The Future of Fashion & Sustainability | 1 Fashion’s Environment Issue

We love clothes. Whether it’s getting hand-me downs from an older sibling or doing last minute online shopping for a formal dress. Clothes today go beyond a simple necessity. They provide us with comfort, a medium to share our identities, and a belief that maybe we too can be America’s Next Top Model. What we as consumers often don’t take into consideration are the environmental impacts of the fashion industry. Now more than ever before, we purchase and get rid of clothes at an exponential rate, opting to purchase lower-quality but inexpensive apparel that’s most in-fashion thus creating a sector of the fashion industry known as Fast Fashion. Fast Fashion clothes may be more affordable, but they come with exterior costs.

[Photo: The University of Queensland]

Greater public awareness of environmental issues has prompted consumers to demand more from fashion brands. Brands such as Adidas, NIKE, Ralph Lauren, among others, now weave sustainability into their branding and advertising. Although more and more brands are acknowledging how their business models hurt the environment, progress is slow and scattered. New technologies have emerged that aim to tackle fashion’s sustainability issue, but there’s no single silver bullet to the fashion industry’s problems. From reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the reduction of waste accumulation and water consumption, industry leaders have a sizeable to-do-list. However, the responsibility does not fall to producers alone, consumers have equal responsibility reducing apparel waste. 

The fashion industry is the world’s second largest polluter accounting for 10% of all global carbon emissions, behind only the oil & gas industry.[i] At the current rate, the fashion industry’s global carbon emission share is expected to rise by 50% by 2030.[ii] To address pollution, firms will need to restructure the entire supply chain including production, manufacturing, and transportation. Footwear startup Allbirds has developed carbon footprint tools to help businesses measure their own carbon footprints (kg CO2 emissions).[iii]

Water consumption is essential to the production of apparel. Fresh water is used for the dyeing and finishing process for all clothes and the cultivation of cotton. For example, every year the fashion industry uses 93 billion cubic meters of water, which to put into perspective, meets the water consumption of approximately 5 million people, and it requires 20,000 liters of water to produce 1kg of cotton.[iv] Sharply reducing water consumption will relieve the stress on dry regions with limited water supply and reduce the pollution of waterways. Brands can choose fibers with low water consumption, while consumers can take steps to wash less, opt for thrifting practices, and be conscious of what brands they are supporting.[v]

Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Fashion’s third largest problem is waste accumulation at the end of use stage of apparel. Both consumers and producers are at fault for the rapid rate at which clothing is purchased and then deemed out of fashion. With the rise in fast fashion, clothes have become increasingly disposable. Despite their affordability, most of these items end up in the landfills due to their lower quality and short life cycle. On average, in America only 15% of all clothing is recycled or donated at end of life, while the rest goes straight to landfills.[vi] Most of our clothing, 72% to be exact, are made from synthetic fibers that are non-biodegradable and can take up to 200 years to decompose.[vii] These discarded clothes either pile-up in landfills or are later incinerated. In the U.S. alone, consumers produce about 75 lb. of textile waste each year.[viii] The Ellen MacArthur Foundation advises firms to improve recycling through clothing design, collection, and reprocessing.[ix] Brands like Adidas, NIKE, and Patagonia have already introduced circular design models to their supply chains with the goal of creating apparel from sustainable material that can be recycled and reused. Clothing rental and resale companies like Rent The Runway and Depop have recently emerged, in conjunction with the increasing popularity of thrifting, to reimagine fashion’s apparel waste issue.[x]

The fashion industry faces incredible challenges in making their business more sustainable. A complete restructuring of the supply chain will be necessary along with adopting methods to track carbon footprint. While the majority of the fashion industry catches up to developing sustainable technologies and practices, consumers can do their part by doing their research and buying apparel from companies practicing sustainable production. Though consumers should buy less, there are more sustainable consumption practices like buying second-hand and thrifting. Popular brands such as Marine Layer and Patagonia also have dedicated re-use and re-cycle programs where consumers can bring in apparel that will either be re-spun as in the case of Marine Layer or resold through Patagonia’s WornWear program. Despite laying out the challenges the fashion industry faces, this blog serves as a medium to explore new innovations and advancements in sustainable fashion practices and technologies that will solve fashion’s biggest environmental issues.

[i] https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/old-environmental-impacts

[ii] https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/09/23/costo-moda-medio-ambiente

[iii] https://www.allbirds.com/pages/sustainability

[iv] https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/09/23/costo-moda-medio-ambiente

[v] https://www.vogue.in/fashion/content/the-fashion-industry-is-using-up-too-much-water-heres-how-you-can-reduce-your-h2o-footprint

[vi] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/where-does-discarded-clothing-go/374613/

[vii] https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/old-environmental-impacts

[viii] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/07/new-york-fashion-week-how-retailers-are-grappling-with-sustainability.html

[ix] https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/A-New-Textiles-Economy_Full-Report_Updated_1-12-17.pdf

[x] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/how-the-circular-economy-is-redesigning-fashions-future/