marketing activities on education campaigns
• Sustainability is an evolving conversation
• Show that you're fixing real problems with real math
• True eco-friendly branding is about connection over perfection
• The best sustainability content feels like storytelling
• Consistent transparency signals: Clear sourcing maps, independent audits, progress updates
• Sustainability communication requires the truth in simple facts
• Bite-sized messaging and stats

Focus 10% of marketing activities on education campaigns

Emily Reynolds, Owner at R Public Relations

"Brands should focus 10% of their marketing and advertising efforts and budgets on education campaigns. This may include webinars, events focused on educating consumers, cause marketing campaigns, and real-world volunteering. It’s important for truly sustainable brands to educate their consumers so they are not grouped with “greenwashing” companies. In order to make educational campaigns like sustainability engaging, care should be taken to use conversational language and stunning visuals. Information from reports can be dripped out in emails and on social media so it’s more digestible for consumers, too. When brands put their money where their mouth is, loyalty and trust from consumers tends to grow over time."

Sustainability is an evolving conversation

Leah Miller, Marketing Strategist at Versys Media

"It starts with showing, not just telling. A lot of emerging brands overuse buzzwords like "eco-friendly" or "sustainably made" without context. That creates skepticism. Instead, break things down simply. Show real photos of the workshops where the garments are cut and sewn. Explain choices around textile sourcing with quick, digestible posts or videos. One womenswear client of ours added QR codes on their tags that linked to 60-second videos showing the journey of the fabric from field to final product. That kind of transparency builds credibility fast, especially among a younger audience.

Sustainability reports can get dry quickly, so brands need to treat them more like brand storytelling than corporate documentation. Use design to your advantage. Think infographics, modular layouts, clear headlines, and photos that reflect the team’s values in action. I worked with a gender-neutral streetwear label last year that turned their annual impact report into a scrolling web zine. Every page became a visual story with data embedded inside. Their customers shared it on Instagram like content, not paperwork.

Trust compounds over time when sustainability is an evolving conversation, not a one-time claim. Consumers don’t expect perfection. What they want is honesty. If brands are still refining areas like packaging or transportation logistics, it’s okay to say that and outline the current goals. We’ve seen that this kind of honesty actually increases loyalty. One lifestyle retailer we work with saw their email open and click-through rates double after adding short “Sustainability Notes” at the bottom of every campaign. It built a rhythm of updates that their customers started to look forward to."

Show that you're fixing real problems with real math

Eric Neuner, Founder at NuShoe Inc

"I run America's largest shoe repair and refurbishment operation, and we've processed over 1.5M returns this year while keeping defective footwear out of landfills. The sustainability communication that actually works isn't about reports—it's about showing the alternative to throwing things away in real numbers customers can picture.

When we talk to brands about our work, the ones who connect with consumers best put the repair/refurbishment option right on the product page at purchase. "This style qualifies for our renewal program" with a line showing "1,847 pairs renewed last month" makes it concrete. One brand we work with started photographing actual before/after shots of customer returns we fixed and posting them weekly—their engagement went up 340% compared to their sustainability PDF downloads.

The transparency move that builds lasting trust is admitting what you can't control yet. We're honest with partners that mold remediation on shoes from humid factories is a massive issue—we handled thousands of moldy pairs last year that would've been trashed. Brands that share those behind-the-scenes problems and show they're actively solving them (like working with us stateside instead of remanufacturing overseas) get way more customer loyalty than brands pretending their supply chain is perfect.

Put a dollar amount on waste prevented, not just materials used. "We kept $2.3M worth of returns from landfills" matters more to shoppers than "78% recycled content." Show them you're fixing real problems with real math."

True eco-friendly branding is about connection over perfection

Busy Bee Fashion & Art Studio

"As a woman-owned fashion studio in East Brunswick, NJ, Busy Bee Fashion & Art Studio approaches sustainability less as a marketing angle and more as a daily practice of education and transparency. We teach sewing, fashion design, and upcycling to kids, teens, and adults —so our entire model is built on showing people how clothes are made and why mindful creation matters.

When it comes to building trust, we’ve found that authentic sustainability doesn’t start with slogans; it starts with slowing down. We only produce small runs of materials, reuse fabric whenever possible, and make our creative process visible. For us, the most transparent thing a brand can do is to invite people into the making itself. That’s why our classes and kits literally hand the tools to consumers—turning them from passive buyers into active makers.

In an industry crowded with greenwashing, this hands-on approach creates real credibility. Parents see their kids learning to mend instead of toss, and adults rediscover the value of craftsmanship. It’s not about selling “sustainable products" it’s about teaching sustainable habits that ripple outward

True eco-friendly branding, in our experience, is about connection over perfection. If you can show your community why you care and how you practice it—even imperfectly—you build trust far faster than with any polished campaign."

