Why does sustainable apparel sourcing seem built for large brands, not small ones?

I’ve been trying to source apparel in a more sustainable way for a small business, and something keeps coming up.

Suppliers with organic fabrics or certified processes usually come with MOQs and timelines that only work for large brands. Smaller runs either become very expensive or aren’t possible at all. Meanwhile, factories that are flexible on quantities often don’t have strong sustainability practices in place.

It ends up feeling like sustainable apparel sourcing is built around scale, not small brands trying to do things responsibly from the start.