Jane Fonda, Leonardo DiCaprio among backers of ‘Fashion Sustainability’ bill in NY

Actors Jane Fonda, Rosario Dawson, Leonardo DiCaprio and a host of other celebrities are calling for the passage of New York legislation that would hold the fashion industry to rigorous sustainability standards.

“As a climate activist, I want to support the efforts to push major apparel and footwear brands to do what is needed to bring fashion in line with what climate science is saying: We must stop polluting the environment, cutting down forests, despoiling our oceans and creating forever waste,” Fonda said in a statement on Friday.

The legislation in question is the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, which has begun advancing simultaneously in New York’s state Assembly and state Senate as A. 8352 and S. 7428, respectively. The goal of the full bill is to require “fashion retail sellers and manufacturers to disclose environmental and social due diligence policies” while creating a community benefit fund to finance environmental justice projects.

Both versions of the bill were introduced in October and sent to their respective consumer protection committees in January.

If the measure becomes law, all fashion retailers and manufacturers that do business in New York and that have “annual worldwide gross receipts that exceed $100 million” will need to disclose their “environmental and social due diligence policies, processes and outcomes,” as well as set targets for future improvement.

Should a company not comply, it could be subject to fines of up to 2 percent of annual revenues of $450 million or more, according to the text of the legislation. Those fines would go into the community benefit fund.

“Right now, the fashion industry has a larger carbon footprint than France, Germany and the UK combined and is on course to take up more than one-fourth of the carbon budget by 2050,” Fonda said.

Joining Fonda in her support for the act are Cameron Diaz, Meadow Walker, Shailene Woodley, Nikki Reed, Andie MacDowell and Zooey Deschanel.

The actors came together through the New Standard Institute, as part of a larger Act on Fashion Coalition.

Fonda described the current situation as “untenable,” adding that “the industry faces no regulations and is free to exploit the least protected regions of the world.”

Dawson echoed Fonda’s sentiments, stressing that “fashion is one of the least regulated industries globally.”

“It is a major polluter and a leading industry of modern day slavery,” Dawson said. “We need to stop the race to the bottom.”