“This is not about regulation,” Marie-Claire Daveu, Kering’s chief sustainability officer, told the New York Times when questioned about this. “We cannot punish groups directly. But by committing to improved and collective transparency, there is an incentive for those in this pact to stick to targets and not fall behind.”

Brands also have other business incentives that could at times be in competition with these targets, such as keeping costs down and profits up.

The majority of fashion’s environmental footprint lies in its supply chain. It occurs when suppliers produce the raw materials, process them with chemically intensive methods, manufacture and assemble the goods, and then ship the items to their final markets. Kering has acknowledged as much. The pact recognizes the issue too, saying that “all commitments will focus on the ‘first mile’ of fashion supply chains, as a big unaddressed part of the impacts of the industry are felt at farm level and in raw material sourcing locations.”

But the signatories to the pact, as Business of Fashion noted(paywall), generally aren’t the suppliers handling these jobs. (Hong Kong-based Fung Group is a notable exception.) They don’t directly own these parts of their supply chains, except in a few limited instances, mostly in the luxury sector—so it’s unclear how much control they can exert. They can use their considerable financial leverage to pressure suppliers to comply with the new goals. Though if big investments are needed in new equipment or technologies, it’s unclear who will pay for them, and suppliers may resist.

Sustaining growth

Many brands already have sustainability programs in place. But a recent report by Boston Consulting Group and two other groups that advocate for sustainability found that the industry’s efforts are not helping enough to offset its growth. The issue is one Kering itself has admitted to struggling with (paywall). ”The industry really needs to pick up the pace,” Morten Lehmann, chief sustainability officer of one of the groups involved in the report, Global Fashion Agenda, told Bloomberg. “Brands are improving at a slower rate and at the same time we’re seeing a huge production increase.”

A big part of the industry’s problem lies in the volume of clothing it produces. Unless it reduces that amount, it will be tough for it to mitigate the impact.

The pact’s statement already suggests this could be an issue. Consider its wording on how it aims to address the microfiber pollution from synthetics. It commits only to “Supporting innovation to eliminate micro-fibre pollution from the washing of synthetic materials.” It doesn’t say it will eliminate synthetics or use fewer of them. The aim is to invent a way out of the problem.

It is impressive that the coalition collectively represents more than 30% of fashion’s production. But that also means nearly 70% is not part of the pact.