France is the first European country to pass a decree requiring every item of clothing sold in the country to carry a label detailing its exact impact on the climate. The European Union is considering a similar rule for the rest of its members.

A large variety of factors determine a piece of clothing’s sustainability credentials, such as from where and how its raw materials were grown, what dyes where used in the colouring process and how far it travelled before arriving in store. The French Agency for Ecological Transition is currently testing 11 proposals for how to collect and compare this data. It is using 500 items of clothing to determine what the new labelling system might eventually look like. The agency is expected to assemble the results of its testing in the coming months, before presenting the results to lawmakers.

The new decree aims to increase transparency about supply chains and production for consumers

There are already 450 types of environmental labels in use worldwide, within the EU there are 200

Erwan Autret, one of the coordinators at the French agency states that  “it will become obligatory, so brands need to prepare, to make their products traceable, to organise the automatic collection of data.”