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By now, the word is out: fashion, particularly 鈥渇ast fashion,鈥� is killing our planet. Low-cost, cheaply made clothes that are designed to be worn briefly until styles change are terrible for the environment.

Over the past decade and a half, consumers have been buying and discarding considerably more outfits. Between 2000 and 2014, , with shoppers purchasing roughly 60% more garments; at the same time, the number of times a piece of clothing is worn before it鈥檚 tossed out dropped by a third. The fashion industry is now solely responsible for 10% of the earth鈥檚 and 20% of its ; it鈥檚 the second largest polluter of water in the world. And in the end, very few of those clothes are recycled: most of them end up in .

Those figures are downright dismal鈥攅specially for an industry that markets itself as being about positive feelings and fun.

But the numbers are no secret, and today there鈥檚 a wide range of advocates and organizations working to hold the industry accountable to improving its track record. Within the field, a few outlier brands have made massive changes in how they do business, and others are banding together in groups like and to identify new operating models.  

That means consumers have a growing opportunity to make educated decisions, sort the polluters from the companies that are trying to improve, and ultimately push the industry toward greater sustainability.

The $1.3 trillion apparel industry is very complex, though, with inputs that start in the field and may well travel halfway around the world before hanging in your closets. What elements should buyers prioritize?

鈥淚t seems so overwhelming, but it鈥檚 not as complicated as it seems,鈥� says Elizabeth Cline. She鈥檚 the author of a popular about fast fashion and recently released . If you鈥檙e planning on buying a new piece of clothing, the place to start thinking about environmental impacts is the label, she says. After all, the largest portion of the clothing industry鈥檚 environmental impact is in the manufacturing phase, not retailing or shipping.

Buyers who dutifully lug canvas bags to the grocery store and would never dream of sipping out of a single-use water bottle might be surprised to learn that of textiles today include synthetics made from fossil fuels. They鈥檙e part plastic, that is. And because plastic is cheap and easy to manufacture, it鈥檚 hard to avoid; even a t-shirt or a pair of jeans may have synthetic material mixed in.

But not all polyesters are the same. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e shopping for synthetic material, look for recycled content. It uses less energy, and no new sources,鈥� says Cline. In most cases, that means the fabric鈥攐r , in some cases鈥攕tarted out as plastic bottles that were melted down and turned into new materials. Recycled nylon is another new option; Econyl comes from post-consumer waste and has become increasingly popular in clothing.

Most natural materials can鈥檛 be recycled; the fibers tend to shorten with processing, so they have to be mixed with virgin material to be viable. But post-consumer cashmere鈥攖hat is, sweaters made from discarded garments or leftover factory scraps that are then re-spun鈥攈as become a thing, purportedly saving grasslands in countries like Mongolia and China from the ecological destruction caused by cashmere goats.

If you鈥檙e shopping for cotton or wool clothes, look for a tag that says they were produced organically. That鈥檚 key: cotton is grown using huge amounts of pesticides, and wool often requires harsh scouring agents, bleaches, and dyes.

The makers of rayon, also known as viscose, have often billed the fabric as 鈥渘atural,鈥� and indeed it does come from wood or bamboo. But the raw material may be sourced from old-growth forests, and it requires powerful, poisonous chemicals to be transformed into usable fibers. So when buying rayon, keep an eye out for garments labeled Tencel or lyocell (the former is the brand name; lyocell is the generic fabric); while their manufacture does require chemicals, they鈥檙e safer than those used on regular rayon, and the wood used as a raw material is certified as sustainably sourced.

Another key component of sustainable shopping can happen in front of the computer. The apparel industry鈥檚 supply chains are notoriously opaque; materials may move from the fields of one country to a spinning mill in another, a knitter in a third, and a manufacturer in perhaps a fourth nation. 鈥淓ach step requires specialized equipment and significant investment,鈥� says Donna Worley of Textile Exchange. 鈥淚t may take six or seven stops and six to eight months before a bale of cotton becomes a pair of socks,鈥� and the same is true for other fabrics.

In response, says Cline, get thee to Google. 鈥淪tart looking for brands that are rethinking the way they manufacture clothing,鈥� she says. That means much more than just powering their headquarters with renewable energy; increasingly, it means radical transparency about the supply chain they鈥檙e utilizing. Trailblazing companies like Everlane and Allbirds highlight all of the factories they work with on their websites, opening them up to further scrutiny.

Analysts say that younger shoppers tend to be far more concerned with how their clothes were made than preceding generations鈥攁nd manufacturers are highly aware of it. That鈥檚 consumer power, and an increasing number of brands are responding. Even companies like H&M and Gucci have made significant efforts to reduce their environmental impact, though they鈥檙e still in the minority. Online ranking tools like can highlight various brands鈥� efforts.

But some consumers are electing to abandon disposable fashion altogether and are taking advantage of new disruptive business models. Online secondhand retailers like Thredup and The RealReal are thriving, as is subscription fashion service Rent the Runway, which was valued at $1 billion earlier this year.

And then, of course, there are the brick and mortar thrift shops located in most towns and cities. Many are packed with inventory and humming with business, given the high turnover rate of clothing today. They, too, can be part of a sustainable fashion strategy.

But the first and most important step, says Deborah Drew, associate and social impact lead at the World Resources Institute鈥檚 business center, is simply reducing one鈥檚 consumption. Drew encourages people to not redo their wardrobes every few weeks. 鈥淚nstead, they should buy more timeless pieces they can keep,鈥� she says. 鈥淩eally try to be conscious about what they buy and what impact it has on the planet.鈥�

After all, Drew explains, 鈥淸while] improvements in technology are great, if we鈥檙e still producing at such a volume, it鈥檚 outweighing all the good of these new technologies and fibers. We鈥檙e simply overwhelmed by the volume.鈥