The best sustainability content feels like storytelling

Deepak Shukla, Founder & CEO at Pearl Lemon PR

"Stop publishing PDF snooze-fests full of jargon and numbers no one reads. Consumers are scrolling, not studying. The best sustainability content feels like storytelling: scrappy, visual, and brutally honest. If you’re not willing to show the factory floor, don’t claim transparency. A one-minute TikTok of your founder walking through their supply chain beats a 40-page “impact report” every time. Authenticity scales faster than ad spend."

Consistent transparency signals: Clear sourcing maps, independent audits, progress updates

Martin Lucas, CEO at Gap In The Matrix

"Emerging fashion brands don’t need bigger sustainability stories, they need clearer ones. The mistake many make is trying to sound ethical rather than being understood.

The key is proof over poetry. A brand doesn’t build trust by saying it’s sustainable, it earns it by showing how decisions are made. If you can’t point to the exact farm, mill, or lab that created your materials, your sustainability message is an aspiration, not a reality.

From a PR perspective, the best sustainability communication is visual, interactive, and ongoing, not a once a year PDF report. We have seen small luxury labels use live supply chain dashboards where consumers can trace a garment’s journey from thread to finish. Stella McCartney is a strong precedent here. Her 2025 collections showcased plant based and mycelium grown fabrics like Mylo and Kelsun, proving that sustainability can be the driver of innovation, not a constraint. She also tied every material to measurable goals for water, waste, and emissions, showing that transparency and luxury can coexist without compromise.

In Gap in the Matrix brand modelling we call this Proof Loops, where every sustainability claim links back to a visible piece of evidence such as a certificate, carbon metric, or factory footage. When brands present these as chapters of a living story rather than static claims, engagement rises and trust compounds.

A sustainability report should not read like compliance. It should feel like a brand journal. Start with purpose. Why this fabric, why this factory, why this fight. Then support it with measurable data. Pangaia is a useful example. Its seaweed based fibers and plant based down are backed by open data on biocompatibility and recyclability, and each innovation links to clear climate outcomes. That kind of material storytelling turns scientific progress into brand emotion.

Over time, this builds what we call Trust Momentum. In long term studies we ran across retail and fashion campaigns, audiences who saw consistent transparency signals such as clear sourcing maps, independent audits, and progress updates were 2.7x more likely to stay loyal even when prices rose. Trust becomes the price elasticity engine of sustainable fashion.

The future of sustainability PR is not about louder claims, it is about visible proof and emotional honesty. Consumers do not expect brands to save the planet, they want to see the receipts."

Sustainability communication requires the truth in simple facts

Jason Vaught, Director of Content & Marketing at SmashBrand

"Eco-friendly brands that reach the market now are viewed by consumers with suspicion, thanks to green-washed fast fashion. The victory is to acknowledge the consumer’s natural conclusion that he is guilty until proven innocent. So stop listing good things you do, and show results with verifiable data. My experience in CPG tells me claims are worthless without proof of results. For sustainability, this means taking each material source, step and end-of-life plan and connecting every known result to a third-party verification system. Certification labels alone are weak. Give a digital fingerprint for the product. A simple code on the garment should show the real water saved or tonnage of carbon sequestered for that garment. This makes a claim a fact, makes a standard that fast fashion cannot readily match.

To express yourself, emerging brands have to eradicate so-called “industry terms” and tell what they do in simple facts. Consumers don’t want to learn “closed-loop production” they want the meaning of “less wasted water.” CPG taught me that packaging has three seconds to work. Sustainability communication requires that the truth now be simplified. Don’t give a long paragraph on the various starting points of raw materials. Have a three-icon system displayed on the hang tag: one for Source, one for Impact, one for Disposal. Next to Source is to be the farm or region sourced. Next to Impact feature only one simple quantifiable thing, like “Equals 50 days of drinking water saved.” Next to Disposal give clear-cut directions like “Compostable” or “Mail back for credit.” This brings instant clarity and helps overcome a short attention span."

Bite-sized messaging and stats

Gary Firth, Fashion Buyer & Managing Director at Screen Textiles

"Simplicity is the key here. Build your PR campaign around bite-sized messaging that focuses on headlines and stats that pack a punch, rather than getting lost in detail. As the cliché goes, a picture is worth a thousand words; people are much more likely to engage with a well-captioned image than a wall of text. If your resources allow, short video clips are even better – keep to under a minute, and keep the content simple but engaging. Importantly, make sure whatever format you choose, it reflects your sustainability principles – a photoshoot on a sunny beach is going to say ‘air miles’ rather than ‘green fashion’!

Reliability builds trust over time, and we’re seeing increasingly that younger consumers value ethical, socially conscious brands - something that can only serve to benefit sustainable fashion producers. While there will always be an appeal in the pricing of fast-fashion brands, shoppers who ‘grow up’ around certain brands and see a proven commitment to sustainability are much more likely to develop brand loyalty. Playing the long game will see returns in customers who stay true to products that stand the test of time. Legacy brands (think Levis for denim, Dr Martens for boots) owe a large part of their success to the longevity of their products – no throwaway, one-season investments there. Sustainability isn’t going anywhere, and the more brands publicly embrace this, the better their brand appeal."

#PRontheGO