Fashion & Climate
Fast fashion is a highly profitable business model based on imitating luxury brands’ designs and mass producing them at low costs. This business model is applicable due to development of cheaper materials like nylon and polyester, quick response manufacturing methods, and sweatshops, which are basically worker exploiting centers.
Fast fashion practices are ethically controversial; moreover, a burden to the environment. Research shows that the textile industry is responsible for about 4% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2018. This is equal to GHG emission of entire economies of France, Germany, and the UK combined.
Of course, the fast fashion industry feeds millions of people, so it is nearly impossible to fizzle out. However, by referring to McKinsey&Company’s “Fashion on Climate” report, I gathered 3 applicable resolutions for brands to reduce the earth's burden.
- Embracing sustainable materials
Usage of recycled materials over virgin materials is slowly becoming prevalent in the textile industry; making this process faster would be helpful. Also, using organic materials would have a great effect. Organic cotton causes about 50% fewer emissions than conventional cotton since it is limited in pesticides and fertilizers. Likewise, rPET, which is recycled-PET, causes 40% less emission than regular polyester due to the closed-loop production methods and recycling. Making lyocell more common over conventional fibers would be very helpful, too. By transforming to sustainable materials, industry players would also positively impact water consumption and pollution, eutrophication, fertilizer usage, and deforestation.
2. Reducing Overproduction
In 2018, Burberry and H&M admitted that they “destroy” their unsold products. According to ShareCloth’s “2018 Apparel Industry Overproduction Report and Infographic”, 30% of manufactured clothing is never sold. However, businesses seem to accept the risk of unsold products are going to landfills, looking at the growing demand for clothing since the unit cost of these products is so low. Another one-third of clothing is sold with major markdowns, which is inviting consumers to overconsume, which leads brands to manufacture more and more goods which creates a vicious cycle between brands, consumers, and landfills. Some of the suggestions to controlling this problem are technology investment to support demand forecasting and stock management or government regulations and incentives to brands.
3. Promoting Sustainable Consumer Behaviours
According to McKinsey's research, 21% of the potential of reducing GHG emissions is related to consumer activities. Moreover, managing consumer activities is arguably the easiest to accomplish. Fashion rentals, thrift shops, reselling and recommercing centers are some examples of circular business models. These businesses are becoming popular among Millennials and Gen Z, so promoting circular businesses would reduce GHG emissions noticeably. Other tips for consumers would be reducing their washing frequency, washing at lower heats, air-drying, etc. Also, brands could give more sustainable care instructions and sustainable marketing strategies.
Textile industry having this big share in global GHG emission actually creates an opportunity for them to change. Bigger brands should understand their role in the future and take action accordingly. Hopefully, this evoking awareness accelerates as soon as possible.
