How sustainable fashion impacts our lives?
It is said that the fashion industry and its supply chain is one of the largest polluting industries. According to Bloomberg 10% of the world's carbon dioxide gasses are emitted by the fashion industry, and this industry releases about 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, which is more than the shipping and aviation industries combined. All this has led to a lot of sensitivities about fashion, and over the years, a lot of effort has been made to create more sustainability in the industry.
The problems of the fashion industry are not limited to environmental pollution. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that 300 million people work in the clothing industry around the world. A large amount of clothing production is produced in low-income countries such as Indonesia and Bangladesh. The workers who are producing our clothes are mostly women and face problems such as low incomes, long working hours, and harassment and abuse.
Now it's time to clear the name of this industry from environmental pollution, unstable economy and exploitation of workers by creating sustainable fashion.
Where does sustainable fashion come from?
It was in the 1960s that new ideas about environmental pollution and their relationship with chemicals from industrial and agricultural activities were proposed. But for years, these concepts remained as theories in books and articles and were not relevant to the general public. From the late 80s and the beginning of 90s, concepts related to sustainability made their way into the fashion industry. Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins, co-founders of ESPRIT, were among the first well-known people in the fashion industry to try to make their products sustainable. For example, about 90% of their production was made of cotton fabric.
In the coming years, by clarifying different angles of pollution caused by the fashion industry and the clarification of the social damage caused by the production methods of fast fashion brands, more efforts have been made for the sustainability of fashion. But despite many efforts to innovate, in years, the fashion industry has not been able to reduce its planetary impact. Most items are still manufactured using non-biodegradable petroleum-based synthetic materials and end up in landfills. That is why it seems that we still have a long way to go to achieve sustainability in the fashion industry.
Fashion and environmental concerns
Since years ago and with the changes that appeared in the textile and sewing industry, fashion has become a global phenomenon. The production of more clothes at a lower price made more people have access to clothes that fit the current fashion. On the other hand, new trends come to the market in every season and things that were popular in the previous season are marginalized. It is natural that at the moment the demand for new clothes is extremely high and the waste related to clothes is extremely high.
This issue has resulted in many environmental risks. Bloomberg reports the United States alone throws away 11.3 million tons of textile waste every year. These clothes are eventually either burned or buried underground. Finally, only about 20% of the produced clothes around the world are recycled or reused.
Sustainable fashion tries to prevent further damage to the environment by using natural fibers that do not use petroleum materials in their production and recycled fibers that are produced from old fabrics. Also, in the production of sustainable fabrics, dyeing methods that introduce toxic chemicals into the environment are not used, and chemical dyes are replaced by natural and harmless dyes.
Fashion and social concerns
The systematic exploitation of workers in the fashion industry is one of the biggest problems in this industry. Many workers who work in the fashion industry do not have proper safety and health conditions. Long working hours and low wages are among the violations of workers' rights in the fashion industry.
According to the report on the website of the International Labor Organization in only one instance in 2013, the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh collapsed due to structural failure. In this disaster, 1132 people were killed and more than 2500 people were injured. This disaster was one of the cases that caused the media to pay attention to the plight of workers in the fashion industry.
In sustainable fashion, your clothes are produced in standard factories with respect for workers' rights and full transparency. Sustainable fashion also pays attention to the local culture of each region in its production and uses local workers to produce its products. Since the American economy too has a rich history of cotton farming and apparel manufacturing, sustainable fashion has the potential to provide jobs for local people.
Fashion and economic concerns
The fashion industry is extremely ambitious. The constant effort of this industry for continuous economic growth has caused it to become one of the most polluted and exploitative industries. In order to achieve sustainability, it is necessary to change the economic strategies of this industry based on the growth of GDP at any cost.
According to a new report prepared in March 2022 by the European Environment Bureau, in order to achieve sustainable economic development in fashion, it is necessary to consider 4 new principles for this industry:
Establishing limits to reduce how much is produced and consumed in line with planetary boundaries
Promoting fairness to ensure social justice globally
Creating healthy and just governance to make sure the transition is inclusive and participatory
Embracing new exchange systems where clothing and textiles are provided in ways that do not depend on overproduction and overconsumption
How can fashion be sustainable?
We understand the environmental, economic and social concerns of the fashion industry, and any solution that can address one or more of these concerns will help make the industry more sustainable. For example, the recycling of old clothes, reusing them and higher quality products in order to reduce the need for consumers to buy again are some of the solutions that have been used so far.
Some companies use eco-friendly raw materials and fabrics to produce their products, and by being transparent about the safety of their employees' working environment, their wages, and the fairness of their working hours, they assure their customers that they prioritize improvement of their employees' situation. In this way, with a set of appropriate economic, social and environmental decisions, the fashion industry can be put on the path of sustainability.
