Eileen Fisher was early to B Corp certification, but a decade later, its ambitions have expanded into regenerative farming, circular design, and daily accountability across its supply chain.
When Eileen Fisher became a Certified B Corporation in 2015, the move wasn’t a marketing play. It was an inflection point, and one that helped codify what the brand had already been doing for years: building a fashion company rooted in ethical labor, environmental stewardship, and transparent governance.
“We were excited that a new organization was attempting to go beyond financial metrics as the indicator of business health, and incorporate social and environmental metrics,” Shona Quinn, Senior Director of Social Consciousness at Eileen Fisher, told Ethos via email. “At that time, we were engaged in building a mission-driven organization and believed it would be meaningful to see how a third-party organization measured our progress. That first assessment, ten years ago, was humbling — we passed the 80-point threshold to get certified but not by much. The B Corp assessment is rigorous and helps us better understand our strengths and weaknesses.”
The B Corporation designation, administered by the nonprofit B Lab, offers a standardized way to measure impact across five core categories: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers. Companies must score a minimum of 80 out of 200 points to become certified, with re-certification required every three years. Eileen Fisher’s latest score is 109.4 — its highest yet and a steady climb from its original 81.6. In the broader fashion landscape, where carbon emissions account for up to 10 percent of global emissions and labor exploitation remains rampant, this level of accountability is rare.
Still, the B Corp seal is not without criticism. Some watchdog organizations argue that it can be leveraged for greenwashing, pointing to gaps in the certification process, including an overreliance on self-reporting and the ability for companies to offset weak performance in one area with high marks in another. According to Ethical Consumer, this means a company “could score zero for an area you feel strongly about (say environment) and still display the logo.” It also notes that while the B Corp process is lengthy, its climate standards are unusually vague. “There didn’t appear to be, for example, an expectation to be reporting carbon emissions or to have science-based targets for reduction in the versions we have seen.”
Labels that have consistently received, and, critically, raised their B Corp ranking every three-year recertification period, are more often than not, doing so in earnest and making improvements in all areas. Eileen Fisher, a privately held company with a founder still actively involved, views this certification as a living framework. Rather than rest on its laurels, the brand uses it as a measuring stick to push further. That philosophy plays out across its operations, especially in efforts like its Renew program, launched in 2009 to tackle textile waste through take-back, resale, and upcycling.
“Sometimes the seeds of an idea take time to germinate,” Quinn says. “In 2003, the leader of Eileen’s Foundation, Cheryl Campbell, was inspired by the circular concepts shared in Bill McDonough’s book, Cradle to Cradle. She shared these ideas with Eileen and the team, and this activated the synergies between reuse and timeless design. In 2009, the Foundation funded an initial clothing recycling initiative that later became Eileen Fisher Renew.”
To date, more than 2.3 million garments have been resold, donated, or remade through Eileen Fisher’s Renew, a staggering figure when compared to the 92 million tons of textiles that end up in landfills each year. These efforts are buoyed by a customer base that has come to expect — and demand — sustainable innovation.
That innovation extends into Eileen Fisher’s material sourcing. Since 2019, the company has been incorporating regenerative wool, with regenerative organic cotton following shortly thereafter. “Sourcing fibers from farms that utilize regenerative practices supports land and soil health, increases biodiversity and captures carbon from the atmosphere,” Quinn said.
While regenerative grazing can support biodiversity and carbon sequestration, animal welfare remains a point of contention for wool, though. Critics argue that wool relies on the commodification of animals, which introduces a layer of ethical ambiguity even when environmental practices are exemplary. Groups like PETA have long pointed to instances of cruelty in large-scale operations, citing cases of rough shearing practices and inadequate veterinary care. While regenerative farms tend to operate on smaller scales with more stringent animal welfare standards, the lack of universal enforcement or third-party oversight leaves room for inconsistency.
For Eileen Fisher, the challenge lies in balancing holistic land stewardship with transparency around how animals are treated within those systems. “We strive to move beyond ‘less bad’ to creating programs that support the long-term wellbeing of people and the planet,” said Quinn. That commitment may increasingly require addressing the tensions between environmental gains and ethical responsibility, particularly as consumers scrutinize not just what materials are used, but how they are sourced and from whom.
This outlook also informs other considerations across Eileen Fisher’s supply chain. The fashion industry has long struggled with forced labor, child labor, and wages below subsistence levels. In response, the company employs third-party standards like the Higg Facility Social and Labor Module and Better Work assessments, alongside mobile surveys designed to capture workers’ lived experiences. “We want all workers to be treated the way we want to be treated at work,” Quinn noted. “Humans are dynamic and human rights work is pursued daily. It is never an end destination.”
In 2024, Eileen Fisher joined RISE, a collective effort to support women’s empowerment in global factories. It also sponsors the Global Living Wage Coalition’s benchmark updates and encourages suppliers to align with those standards. “For every supplier-focused program, we try to have an equivalent internal program and vice versa,” Quinn said.
Fair Trade certification plays a growing role here as well. But even that requires careful navigation. “One [challenge] is clearly communicating the value of Fair Trade, which is a direct investment in programs vetted and selected by the supply chain workers,” said Quinn. “Another challenge is building cross-functional commitments internally across sourcing, finance, and branding teams, and externally where we engage with Fair Trade USA and suppliers.”
Where it works, she said, the results are galvanizing. Eye care, grocery subsidies, and disaster relief have all been realized through these worker-driven programs, creating ripple effects across the value chain. That, in turn, deepens consumer trust — a fragile commodity in an age of climate anxiety and greenwashing fatigue.
And while some legacy brands look for shortcuts, Eileen Fisher doubles down on systems change. Its partnership with Native, a fellow B Corp and carbon management firm, exemplifies this long game. Their joint initiative helps farmers make infrastructure improvements that allow for better land management and carbon drawdown. The program is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 50,000 tons annually.
“We understand the business risks associated with extreme weather patterns and resource depletion, and commit to the spirit of collaboration to resolve these challenges,” said Quinn. That belief has also led the company to become a longtime member of Ceres, the influential nonprofit working to align corporate strategies with climate advocacy.
Internally, the brand continues to develop customer-facing tools that support slow fashion values. Its “Closet” virtual try-on tool and a Seasonal Planner are designed to discourage impulse purchases and instead promote intention. “When [the customer] checks out with a product, we want her to feel good about her purchase,” Quinn said.
Looking ahead, the brand is aligning its future goals with regenerative thinking. “We strive to be a regenerative and just organization,” Quinn said. “We bring these ideals into this moment because we understand that each decision we make today creates tomorrow.” That includes revisiting the brand’s mission and values, expanding the use of circular and regenerative materials, and continuing to cultivate community relationships — whether with suppliers, customers, or the land itself. Quinn quotes the late environmental scientist, educator, and author Donella Meadows, “we are ‘learning to dance with complex problems’ because what would life be without a dance?”
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