Post by Sarobindo Malhotra

“The Most Sustainable Garment Is the One That Was Never Overproduced.” Fashion talks endlessly about circularity, recycling and next-generation materials. But its biggest sustainability failure starts much earlier: We keep making more than the world can absorb. And regulation is catching up. From July 2026, the EU will prohibit large companies from destroying unsold clothing and footwear and require greater transparency on unsold inventory. Waste is no longer invisible. Overproduction is becoming a boardroom issue. The leadership question is simple: If we cannot destroy excess inventory, why are we still planning for excess inventory? The next frontier of sustainable fashion is not better end-of-life solutions. It is production discipline. That means: • Planning against real demand, not optimistic forecasts. • Investing in better forecasting and agile supply chains. • Rewarding profitable, responsible growth rather than maximum volume. • Treating overproduction as a governance failure, not merely an inventory problem. Reducing unnecessary production delivers a double dividend: Lower emissions. Stronger economics. The industry doesn’t have a recycling problem. It has a production planning problem. And perhaps the most sustainable garment is not the one that gets recycled. It is the one that never needed to be made. #Leadership #FashionIndustry #Sustainability #ESG #ResponsibleSourcing #SupplyChain #CircularEconomy #Decarbonisation #CorporateGovernance #Textiles