What is Sustainable Fashion?
Let’s begin by looking at what being sustainable means. Sustainability is using the planet’s natural resources responsibly so we can live our lives now without compromising the needs of future generations or endangering the environment.
Simply put, sustainable fashion aims to be good for people and for the planet. Currently the way many of us live is unsustainable. Earth Overshoot Day is the moment in the year when we have consumed all the natural resources our planet can regenerate in a year and should be no earlier than the end of December. In the UK earth overshoot day was
the 19th of May 2022, so we really need two and a bit planets to keep consuming as we do.
Fashion is the third biggest manufacturing industry on the planet, after cars and tech, and can play a big part in creating a sustainable future for us all.
FASHION FACTS
Fashion is responsible for 10% of all our carbon emissions.
It’s estimated around 100 billion items of clothing are made each year.
Just over 12% of everyone working on the planet is involved in producing our clothes, shoes and accessories.
Meanwhile our increasing use of polyester fabrics means that washing our clothes is putting the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles into the sea each year.
And the equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is sent to landfill or incinerated every second.
FASHION’S FUTURE
To be sustainable fashion will need to create new ways of operating based on making less new stuff, reusing what’s already in existence and recycling what can’t be reworn into new garments.
REDUCE
Since 84% of the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions lie in producing raw materials
and making them into fabric, one of the most effective changes would be to make less new stuff.
One way to do this is to ask you, the shopper, what you want. “On demand” businesses let
you vote on the styles they should make to stop overproduction.
“Slow fashion” brands are moving away from seasonal trends and creating clothes you’ll
want to wear for many years. Made to last, some of these clothes come with lifetime
guarantees so you can get your clothes repaired for free.
REUSE
At the moment only around 20% of all the clothing made gets reused but the good news is
that the secondhand fashion market is predicted to be bigger than fast fashion by 2030.
Another trend to watch is upcycling.
Here designers transform old clothes into new desirable pieces. This is something anyone can do? What’s hanging in your wardrobe that you can reinvent today.
RECYCLE
Sadly less than 1% of our old clothes are recycled into new clothing right now but we predict this will start to change. Watch this space...
And what can you do?
Don’t underestimate your power as a consumer. Changing your shopping habits can affect a brand's behaviour. Do your research and try to buy less and buy better - read our guide to sustainable shopping to learn more.
Even better, think about joining the Fashion Industry! Become part of the change you want to see happen. Up to 80% of a garments carbon footprint will be decided during the design and development process. Train to be a designer and make a real difference...
Information sources
JB McKinnon Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_fashion
Fixing Fashion
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/1952/report-summary.html
WHO
WEF
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/fashion-industry-carbon-unsustainable-environment-pollution/
WRAP
https://wrap.org.uk/resources/report/valuing-our-clothes-cost-uk-fashion
Active Sustainability
https://www.zippia.com/advice/fashion-industry-statistics/
