Can sustainability survive capitalism? At Sourcing Journal’s annual Fall Summit, Dana Davis suggested the fashion industry may be asking the wrong question.

“Can capitalism survive sustainability?” Davis, founder of Dana Davis Consulting, countered during a panel moderated by Sourcing Journal climate and labor editor Jasmin Malik Chua on Tuesday.

“Can the systems that we are operating in be maintained when climate change comes knocking?” she asked. “That doesn’t seem to be the case to me.”

Both questions captured the tension running through the discussion: Fashion has spent decades trying to make sustainability compatible with its existing business model, but the industry’s continued dependence on growth, volume and margin may itself need to change.

That tension manifested in 2026 as two once-popular sustainable fashion brands saw ownership change hands after struggling to turn their models into durable businesses. Allbirds sold off its intellectual property and assets to American Exchange Group for $39 million while Everlane got scooped up by fast-fashion giant Shein for a reported $100 million price tag.

Davis herself has encountered that tension firsthand. Before founding her consultancy, she spent more than 15 years at sustainable and circular fashion brand Mara Hoffman before the label shuttered in 2024.

Nearly two decades ago, the sustainability conversation often centered on relatively straightforward material substitutions, such as replacing conventional polyester with recycled polyester. Those changes represented real progress, Davis said, but the industry largely failed to question the commercial system into which those materials were being introduced.

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