Once seen as a niche part of the fashion industry, being eco-conscious has
rapidly become one of the hottest ‘topics’ of our time. From luxury fashion
houses to fast-fashion retailers, and everything in between – more and more
fashion companies are responding to mounting consumer interest and ‘going
green.’ However, in spite of all the efforts being made the fact remains
that the global fashion and textile industry is the second most polluting
and damaging industry in the world after oil. “The fashion business model
is broken and we urgently need to find alternatives,” proclaimed Safia
Minney MBE, founder and CEO of eco-fashion brand People Tree in the
documentary ‘The True Cost’. So we ask, what does it mean to be sustainable
within the fashion industry? In the fourth episode of a new series looking
at sustainability and the fashion industry, FashionUnited looks at
resources such as cotton, leather and lyocell, and how the industry uses
them and looks into new ways of rethinking the resources we use.
“Materials matter the most,” stressed Hannah Jones, Chief Sustainability
Officer and VP, Innovation Accelerator at Nike during her keynote speech
last month at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. “The final product is only as
good as the materials and methods.” Although Nike has been hailed as one of
the leaders in terms of innovation and sustainability over the past years –
it’s Flyknit sneakers for example produce 60 percent less waste during
production than normal cut and sew shoes – there is still plenty of room
for improvement. “60 percent of pollution from sneakers comes from the
manufacturing and processing of materials.” Although many would assume that
the fashion industry is plagued by an energy crisis, it is really the
materials and resources used to create the fashion and footwear we crave
and demand that are causing the most harm to the environment. That is why
Jones, and many other industry experts, believe it high time the industry
“wakes up and disrupts its work horses” of cotton, silk, wool and polyester
and invests in the innovation of new, low impact materials.
“There are a whole lot of people having having the wrong conversation at
the moment, they are talking about scarcity, when they should be focusing
on abundance,” believes Lewis Perkins, president of Cradle to Cradle
Products Innovation Institute. The scarcity of resources such as wool,
cotton, and leather will only create more problems for the industry as the
world’s population continues to increase – at the moment each person on the
planet is said to be using resources from approximately 1.6 planets – far
more than it can or the industry can give back. However, the most vital
resource and the most problematic one of all for the fashion industry at
the moment remains cotton, whose nickname is white gold. Cotton remains a
central resource in nearly all of the industry’s sectors, from denim to
jersey and is often cited as one of the most water and labour intensive
crops to grow.
At the moment it accounts for 32 percent of all fibers used across the
globe. It is grown in at least 80 countries around the world, taking up 2.5
percent of the world’s farmable land. But with close to a third of the
world’s arable land has already been lost due to soil erosion and pollution
from the unprecedented amount of chemicals and pesticides used to grow
normal cotton and other crops, the urgency to end the industry’s dependence
on cotton in thrown into sharp relief. But what of its sister, organic
cotton? Between 10 to 13 percent of the global cotton supply can be
classified as more sustainable cotton. Non-profit organizations like the
Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) make it easier for farmers and cotton
producers to grow more sustainable cotton by incorporating six principles,
including crop protection, water, soil health and fibre quality, to reduce
the usages of water, chemicals and pesticides whilst boosting the yield and
profitability of cotton production and protecting the workers rights. The
BCI also works with companies like H&M and Nike to supply them with organic
cotton, and aims to license five million organic cotton farmers by 2020,
accounting for 30 percent of the global cotton production.
However, although many fashion retailers and brands proudly share the news
of their organic, or bio cotton collection, most of the top companies have
yet to make the switch. Less than a fifth of the world’s organic cotton
supply is actually being used as more sustainable cotton in products, with
the rest being sold as conventional due to lack of demand from top brands
and companies according to an independent study from Pesticide Action
Network (PAN) UK, Solidaridad and WWF. From a list of 37 international
companies, only 8 were highlighted to make a significant difference with
their organic cotton usage and moved out of the red zone in the ranking
research conducted by Rank a Brand, one of Europe’s largest
brand-comparison sites on sustainability and corporate social
responsibility. Swedish furniture giant Ikea tops the ranking, with a score
of 12 points out of a maximum of 19.5 points, followed by fashion retailers
C&A, with 9 points, H&M, with 9 points and sportswear firms Adidas, with
7.75 points and Nike, with 6.5 points.
