London – 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.’ On the surface, sustainability appears
to be an easy concept to grasp, encompasses three main sectors:
environmental, social and economic. For some brands ‘going green’ means
cutting down on their stores greenhouse gas emissions or using recycled
plastics and cardboard to ship their products. For others, it means finding
suitable manufacturers closer to home, to cut down on CO2 emissions. Yet,
for other companies ‘going green’ means creating a collection made from or For others still, it’s 3D
printing items to cut down on waste.
However, in spite of all these efforts 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 So we ask, what does it mean to
be sustainable within the fashion industry? And how can the industry work
to become even more ‘green?’ In the first episode of a new series looking
at sustainability and the fashion industry, FashionUnited asks what does it
means to be sustainable.
The most quoted definition of sustainability comes from the 1987 UN
Bruntland commission, which describes the concept as followed: “Development
that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.” At the moment it is abundantly
clear that the fashion industry is able to meet the needs of the present –
perhaps a little too well, as approximately 350,000 tonnes of unwanted
clothing end up in UK landfills alone each year, according to . 95 percent of these dumped textiles which
fill landfills across the world are then burnt, when each stage of a
garment life takes resources to produce. “Fashion is as cheap as a sandwich
as just as consumable,” pointed out Gwen Cunningham, founder of social
entreprise Circular Economy at a recent lecture.
Consumers and the industry’s current perception of fashion as something
disposable is increasingly problematic. Over 20,000 litres of water is
needed to produce 1 kilogram of cotton, which is equal to a single t-shirt
and pair of according to the WWF. A single pair of
shoes can consist of up to 40 different materials, and at least 8,000
different chemicals are used to transform raw materials like cotton,
leather and wool into clothing – just to be discarded in our landfills. It
is a process, a system, which stands at odds with the very definition of
sustainable development as we consume more resources than the planet can
replenish for future generations. Coupled with the lack of transparency in
supply chains means sourcing a garment all the way back to its origin is
near to impossible.
“We cannot maintain the linear system we use now – we have already used up
many of our resources,” warned Sanne van den Dongen, consultant at
Mesh-works, RTB and FB-Basics, in a recent seminar at footwear institution
“Industries are already feeling the effect
of it coming…we do not have an energy problem, we have a materials
problem.” Take cotton for example. Grown in approximately 80 countries
around the world is it a vital raw material for the fashion industry,
accounting for 32 percent of all fibers used around the world. 33 million
hectare of land are used to grow cotton, equal to 2.5 percent of global
farmable land. According to current projects of population growth, the
planet’s human population is set to reach 9 billion as early as 2040.
Combined with the unprecedented amount of pesticides and chemicals used to
grow normal cotton, which is damaging arable land, the amount of viable
land to grow sufficient crops to feed the earth is rapidly dwindling. A
growing global population will in turn place increasing demands on energy,
reduce future supplies of fossil fuels, lead to a higher water consumption
and more CO2 emissions, as well as other harmful substances. Climate change
is not just limited to affecting the industry’s resources – climate change
saw fashion retailers lose out on 70 million euros in sales a last year due
to unseasonable weather. Therefore both consumers as well as fashion
businesses and governments are acknowledging the need to – in a way that ensures their
businesses models are still financially viable.
One system which is being rapidly embraced by a number of retailers such as
, and is that of a circular economy. The
system is based on a number of concepts, including reducing the number of
garments produced, repairing clothing already own, reusing or repurposing
unwanted or discarded textiles and recycling waste and unwanted garments to
make new ones. H&M recently launched a to encourage its
consumers around the world to bring their old garments in for in exchange for discount on their next
purchase, whilst G-Star Raw has developed collection of clothing made using
recycled plastics gathered from the ocean. Patagonia actively asks its
consumers if they really need to buy something new, whilst Filippa K offers
consumers the chance to rent out its collections – all of which are
sustainable, yet profitable practices. “We need to raise consumer awareness
to see all clothing as a resource and request cycled clothing,” said
Cecilia Brännsten, H&M’s Sustainability Expert, during the launch of their
Conscious Exclusive Collection.
However, one of the main issues concerning this concept is the lack of
technology available to give garments and footwear a second, third and
fourth life. At the moment only garments made from 100 percent cotton,
wool, tencel or silk can be recycled – anything made from a blended
material or synthetic fabric cannot be recycled. This means, that even
though H&M recycles its fabrics, there will still always be a need for raw
or virgin materials to be blended with the recycled fibers. Until
technological advances are made which aid the sorting and separation of
unwanted garments, a circular economy within the fashion industry remains
“very much a concept compared to a reality,” noted Professor Shahin
Rahimifar, founder and director of the centre for Sustainable Manufacturing
and Recycling Technologies, at the SLEM seminar.
If many of the initiatives aimed at making the fashion industry more
‘green’ are still seen as concepts, rather than realities, then “how do we
know that we are on the right track for sustainability?” asks Mike Tomkin,
former Director of Sustainability at Stahl at SLEM. At the moment, the
majority of fashion companies have some sort of corporate social
responsibility policy (CSR) as well as a sustainability policy in the
place, due to globalisation, in order to maintain a global corporate
standards for labour, safety, sustainability, ethical treatment and quality
throughout their supply chain is a much bigger challenge. Marks & Spencer,
for example, has Plan A 2020 in which the department store group outlines
hundreds of commitments across its supply chain to reduce its social and
environmental footprint with the goal of becoming the leading, sustainable
and multi-channel, international retailer by 2020.
Swedish fashion retailer Filippa K set itself the ambitious goal of only
producing sustainable and recyclable clothing by 2030, in addition to
having a fully transparent supply chain, not producing more than they need,
respecting their workers and turning a profit. “We realised we have to
think differently and developed sustainability as the guide to our growth
and challenge ourselves to think in new ways,” explained Elin Larsson,
Sustainability director at Filippa K at a lecture held by AMFI. Other
industry insiders agree with Larsson approach to sustainability. “We have
to take a holistic approach to sustainability now,” stressed Dungen. “But
we will not have the solution today or tomorrow. However, we can take steps
for a better future and make a roadmap for getting where we want to be.”
Photos source: H&M, G-Star Raw, Filippa K, Fashion Revolution, the True
Cost: Facebook.
Photo credit: C-Jason Childs – Jimbaran Bay
Stay tuned for part II of the series, out May 11