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Could 2024 be the year that working in sustainability finally becomes sustainable?
Last year, the Vogue Business sustainability leaders survey revealed many professionals in the field are losing morale as their teams remain understaffed and siloed despite increasingly ambitious targets. Our ‘Debunking the dream’ series also showed that employees in purpose-driven roles (including sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion) are more susceptible to burnout, hindering progress on the industry’s big-picture goals.
Sustainability progress is already facing setbacks, while the impacts of the climate crisis — from raw material production to garment manufacturing and beyond — are ramping up.
Instead of focusing on what fashion companies are doing about the climate crisis, experts say it’s time to prioritise how they are doing it. “If we are constantly burnt out, we can only create survival-based solutions,” says Hannah Phang, co-founder of sustainability talent platform The Now Work. “Creating space for sustainability professionals will help them create more impactful solutions.”
Working like it’s wartime
Sustainability professionals are asked to deliver on huge ambitions with tiny budgets. “The complexity that sustainability professionals have to deal with is largely unprecedented, and the level of uncertainty is inherently stressful,” says Jamie Bristow, public narrative and policy development lead at Swedish non-profit Inner Development Goals (IDGs). Even in purpose-driven roles attempting to achieve positive change, there is the risk of “moral injury” or aligning away from deeper values, he continues.
“Because sustainability professionals tend to be purpose-driven, they’re willing to work like it’s wartime — and it often feels that way — to get everything done,” says Phang. “They also have to constantly digest negative news and read the latest climate science and labour rights reports, so they’re hyperaware of the issues facing our world, as well as the internal battles necessary to get companies to act on these issues.”
An exclusive survey covering 90 fashion, luxury and beauty brands shows sustainability teams are still limited on time, money and people power, without which it will be difficult to achieve their ambitious targets.
Many of the freelance sustainability professionals in The Now Work’s network previously left in-house positions due to burnout — largely stemming from what Phang dubs “internal greenwashing”. “These professionals sign up for a job believing they can do great work, but they get there and realise it’s all red tape and compliance. It’s frustrating.” In this context, employees often prioritise the short-term dopamine hit of quick wins and easy impacts rather than tackling more complex challenges, she explains.
In November, the McKinsey Health Institute published a survey of more than 30,000 employees across 30 countries, analysing how workplaces can prioritise physical, mental, social and spiritual health. The main contributing factors to burnout (defined by exhaustion, cognitive and emotional impairment as well as mental distance) were somewhat surprising, says co-author and McKinsey partner Barbara Jeffery. Interpersonal conflict, work pressure, workload and job conflict scored much lower than expected, while toxic workplace behaviour, role ambiguity and role conflict were the most prominent.
This is where it becomes a challenge for the fashion industry. “Within fashion you have a high number of people working for themselves or working independently within bigger structures, which could be a contributing factor because they don’t have the support of a team, and they’re constantly coming into new contexts with ambiguous job descriptions, which can be mentally draining and stressful,” explains Jeffery. “The industry is also seen as being more toxic than others.”
People should be able to draw the link between the company mission and their individual purpose within that company, rather than feeling like a cog in a machine, continues Jeffery. “There should also be a sense of belonging and psychological safety in teams, which team leaders don’t always prioritise. This requires investing in people, and training them in resilience, adaptability and self-efficacy.”
There are broader factors at play too, says Elisa Niemtzow, VP of consumer sectors and global membership at business network and consultancy firm Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). Multiple wars and atrocities, the skyrocketing cost of living, ongoing aftermaths of the pandemic and compounding social crises are colliding in a disruptive and concerning geopolitical context, which is affecting how workers balance their career and personal lives, she explains. Added to this, the shift from in-person to largely remote working has cut down human interaction in the workplace, making it harder to build a sense of belonging and support among colleagues.
Meanwhile, the pressure to produce more at work and faster is only increasing, making it harder for employees to balance short-term emergencies with longer-term priorities.
Removing unnecessary stress
Both the employee and their employer have a role to play in creating more supportive and sustainable workplace practices. Leaders need to role model these changes, says Niemtzow. “That means switching off on vacation rather than checking emails and working regular hours instead of giving the impression of being frantic and overworked all the time. The employee and employer need to be aligned on the company’s purpose and what they will or won’t tolerate on the journey to achieving it.”
It also includes creating cultures that allow employees to set and maintain clear boundaries, adds burnout expert Subira Jones. To help people prevent and recover from burnout, Jones has developed a five-step process that allows you to establish whether you are run-down or burnt out; removing unnecessary stress, eliminating unnecessary debts and building financial safety, pursuing meaningful rest and taking control of your career and lifestyle.
Joey Pringle, founder and co-owner of Guangzhou-based alternative leather bag manufacturer Veshin Factory, says he uses transcendental meditation, a form of meditation proven to reduce stress and anxiety while increasing brain function and cardiovascular health. Not only does this make his workload more sustainable, it allows him to make decisions more in line with sustainability and ethics, he says. “When you raise your own consciousness, that radiates down to everything else.” Meditation and wellness is now one of Veshin Factory’s five company pillars and there is financial support available for employees who wish to take a course in transcendental meditation.
Fashion is facing a burnout epidemic, with marginalised communities, purpose-driven professionals and freelancers bearing the brunt. As the prospect of a mass exodus looms, calls for a slower pace and systemic reform mount.
Others place further emphasis on sustained workplace interventions. Businesses from Ikea to Google are working with the IDGs to implement their framework of 23 skills and qualities needed to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. “People tend to treat the climate crisis as a technical problem, which means we are underinvesting in the cognitive, emotional and relational skills we depend upon to be resilient, collaborative and successful as we work towards sustainability,” explains the non-profit’s Bristow.
Changes have already started to trickle into corporate cultures in piecemeal ways: many businesses now offer lunchtime yoga sessions or free subscriptions to meditation and mindfulness apps. Harvard Business School professor and IDGs advisor Amy Edmondson recommends checking in with people at the beginning of meetings, to create psychological trust and encourage people to be more mindful in that moment. Others have adopted a four-day week to boost wellbeing and productivity. But few businesses have connected the dots with their deeper culture, says Bristow.
Shifting value systems
Outdated workplace cultures based on overproduction and overconsumption incentivise people to ignore the alarm bells their bodies sound, instead fuelling further production with caffeine and sugar, says Phang.
These outdated cultures are also more likely to trigger people’s threat response system, says Bristow. Instead of encouraging people to operate from the “rest and digest” state — which incubates creativity, collaboration and caring — these systems force employees into fight, flight, freeze or fawn. To change this, we must examine the value systems that underpin corporate cultures.
“We have two types of value systems as human beings: extrinsic values (such as power, fame, status and money), and intrinsic values (such as creativity, family, belonging and purpose),” explains Bristow. “Research has shown that if you focus on one, you suppress the other.” Sustainability requires us to switch from extrinsic to intrinsic values, yet many company cultures still promote and incentivise those that are extrinsic.
These values show up in actions and behaviours, says McKinsey’s Jeffery. “That’s how you really test a culture. If you tolerate someone who is a massive revenue generator but treats people awfully and creates a toxic workplace, that says a lot about what you actually value versus your professed values. People really notice that.”
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