Terms you must know
Until a few years ago, people did not know the difference between vegan, organic and eco products, and for most people, attention to environmental issues was a marginal and unimportant concept. But today, most of us have touched the dangers of environmental pollution up close and seen the dark side of the fashion industry about the exploitation of workers. Now that we know about the impact of fashion on the environment, society and economy and are familiar with the concept of sustainability in the fashion industry, it is natural to look for the most sustainable products.
When we talk about sustainable fashion, we come across dozens of different terms and phrases, each describing in some way the approach of fashion companies, the quality of their products, their supply chain, or all three. Therefore, to better understand fashion companies and choose green products, it is better to familiarize yourself with the most popular terms of sustainable fashion.
Slow Fashion
You must have come across the term fast fashion by now. If you don't know what fast fashion is, in short, the flow of cheap but stylish clothes that move quickly from design to retail stores to match the trends is called fast fashion.
Affordable prices, instant gratification for consumers, higher profits for companies, and the democratization of stylish clothing are the benefits of fast fashion. But this fashion, which has many fans, uses non-environmental and unethical procedures to produce its products as quickly as possible. Producing a lot of pollution and waste, promoting a "disposable" mentality, low wages and unsafe workplaces are among the disadvantages of this type of fashion.
In contrast to fast fashion, there is another type of fashion that works by slowing down the production process to improve working conditions, make the entire production cycle more transparent, improve quality to make clothes last longer, and promote more sustainable consumption behavior. In this type of fashion known as slow fashion, the priority of production changes from quantity to quality and does not follow new trends. In such a fashion, buying less but more quality clothes along with respecting and treating people and the planet fairly is considered a value.
Renting clothes, sharing old ones and following minimalism in clothing are examples of slow fashion.
Ethical Fashion
In the opinion of many people, the concept of sustainable fashion refers more than anything to the environmental impact of fashion. For this reason, the concept of ethical fashion is used alongside sustainable fashion. Ethical fashion mostly refers to the human impacts of the fashion industry and includes concepts such as working conditions, production, and fair-trade.
"Ethical fashion" is based on the "do no harm principle" and includes production methods that are both ethically correct and acceptable. Fashion companies that have ethical fashion on their agenda usually explain transparently about the working conditions of their employees. Sufficient wages, fair working hours, creating safety in the workplace and supporting sustainable livelihoods are among the most important issues in ethical fashion.
Of course, the word "ethical" can also mean environmental issues and animal rights. For example, ethical fashion brands may include less water consumption, not using toxic chemicals and not harming animals.
Conscious Fashion
In the fashion industry, the word conscious fashion is a very new term. Although sustainable fashion has attracted a lot of attention in recent years and there are few brands that have not made any effort to show themselves sustainable, we have not yet seen a significant change in the fashion industry. This is where conscious fashion shows its importance. Conscious fashion encourages people to gain a better understanding of what they are buying, how it was produced, and how it got to them.
When people become more aware of their personal style and personal values, they can make better decisions when buying, regardless of existing advertisements. In conscious fashion, you become more aware of how clothes are produced and distributed, and you end up buying things you really like, not things that are trendy and advertised.
Green Fashion
As the name suggests, "eco fashion" or "green fashion" defines fashion items that minimize environmental impact. In green fashion, the processes in production, distribution and consumption are carried out in such a way as to cause the least destruction in the environment. Raw materials and fabrics used to produce clothes in green fashion are made from recycled or biodegradable materials. Also, in these products, fabrics with vegetable fibers are used, and the use of animal products is minimized.
Greenwashing in Fashion
Many fashion brands claim to be green; But in the end, with the green cover, they deal with the systematic exploitation of labor, social exclusion and environmental destruction, which is generally called as greenwashing. Fashion companies spend considerable money marketing their products and services as eco-friendly while making no effort to reduce their environmental impact. It is a deceptive marketing trick to mislead consumers who prefer to buy goods and services from green or environmentally friendly brands.
According to the research conducted by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), overall apparel consumption is projected to increase by 63% from 62 million tons in 2017 to 102 million tons in 2030, so the outlook for the fashion industry is not so bright. As long as the business models of fashion brands are based on growth, as well as the production and sale of high volumes of clothing, almost all initiatives in this industry are known as greenwashing. However, there are brands that have significant and transparent efforts to protect the environment. But the number of these brands is small compared to the entire fashion industry, and they get lost in the mass advertising of bigger brands.
What will the future of sustainable fashion look like?
It's hard to predict that sustainability will become mainstream in an industry as unsustainable as fashion, but in recent years there have been changes that make followers of sustainable fashion and the environment hopeful for the future of fashion. In 2009, the Danish Fashion Institute held one of the first sustainable fashion summits in Copenhagen, just in time for the UN COP15 summit. Since then, many summits have been held around the world and numerous reports have been filed about the future of sustainable fashion.
It seems that in order for sustainable fashion to have more impact, existing economic policies in the fashion industry should change and governments should consider legislation to further encourage the fashion industry to create more sustainable practices. Tax incentives for sustainable practices are among the laws that can help the growth and expansion of these practices.