Kering was the only luxury conglomerate included in the 8, with a total
score of 3 points, which suggests that luxury companies are not always more
sustainable when it comes to resources than mass market retailers, in spite
of having more control over their supply chains. “Ikea, C&A and H&M are
showing how cotton sustainability is good for business but many top
companies are failing to deliver,” commented Richard Holland, Director,
Market Transformation, WWF. “Sourcing more sustainable cotton has never
been easier so there is no excuse for companies not to offer more
responsible products to customers.” However, the answer to the industry’s
resources issue is not so easily solved by making the switch to more
sustainable resources like organic cotton. With the world’s growing
population, predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050, the UN’s Food and
Agriculture organization states the planet will need to produce 50 percent
more food. These people will also need clothes to wear, which again
underlines the need to create new materials.vWhich is part of the reason
why fast fashion retailer H&M launched its annual Global Change Award this
year.
Sourcing more sustainable cotton has never been easier so there is no excuse
for companies not to offer more responsible products to customers.
The competition, initiated by its non-profit H&M Conscious Foundation, was
designed to encourage and challenge designers, creators and developers to
think of up new ways of creating a circular fashion system. In February,
Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden awarded the first
five winners of the competition, who divided 1 million euro grant between
them to develop their projects. One of the winners was Tjeerd Veenhoven,
who aims to utilise a naturally occurring resource currently in abundance
to make textile fiber for the fashion industry – algae. Why algae? Because,
it consists of 70 percent cellulose, which makes it a good fiber to use in
the production of textiles and is currently found in most rivers and oceans
due to the imbalance in most environments. Veenhoven has been testing
different types of algae, but has found that the floating variety tends to
contain the highest level of cellulose and is the easiest to harvest by
hand, similar to cotton collecting. Veenhoven compares his future algae
textile to that of lyocell, more commonly known as under the brand name
tencel, a form of rayon which consists of cellulose fibre made from
dissolving bleached wood pulp using dry jet-wet spinning.
Although it is more expensive to produce than cotton or viscose rayon, it
is seen as a more eco-friendly textile and is used throughout the fashion
industry in denim, chinos and underwear. It is also blended with other
fibres such as silk, linen and cotton. Even though Veenhoven’s algae
initiative is still in the developmental phase, with the 150,000 euro grant
from the Global Change Award, Veenhoven aims create a production process
which will allow him to create a non-woven fabric from algae, similar to
lyocell using as little chemicals as possible in the process. In this sense
he hopes to give “fashion designers around the world a new fabric to work
with.” Veenhoven is of course, not alone in his pursuit. Materia, the
global network of innovative materials, actively encourages joint
innovation between companies and innovators to create more beautiful,
sustainable and high quality materials. It lists over 2,600 materials such
as liquid wood, bamboo, fruit leather, bone marble, coffee grounds and fish
leather, from a wide range of suppliers for interest parties to get in
touch with and allows users the freedom to search for materials based on
their properties.
Nevertheless, when it comes to rethinking resources, the luxury industry
tends to have a slight upper hand here over their fast fashion
counterparts, as they have more access and control over supply chains. For
example, Chanel, Kering, Prada, LVMH and Hermes all own their own tanneries
and leather specialists, which in turn allows more room for resource
innovation. Kering owns a materials lab in Novera, in Northern Italy, which
is part textile library and part innovation hub where researchers and
technicians come together to invent more sustainable materials. However,
although leather remains a vital and even covet material for most luxury
fashion houses, even more so when it is an exotic skin, leather is also one
of the most damaging resources used by the fashion industry. The majority
of the world’s greenhouse gasses come from the raising of livestock for
meat and leather industries. Both Kering and LVMH are investing in less
harmful tanning techniques, such vegetable dyeing and chromium-free tanning.
