WHY SUSTAINABILITY FAILS WITHOUT SHARED POWER

Fashion’s sustainability efforts often center on control: standards, scores, top-down targets. But producers rarely have a say in how these systems are built. What would happen if power in fashion meant something else? Like the ability to decide for yourself?

In fashion, power is often defined through control. Brands control the budgets. Policymakers control the timelines. Standards control the terms. And producers are expected to deliver on decisions they had no hand in making.

At FPC, we work from a different definition. As Priya Parker puts it, power is the ability to decide.

That definition reveals the heart of the issue. The sustainability strategies that dominate the fashion sector were not co-created with the people asked to implement them. They were built without meaningful input from manufacturers. As a result, they rarely reflect production realities and often fail to gain real traction on the ground.

This lack of input is not just a process flaw. It is a power imbalance. Commercial inequity, rigid compliance structures, and the narrow framing of sustainability itself all stem from the same problem: producers have not had the ability to decide how the sector defines and pursues sustainability.

FPC exists to shift that dynamic. We built a model rooted in consent, not compliance. A model where nothing is mandatory, participation is always opt-in, and ideas come from those who will carry them forward.

Because we believe real change begins with the ability to decide. And if we want sustainability strategies that work, they need to be shaped by the people who bring them to life.