Fashion industry guidelines released this week by trade association the British Retail Consortium say that retailers shouldn't claim that vegan products are sustainable.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has created the guidelines for the UK fashion industry seeking to sell to the growing vegan market.
The voluntary guidelines are intended to help consumers buy products that are labelled as vegan with confidence.
"Vegan" and "sustainable" are not the same
It includes a series of questions that retailers should ask suppliers during the sourcing process, internal checks that companies can make, and a checklist of animal-derived products.
Vegan design products are fast becoming as popular as vegan food, as Dezeen reported last year, but the guidelines stress that labelling a product as vegan does not necessarily mean that it is sustainable. "It should be stated emphatically that retailers should not claim the product is sustainable simply because it is 'vegan'," the guidelines read.
"'Vegan' relates to the absence of animal-derived materials whereas 'sustainable' will mean different things depending on the issue analysed (including embedded water, carbon footprint, and more)."

Confusion over the terms "sustainable", "biodegradable" and "circular", as well as a lack of precise definitions has left them open to abuse.
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