Planet

There are Four criteria for effective design and planet is one of the main elements, which is to make positive impact on the planet (McKinsey, 2022). Fashion industry is the only industry connects from farm, design, production to retail and it is the major contributor to world pollution and climate change. For example, textile production emits 1.2 billion tonnes of Carbon Dioxide annually which speeds up global warming. Cotton is considered by customers as quality fabric, but it is water intensive and to meet the demand of businesses, farmers use chemicals to grow cotton faster than the eco-system. Every year, about £140 million clothes are sent to landfills and £30 billion are new (Wrap.org.uk, 2019). Decomposing clothing into landfill will produce methane, a harmful gas that contributing to global warming. The fashion consumers are also considered as part of fashion industry and play a key role. Consumers bad purchasing habit like frequently buy clothes but rarely wear so they have many new clothes in closet.

There is no sustainability in fashion from the examples above. Sustainability means to meet our own needs of present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Mcgill.ca, 2019). More and more customers care about sustainability after they see the dirty secrets of fashion industry. Therefore, fashion industry needs to be more sustainable. To do so, businesses and consumers are encouraged to use the circular economy approach. Circular economy is a system where materials never become waste and nature is regenerated, this means garments are circulated for as long as their maximum value is retained, and then returned safely to the biosphere when they are no longer of use (Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2019). Circular economy helps reduce textile waste which make progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 1992), including SDG 12, ‘Responsible consumption and production’ and SDG 13, ‘Climate Action’. In order to reduce fabric waste, manufacturers should produce less garments and have sustainable strategy of recycling and reusing the unwanted clothing from the consumers. At the same time, consumers should change the buying habit and decrease the amount of new clothes they buy, keep the clothes in a good condition instead of only wear them once. Producing less clothes cuts down carbon emission and saves the resources to dispose the waste clothing which decrease the production of methane as well.