The balance of sustainable fashion lies within your every purchase.

A year or two ago this article would have been entitled “Fashion Giants Ride Sustainability Wave.” At this stage in the game talking about companies like Wal-Mart, Target, H&M, Gap Inc doing their bit is like greenwashing the chairs on the Titanic. With climate change officially confirmed, fashion companies have an irrefutable responsibility to green their manufacturing and products. But, given the choice, would they?

We often go back and forth discussing the future of the fashion industry here at EcoSalon. I don’t know if the model is broken and needs to be dumped on its stylish head, or if we can fix it with some earnest action and better designed products. Maybe both need to be happening at the same time. You can do both by going ahead and protesting against the concentration of wealth among the privileged few by shopping local fashion from small independent merchants this holiday season, but also check out the fruits of the big brands’ eco initiatives. Their partnerships to minimize energy waste and hazardous chemicals help to encourage eco-fashion at reasonable prices too. Well, some of them.

Here are the latest developments from three of fashion’s well-known brands, Levi’s, Havanianas and Manolo Blahnik.

Levi’s goal is to support the 300 million people currently engaged in cotton farming around the world.

At a cocktail reception last week, Levi Strauss & Co. announced that 2 million pairs of its Denizen and Levi brand jeans now contain a blend of cotton certified by the Better Cotton Initiative. In partnership with other leading brands such as H&M, Adidas, IKEA and organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, Solidaridad and PAN-UK, they’re adhering to the standards of Better Cotton – cotton grown in a way that is less harmful to both the environment and some 40,000 farmers in India, Pakistan, Mali and Brazil. Levi’s executives say their goal is to eventually support the 300 million people engaged in cotton farming around the world.

Sales of Havaianas limited edition “Conservation International” collection have raised approximately $100,000 per year for the Brazilian marine organization.

According to an article in the New York Times yesterday, Havaianas, the Brazilian company that makes about 200 million pairs of flip-flops each year, has just introduced Eco Havaianas that are made from scrap materials incurred during regular production. Other products include Havaianas IPÊ, which designates 7 percent of its revenue for the Institute for Ecological Research in Brazil. Another style, the CI-Brazil, funds projects for the protection of local endangered species and in its first year sold more than 500,000 pairs.

The shoes are sustainable. Is the price?

Fish skin is very much the medium of the moment with Alexander Wang unveiling a collection of sneakers with fish skin detailing for Spring 2012 and Sex in the City favorite, Manolo Blahnik, announcing recently that he was using the “fish leather” in his new range of eco shoes. Made from sustainable tilapia skin, raffia and cork, the collection is part of a collaboration with eco designer Marcia Patmos. Patmos told Womens Wear Daily, “I love the idea of Tilapia skin because it is a by-product of the food industry that would otherwise be discarded, but it’s actually a beautiful material perfect for small leather goods’. The shoes will be sold at Manolo Blahnik shops for $895, WWD reports.

Tech fashion is a hot topic lately because we have so much of it, and storing our gadget goodies in a weakly padded and smelly, toxic case just doesn’t fit in with an eco lifestyle.

Thankfully, the founders of GreenSmart found a way to solve all our problems with their full line of bags, accessories and laptop and netbook cases (also made from a water based material called Neogreene (cute right?) Neogreene remarkably compares to the feel of neoprene but with 25 percent less petroleum used, 25 percent less energy and the elimination of common toxic solvent adhesives found in neoprene. The company says that on the corner of each of their new Bottles 2 Bags backpacks and messenger bags, there’s a badge stitched in, indicating the number of (16 ounce) recycled plastic bottles that went into making it.

Not only are the cases strong and durable, but they come waterproof and thermally resistant to the little heater your laptop or Netbook can become.

Founders Tom Larsen and Debbie Williams are passionate about their products as much as their employees, and have implemented ethical social practices for GreenSmart including their product materials as well as manufacturing practices.

“As the specifiers of everything that goes into every product we made, we chose to hold ourselves accountable for the actions of our suppliers working on our behalf and for the consumers who did not know any better when they purchased our products. That was 2006. From that period forward we began the transformational process of replacing product materials with eco-conscious materials, teaching our retail customers about the materials, phasing out existing products and materials. What we did was nothing short of a do-over. Within 30 months, we had converted our supply chain to greener processes, greener materials and greener thinking.”

We at EcoSalon are especially impressed by the fabrics used for the GreenSmart “Bottles 2 Bags” which are derived from 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic bottles, and the fact that they “bumped up the aesthetics,” to match their environmental commitment, which includes donating 10 percent of their profits to the World Wildlife Fund and other groups – not to mention naming all their gear after endangered animals.

This case above is the Akepa, named after the rare Maui Akepa, a small yellow bird that was once abundant in many Hawaiian islands.

Do you like it? Do you want to be like the Akepa bird hiding in the branches illustrated on this case?

Then you should leave a comment below and try your luck at winning. And if you do win, you get to choose between a laptop or Netbook case in any color. Sound fair?

Then get to it!

(Legalese: contest rules and FTC compliance.)

Not only did the United States score dismally in the Happy Planet Index, its placement (7th out of 8 countries) in the G8 Climate Scorecards was also pretty grim.

Conducted by the World Wildlife Fund and SE-Allianz, the 2009 G8 Climate Scorecards report looks at how Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US rank in past, present and future (planned) energy performance. Using a “stoplight system,”  each of the countries was graded in three important categories: Improvements Since 1990, Current Status and Policies for the Future.

Overall, the results were disappointing. None of the G8 countries had reached their goals. No green lights were issued and in fact, half of the countries scored didn’t progress past the red light.

The report highlights the fact that emissions have been steadily increasing in the U.S. and Canada since 1990 and, more recently, they have also been on the rise in Russia and Italy.

To find out exactly how your country ranked, check out the interactive climate scorecards.

Image: akeg