Exploring the perceptions of climate-aware Generation-Z towards fast-fashion’s greenwashing for the climate crisis

The chapter explores young consumers perceptions of fast-fashion sustainability marketing. Emerging from the premise that Generation-Z are educated in climate awareness from a young age and are proficient in navigating the internet for information, recent research has started to fill the gaps of how they process concern for the climate-crisis or how this might impact on their consumer practice (Williams and Hodges, 2022). With discourse that the fast-fashion industry contributes significantly to the climate-crisis intensifying, young consumers may experience conflict between their knowledge of the consequences of the fast-fashion system and their desire to frequently purchase inexpensive garments. Fast-fashion retailers have acknowledged concern for the climate-crisis and increased their marketing of sustainable communication; yet, this has been accused of ‘greenwashing’ through ambiguous sustainability claims in an effort to appeal to sustainably aware consumers. Increasingly Generation-Z are calling out such claims; however, there has been little academic attention on how young people practice concern for the climate-crisis or how they view market responsibility for addressing sustainability. This chapter reports on ten qualitative interviews with Generation-Z to explore their perceptions towards the marketing of fast-fashion sustainability. The findings reveal apathy towards the fast-fashion sustainability marketing, emerging from their embedded awareness of the climate-crisis and an understanding of sustainable terminology, which led to evaluations that fast-fashion and sustainability were incongruent. The participants criticised neo-colonial capitalistic economics that focus upon growth rather than the climate-crisis and social equality, and disengaged from businesses considered as greenwashing by rediverting their consumer practice with tactics that include avoidance and boycotting.