Beyond the Tag: 4 Ways to Create Sustainable Fashion
I remember the first time I saw a pair of jeans while op-shopping at a second-hand store, with a clearly recyclable paper tag that said 'SUSTAINABLE' in big green letters and on the back of the tag it noted that 'this textile was produced from 100% recyclable plastic bottles'. As a sustainability professional and supporter of the sustainable/ethical fashion movement, I bought the pair of jeans, and of course, I wore them in pride, and praised the product. With the fashion industry being responsible for 10% of annual carbon emissions, a number expected to rise 50% by 2030, as an aware generation with changing perspectives on all that matters to the environment in which we live, and all aspects that would save us from global warming and climate change, we enthusiastically support any form of 'green, ethical and sustainable' consumerism. With an excessive pressure being put on our environment, new business models are exploring sustainable approaches to reduce the fashion and textile industries' carbon footprint; many of which are beyond the tag!
Simply put, sustainable fashion is the production of clothes, shoes and accessories in environmentally and socio-economically sustainable manners (Green Strategy), raising an awareness for the consumption and use of products and how as consumers we begin to shift our patterns to better respond and interact with the movement. Buying a pair of jeans 'made from 10 plastic water bottles' won't simply make the environment better, however it will instigate a different individual approach to consumer attitudes and behavioral patterns.
Thinking of sustainable fashion less as a niche or sub-culture, and more of an extended pillar to sustainable lifestyles, economies and cities, fashion companies need to adapt the following solutions and ethos to produce socially-ethical and sustainable products:
1- The three Rs Model - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
We aren't to blame when it comes to the culture of discarding; sadly even in societies that prioritise environmental and sustainable lifestyles, there still is a notion of 'the newer replaces the older'. Many business models delving on sustainable fashion, are following the 3 Rs as a behavioural shift in production, consumerism and marketing strategies. To 'reduce' is to limit and minimise the excessive amount of material, textile and landfill waste that greatly impacts the environment and affects public health. Conserving natural resources, landfill spaces and energy should be a priority to any business or fashion house that promotes sustainability as a value-system. This is where operational waste management comes in handy, where the amount of waste to be recycled, reused and landfilled is categorised and segregated to an effective level. Businesses and fashion producers need to adapt systems that encourage rental, resale and repair strategies so landfill waste can be dramatically reduced. 'Reusing' refers to using items and products more than once, literally! Glass, cardboard, hard plastics and textile materials can be reused individually at a household level or given back to the retailer, donated to charities or clothe banks. You have a top that doesn't fit any more? give it to charity, or it's torn and can't be fixed? upcycle it or turn it into a cleaning rag! Having spent years calculating 'Operational Waste' for green-rated high-end buildings, I know and value the importance of 'recycling'. It is crucial that at an operational level, sustainable businesses adopt that as a strategy and encourage the idea of 'redesigning' as well to repurpose old garments and materials.
2- Reducing Energy
At the heart of sustainability is energy conservation; it is a resource so valuable to our life, yet so excessively exploited and often without our knowledge. The technicality of energy modeling is an area we will talk about in another article, but with regards to fashion producers and business models, the switch to renewable energy at the source of production is an aspect to pay attention to. Changing from incandescent lights to LED lighting, natural ventilation and low-speed ceiling fans rather than excessive AC usage, and using energy-efficient machinery and tools at workshops will cut annual emissions by 1 billion metric tons.
3 - Water Use Reduction
Water scarcity is a genuine concern, and just like energy, it can be exploited as a natural resource beyond our awareness that we're part of a serious environmental concern. While we won't immediately know the amount of water embedded into 1 cotton sheet, 2,839 gallons that is, we can raise that to product manufacturers that claim to be sustainable and ask them to note the water use on their tags. It can be surprising how much water is actually embedded into the production of clothing through all its processes. Brand’s like Levi’s have incorporated a Water<Less initiative, "which aims to save 50 billion liters of water while increasing the amount or Levi’s products that use reduced water waste practices." On a much wider scale and thinking beyond the sustainability tag, businesses that incorporate the ethos of the 'Three Rs' and water saving strategies will most definitely thrive within the sustainability realm and ensure an ethical and Eco-friendly product, rather than a resource-exploiting product for the end-user.
4- Redesigning and Rethinking Fashion
Adopting a culture of upcycling techniques to repurpose and recycle materials, textiles, garments and clothes in general does require a societal and behavioural shift and is often a much bigger issue to resolve than creating sustainable practices. I often equate asking people to buy second-hand clothes with asking people to drink recycled water; equally new models of reusing a resource and both requiring a lifestyle shift. But here is why rethinking fashion through upcycling and redesigning is really important; in a world where the throw-away quick copy-paste fashion reins, the concept of an upcycled piece can seem too arty and often with a high price tag than regular clothing. But as we look beyond the tag in this article, we can observe that upcycling or refashioning clothes is a continuously growing trend that benefits the environment and can be the most sustainable practice along side energy, water and material reduction. As upcycling repurposes already existing pieces it will often use fewer resources in the creation of a new product, and will therefore produce less landfill waste; adding more to the sustainability of upcycling.
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