This year the United Nations Climate Change Conference comes to Glasgow and the spotlight will be on many industries and how they impact climate change. The detrimental environmental effects of the fashion industry and the culture of fast fashion are widely acknowledged with more greenhouse gases than aviation and shipping combined, a truckload of textiles landfilled or burned every second, our oceans polluted with plastic microfibres from synthetic clothes and the human cost of poor working conditions.
What can be done to help solve the problem? Below are slides illustrating some ideas divided into three categories:
Industry changes to the manufacture, production and distribution process
Government support; and
Changes to consumer attitudes.
In April 2021, H&M announced it’s goal of only using recycled or other sustainably sourced materials by 2030. Last year ASOS launched it’s first circular collection and Zara wants 80% of the energy consumed in their headquarters, factories and stores to be from renewable sources and its facilities to produce zero landfill waste by 2025.
There are many allegations of greenwashing in response to these types of statements from the fast fashion giants and that it does not solve the underlying problem of overconsumption and production.
Whether these goals can or will actually be achieved is another question but these actions are proof that retailers are reacting to a shift in consumer attitudes and they represent an acknowledgment that the issue of sustainability has to be tackled if they are to succeed in the future which can only be a good thing and a step in the right direction.