Planet Pillar

1,715 million. That’s how many tonnes of CO2 emissions the fashion industry was responsible for in 2015 (Corporate Rebels) and if we remain on this track, fashion emissions are forecast to grow by 63% by 2030 (Clean Clothes Campaign). This isn’t up-keeping with the date that the UN set when they developed the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a plan to tackle the climate emergency. 

The fashion industry hinders the progress of achieving SDG 14, Life Below Water, as textile and garment production is majorly water-intensive – 79 million cubic meters of water being used every year by the industry (PULSE OF THE FASHION INDUSTRY). In order to make only one pair of denim jeans, around 10,000 litres of water is needed to grow only 1kg of cotton needed for the jeans – to put that number into perspective, it would take 10 years for a person to drink 10,000 litres of water (United Nations 2018).

Not only does the production of the clothes pollute the oceans but equally the maintenance of said garments does too. Polyester is one of the most widely used materials for clothing in the garment industry, which is problematic as microfibres are released into the ocean every time garments with these oil-based materials are washed. The Italian National Research Council found that in a typical 5kg wash-load of polyester garments, 6 to 17.7 million microfibres are released (#WhatsInMyWash?) – going against SDG 6, Clean Water and Sanitation.

Overproduction in the fashion industry plays a role for making it one of the most wasteful on the planet, being responsible for up to 8% of global greenhouse emissions as well as having other negative environmental impacts like biodiversity loss and water pollution (Nast, C. 2023). This major overproduction is a consequence of fast fashion, a revolving door of micro trends resulting in around 52 micro-collections per year instead of the usual 2 seasons (Charpail, M. 2017). We need to slow fashion down! The takeaway is that the fashion industry isn’t sustainable, we shouldn’t sustain something that is badly designed and that isn’t working – fashion companies, as well as their consumers, need to demonstrate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This can be either through slowing down fashion or by playing into a circular economy.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation found that more than $500 billion of value is lost every year due to clothing underutilisation and the lack of recycling (Gueye, S, 2021), with an estimated £140 million worth of clothing is sent to landfill each year in the UK alone (WRAP, 2022). The circular economy can help tackle climate change and other aspects like biodiversity loss and pollution. According to studies we would be able to reduce the carbon, water and waste footprints of our clothes by 20-30% if we collectively extended a garments life by 9 months (Corner, 2014) – imagine the impact if we all provided our clothes with longer lives, keeping them in circularity? Therefore, our goal should be to change the linear lifecycle of garments into a circular one, in which resources are kept in use for as long as possible. 

Referencing list

Charpail, M. (2017). Fast Fashion. [online] SustainYourStyle. Available at: https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/en/fast-fashion.

Clean Clothes Campaign. (n.d.). Climate Change. [online] Available at: https://cleanclothes.org/climate-change#:~:text=By%202030%20global%20apparel%20consumption.

Corporate Rebels. (n.d.). Sustainability: Reporting Vs. Practice. [online] Available at: https://www.corporate-rebels.com/blog/sustainability-in-the-fashion-industry#:~:text=Global%20Fashion%20Agenda%20estimates%20that[Accessed 8 Oct. 2023].

Gueye, S. (2021). The trends and trailblazers creating a circular economy for fashion. [online] Ellen Macarthur Foundation. Available at: https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/articles/the-trends-and-trailblazers-creating-a-circular-economy-for-fashion.

Nast, C. (2023). Why Are Billions Of Clothes Never Even Sold? [online] British Vogue. Available at: https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/overproduction-fashion#:~:text=Of%20course%2C%20this%20comes%20at[Accessed 8 Oct. 2023].

PULSE OF THE FASHION INDUSTRY. (n.d.). Available at: https://www.greylockglass.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Pulse-of-the-Fashion-Industry_2017.pdf.

United Nations (2018). UN Helps Fashion Industry Shift to Low Carbon | UNFCCC. [online] Unfccc.int. Available at: https://unfccc.int/news/un-helps-fashion-industry-shift-to-low-carbon.

Corner, F. (2014). Why fashion matters. London: Thames & Hudson.

WRAP (2022). Textiles | WRAP. [online] wrap.org.uk. Available at https://wrap.org.uk/taking-action/textiles

#WhatsInMyWash? (n.d.). The Issue. [online] Available at: https://www.whatsinmywash.org.uk/the-microfiber-issue.