5 Questions with Sourcing and Labor Editor Jasmin Malik Chua
As Sourcing Journal’s sourcing and labor editor, Jasmin Malik Chua has an ear to the ground on the issues affecting the industry’s workforce—including geopolitical unrest, claims of non-compliant employers and forced labor. She also follows the ever-changing sustainability targets, tactics and transitions in the fashion space, whether it is efforts to scale up alternatives to conventional materials or the evolutions of certifications.
Ahead of Sourcing Journal and Rivet’s Sustainability LA event, Sourcing Journal caught up with Chua to discuss what could move the needle for circularity and the pressures placed on factories and their workers.
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We’re seeing sustainability legislation ramp up. As you’re speaking with the industry, what are the remaining hurdles toward meeting the compliance demands of new laws?
The fashion companies that have the most trouble being compliant are the ones that don’t know their supply chains, which have become more fragmented and diffuse over the decades. There can also be a stark difference between production that happens “on the books” and what takes place because of sub-contracting and even sub-sub-contracting. Reconciling this will continue to be challenging for firms without absolute visibility into their supply operations.
One of the sustainability opportunities that companies are still trying to completely unlock is circularity. Why do you think circular solutions have struggled to fully scale, and what potential does a firm like Syre have to get wider adoption?
Untangling a system that’s built on a linear model of “take, make and dispose” isn’t easy. The industry’s infrastructure hasn’t been set up that way and long-term investments that don’t immediately bear fruit can be a hard sell when executives and shareholders are laser focused on their immediate or next quarterly earnings. There’s also been a lack of industry alignment: How do you define circularity, for instance? Is it about recycling? Keeping things in circulation? All of the above? The global slowdown, which has squeezed margins for everyone, hasn’t helped, either.
For material innovators like Syre to succeed, they need to be backed by major companies that believe in patient capital and simply putting their money where their mouths are. The fact that Syre has the power of H&M behind it is a major plus.