However, considering that leather goods makes up a significant part of
their sales, perhaps these luxury giants should be investing in developing
more sustainable and alternative resources. In addition to causing
significant damage to the environment there is also the ethical aspect
linked to leather production. NGOs such as PETA, Four Paws and Humane
Society have revealed in undercover exposes countless cases of animal
cruelty and abuse at fur, sheep, cattle, rabbit, crocodile and ostrich
farms. “Animal-derived material is a very emotional topic,” said Stefanie
Maurice from Made By, a non profit organization which works together with
brand and retailers to diminish risk in their supply chains in an interview
with Dansk. “I believe this will be the next major hurdle for our industry
to overcome.” Although brands are working with suppliers to eliminate
practices such as live-plucking of birds, animals being skinned alive and
inhumane slaughtering, these issues continue to occur.
But it is not just animals who suffer for leather – workers in tanneries in
India and Bangladesh are subjected to working with dangerous, and
potentially deadly chemicals on a daily basis, which has both a detrimental
effect on their health and the environment. Kanpur, India is a prime
example of the harmful effect tannery chemicals and wastewater can have on
the environment and its ecosystems. In 2013, it was cited as the world’s
largest exporter of leather. Over the years farmland in the area has been
poisoned as approximately 80 percent of the wastewater used in the tanning
process was dumped straight into Kanpur’s main water source the River
Ganges, untreated. The water turned blue, contaminated by chromium III,
lead, formaldehyde and arsenic, which seeped into the soil and air and
leading to an outbreak of diseases amongst the people who live in the
region, including skin discolouration and asthma. Although some will argue
that leather continues to be the by product of the meat industry and should
be used, is it not time that luxury and mass market fashion houses
invested in the development of a sustainable, non-cruelty and animal free
alternative, which is also economically viable?
Currently the majority of leather substitutes are seen as sub-par to the
real deal and materials such as PVC manufacturing process is said to be
more harmful than real leather, so much so that Kering is set to remove all
PVC from its products by the end of the year. Luxury fashion labels such as
Stella McCartney and Shrimps have become famous for this non-leather and
no-fur stances respectively, highlighting the possibility of successful
blend of sustainability, luxury and desirability. McCartney luxury fashion
house has gone on to become so successful that it is now the subject of a
Harvard Business School study. The British fashion house use of Eco Alter
Nappa, a leather substitute derived from polyester, polyurethane and a
coating made from 50 percent vegetable oil, is seen an outstanding
alternative to real leather. The designer also does not use any animal or
fish derived glue in her products. Shrimps, founded by Hannah Weiland, faux
fur is said to consist of a “real-feeling modacrylic blend” and no
polyester, although the designer has been reluctant to share the exact
formula of her faux fur to date.
However there its a host of leather alternatives popping up on the market,
which are not derived from polyester or plastic. With the rise of fruit
leather, such as pineapple leather – made from the fibres of pineapple
leaves, which are a by-product of the fruit’s harvest, fish leather,
crafted from the skin of salmon fish and also a by-product as well as
fungus leather, there is an increasing number of alternatives to be used
aside from more traditional types of leather. Perhaps the most
controversial and potentially beneficial leather of all remains bio-grown
leather, leather which is genetically grown in a lab. Modern Meadows, a
Brooklyn-based biotech startup aims to fulfill the planet’s demand for both
meat and leather, in a way that does not destroy the planet or animals in
the process. The pros of growing leather in a lab would see the resources
needed to sustain the planet’s 60 billion livestock, such as water, land,
chemicals and energy, dramatically cut whilst saving the lives of all these
animals. It would also cut down on waste from the leather industry, as the
exact size of the needed leather products could be grown. However, there is
a catch to bio-grown leather. Although its title would suggest that no
animals would be harmed or used in the making of this leather, at the
moment scientific research is still depended on the use of animal stem
cells to grow the skin cells in the lab.
In addition, until more industries, such as the fashion industry, begin to
invest in companies like Modern Meadows, the cost of lab grown leather will
remain much higher than normal leather. But, with time and the right
resources, more and more tech start-ups like Modern Meadow will offer
affordable solutions for the industry’s resource problems and as the
planet’s arable land continued to dwindle the future of lab grown leather,
shoes and shirts is closer than you think.
Stay tuned for part V of the series, out June 23rd