Written by: Markella Michail
The fashion industry is found at a crossroads, dealing with an urgent need to transition to greener values, while remaining financially viable. Fashion has been recognised to be responsible for a significant part of climate change, with the contribution of 3% to 10% of greenhouse gas emissions globally and with the production of 92 million tonnes of textile waste annually. This reality calls for the urgent need of a shift towards a more sustainable fashion industry. Sustainability has evolved to be more than just an ethical choice for brands; it also provides them with competitive advantage, ensuring its viability. There are many ways in which organisations can entail sustainability in their production chain.
Life cycle assessment – Life cycle success
Primarily, an organisation must understand its own production chain, to be able to fix it. Therefore the first step to achieving sustainability is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). An LCA is a method of evaluation of the environmental impact of a product. It refers to all of the stages of its production, from the stage of raw material extraction to its production, distribution, use, and final disposal. During each activity towards the production of a good, important decisions that manifest as positive or negative environmental-social and financial impact are made. An (LCA) allows for the realisation of that impact, and the verification of its sustainability. In case an organisation finds detrimental practices along its chain, it can take the right steps to ensure sustainability.
Transparency
In order for companies to succeed in their LCAs they have to follow their chain of production, from the first steps of marketing until the end of life of their products. In this process, they can secure the effective communication of the totality of their production chain to their clients, ensuring transparency and integrity. Transparency and sustainability significantly contribute to the positive perception of brands by consumers, a fact that ensures that sustainable and ethical brands are benefited with competitive advantage. It is also a crucial method against greenwashing tactics, as it allows for the verification of environmental efforts and sustainability claims.
Efficient Sustainability Communication
Having achieved a traceable and trustworthy supply chain, a crucial priority for organisations is its effective communication to the customers. Towards this objective, there are a plethora of sustainability standards issued by certification schemes that can be adopted by organisations, which promise to provide them with a secure guideline of effective sustainability planning and communication. Corporate social responsibility programs can also help aid them towards that direction. Corporate social responsibility is the crucial engagement of organisations that in their work they will take into consideration the good of our society and planet. This commitment not only secures the promotion of sustainability, but it also works for enhanced brand image, employee satisfaction and risk management.
Closing the Loop
In order to promote sustainability within the fashion industry it is truly necessary that the recycling and reusing of materials is prioritised. In order to promote recyclability, researchers suggest the utilisation of textiles with less fabric blends, for their easier separation in the recycling process. While the utilisation of natural fibres is also a suggested option due to their biodegradability, it is crucial to acknowledge the cost the production of some natural materials may have, such as increased energy consumption, water usage and animal abuse. Therefore, a sustainable approach would involve balancing such material choices with innovations in fiber production.
Towards the goal of circularity, brands can invest more on creating durable, high-quality design and on better marketing other than constant production. Their marketing can be based on the idea that their clothes are a luxury investment, of higher value than fast fashion clothes that can be viewed as disposable goods.
Slowing down the Loop
While efforts of closing up the loop are crucial, they should be built on by efforts of slowing it down as well. Strategies must be implemented for the extension of the life-span of products, such as their design for durability and ease of use. Similarly, habits like their refurbishment and repairment are also to be prioritised, so their end date is postponed. The incorporation of design features that allow the garment to size-up for longer wearability, especially in kid sizes, is also a viable option.
Greening the Loop
While the loop can close and be slowed down, it can also carry less detriments to the environment and to society. There is a plethora of design strategies aimed at a greener production, which refer to textiles, emissions, microplastic release and hazardous chemicals. For example, lab-grown leather or even seaweed fibers are suggested as sustainable materials. Bibliography also suggests the utilisation of higher technology such as 3D printing for the reduction of textile waste and air and water pollution. Other approaches point at the optimisation of energy efficiency and the utilisation of renewable energy.
Packaging
In later steps of the production the utilisation of more sustainable packaging is to be taken into consideration. Bio-packaging is seen as a potential solution, as it is biodegradable and made of renewable sources.
Finally, for the garments that have lived a long life but have finally worn out, a careful waste management is proposed. On the side of corporations there are some steps they can take to ensure their proper disposal. The offering of a brand specific recycling program is a possible answer. Lastly, there is a plethora of organisations such as Patagonia, Nudie Jeans and Barbour that offer repairing services for their products, ensuring their long-term use.
Social Sustainability
In their efforts to achieve sustainability, organisations are not to forget its social aspect. There are a lot of steps brands can take to ensure an ethical production chain, which leaves a positive trace in society. The ensuring of ethical labor practices is a crucial first step, which means the provision of fair wages and safe working conditions. Brands like Patagonia have been acknowledged for their social sustainability. For example, over 90% of their products are made in Fair Trade Certified factories, while they invest significantly in workers’ rights and ethical labour practices. Parallely, they are very transparent about their practices, providing full supply chain traceability.
Supporting diversity and inclusion within fashion can also contribute to a more inclusive society. This can look like the designing of clothing that takes body diversity into consideration, as is showcased by the designer Karonile Vitto. The latter designs clothing that celebrates different sizes, while she also casts models of diverse figures, promoting new standards within the fashion industry.
Community engagement is also a crucial link amongst social sustainability and firms. The ethical and fair collaboration with local communities can help preserve tradition, contribute to local economies and empower artisans.
Consumers
It is to be asked however. What can the consumer do? Responsible consumption and disposal are the key answers. As a first step, ensuring to find outlets they trust for their engagement with sustainability is crucial. In a second step, investing in quality products that you can keep for a longer time over fast fashion items can significantly deteriorate your consumption and therefore their carbon footprint. This is crucial in a context of a rise of ultra fast fashion, where trends shift constantly and rapidly, encouraging excessive consumption. With the assistance of social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok consumers are pushed into constantly updating their closets for the sake of trendiness, often at the cost of sustainability.
They can also make a change by embracing second-hand shopping and borrowing. There are many trending applications for the recycling and reusing of clothes, such as Depop or Vinted, while there are also apps such as By Rotation and On Loan for the borrowing of clothes. Finally, rating applications such as Good on You can help promote more sustainable firms, distinguishing them from more fast fashion ones.
As a second step, it is crucial that they are conscious during their shopping. Before buying a product they may ask themselves:
Do I really need this? → Do I really want this? → Will I still want this in 5 years? Can I pair this with what I have?
In a later process, before discarding their clothing, they can see if it is possible to recondition, resale or reuse it. If none of these is a viable option, donating and recycling are the ways to go.
Conclusion
In sum, there is a lot that can be done for the promotion of sustainability within the fashion world. Organisations’ and individuals’ combined efforts can transform it into the unproblematic green industry it dreams to be. This article hopes to serve as a basic guideline for our better coordination towards this universal goal. By embracing innovation, ethical practices and conscious production and consumption we can help reshape fashion into a driver of positive change, one that respects both our people and our planet. Each of us individually and ultimately all of us together hold the power to choose to make a change that is crucial for the future of our society and planet. So let’s take the initiative to bring that change, let’s choose better.
Edited by Carmen Rueda Lindemann, Illustrated by Aneri Patel