Five initiatives making fashion more sustainable
Fashion confronts its sustainability challenges as key players make a concerted effort to turn the industry around. Here are some initiatives making a difference.
Fashion industry players make a pact
In August 2019, 150 of the world’s leading fashion brands joined forces to make a “Fashion Pact” stating that by 2050, they will achieve net-zero carbon emissions. The project aims to address environmental impacts on three fronts: reducing the use of single-use plastics to protect ocean ecosystems; avoiding intensive farming to allow land based biodiversity to recover; and achieving zero carbon emissions by mid-century to limit global warming to below 2.7 °Fahrenheit (1.5 °Celsius) by 2100. These reflect the UN Sustainable Development Goals adopted by all member states back in 2015. The Pact hopes to engage at least 20 per cent of the industry, including luxury, mid-level, and luxury brands. Prada was one of the first brands to come on board, and has introduced a wide range of sustainability initiatives, including its switch to recycled nylon.
Turning fashion offcuts into brand new products
It is more than a little apropos that Prada is one of the first luxury fashion brands to use recycled nylon thread in its collections. After all, the Italian fashion house’s nylon backpacks and totes were first introduced by Miuccia Prada in the seventies and to this day remain timeless style icons. By teaming up with Italian company Aquafil, Prada is able to work with ECONYL regenerated nylon thread sourced from a wide variety of waste products around the world. One of these sources is pre-consumer offcuts from the fashion industry. Fully 15 percent of textile used to make clothes is discarded before those clothes even reach consumers. Most of it ends up in landfill as the systems to recycle it simply don’t exist. However, a pilot project set up by Aquafil takes nylon offcuts from a factory in southern China to be chemically transformed back into ECONYL thread, which is as pure as thread derived directly from oil. The challenge now is to upscale - which will require brands and manufacturers to work together to develop a viable supply chain.
Kickstarting a circular revolution among the world’s designers
A new initiative from the Ellen McArthur Foundation in the UK is targeted specifically at designers - all 160-million of them. The thinking is that designers - across a range of industries, not just fashion - are in a unique position to modify their methodology to make more sustainable products. That means shifting from a linear model - sourcing raw materials to make things that end up in landfill, to a circular model - where materials can be continually recycled or upcycled to create new products. The Foundation hopes that mobilizing designers at scale will trigger a sea change in the way products are manufactured, and that circular design will become mainstream by 2025. The goal is to reach a tipping point where 20 million individuals in the design workforce are routinely applying circular design principles, while a further 60 million are at least conscious of circularity and its importance. To achieve this, the Foundation is developing tools to help designers adopt circular systems, as well as planning events, awards, and exhibitions.
Libraries for high fashions
Besides the prevailing linear ‘take it, make it, dispose of it’ approach to production and supply, another entrenched concept that has been disrupted in recent decades is that of ownership. Both property and car ownership are in decline as lifestyles and technology change. And there is already a niche movement in fashion aimed at reducing personal consumption as “fashion libraries” spring up in cities around the world. These businesses rent out designer garments and footwear at a fraction of their retail cost. Such libraries often work directly with leading luxury brands, with the brands receiving a portion of the rental price so that they directly benefit from the quality and longevity of their products. The libraries also purchase unwanted items from consumers and other sources that they add to their inventory.
A call to arms for everyone in the fashion industry
When the Rana Plaza garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed claiming 1,134 lives, it was a wake-up call for both the fashion industry and consumers of throwaway fast fashion. In the wake of this, designers Carry Sommers and Orsola de Castro founded non-profit Fashion Revolution in an effort to introduce greater transparency into the fashion industry, in order to make it more ethical and sustainable. One of its most far-reaching campaigns has been the “Who Made My Clothes?” movement, which is a hashtag, a call to action and a rallying cry for everyone involved in fashion to improve traceability, and develop sustainable practices. Consumers can send this simple message to their favorite brands, and the maxim has also been flipped so that makers can say “I Made Your Clothes.” The thinking is that real change in the fashion industry requires the participation of every stakeholder - brands, designers, manufacturers, makers, marketers, models, influencers, and consumers. Fashion Revolution now operates in more than 100 countries and a Fashion Revolution Week takes place once a year in April, while a range of resources are also available on their website.
