“You have to always be willing to learn in sustainable fashion, even when change feels uncomfortable”
(Leah Cahill)
At times, it feels like the conversation around sustainability has expanded so much that we might not fully comprehend what some of the terms really mean. We believe that a mindset shift and being able to make small changes starts with education, so we have put together a blog post of common terms and statistics that are often used within this space.
“We need to look at sustainability as being not something that’s at the periphery, it’s at the core of what is going to be driving business now and in the future.”
Stuart McLachlan (CEO Anthesis Group)
Circularity
Circular fashion is a system in which the manufacturing and the end of life of an item are equally important. It aims to prevent waste by intentionally designing items that are reusable, repairable, biodegradable and recyclable.
Circular fashion envisions the industry as an almost endless circle in which materials are kept in use for as long as possible, like in a loop. At the core of this concept is knowing where things come from and what they are made of, who made them, and being accountable for the overall lifecycle of our belongings (@goodonyou_app).
Sustainability Reports
A sustainability report is a means for a brand to share its sustainably targets and disclose the impact its practices have. The EU currently requires all large and listed companies to report on the risk and opportunities that emerge from their impacts on social and environmental issues.
Red Flags
-too many targets for the future with little evidence of action taken now, particularly in relationship to material usage
-targets for ‘net zero carbon emissions by 20XX.’ These claims are made by big companies that instead of taking meaningful action to reduce emissions, pay. For carbon offsets. This approach is questionable.
-more words than numbers. If brands are doing something good and want to showcase that effort they will disclose the number or statistic, and how it has improved over a period of time.
-large chunks of reports dedicated to listing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and their focus points without clear explanations as to how the brands actions support them
-information about a brands direct operation but not its supply chains. There’s a big difference between coffee cup recycling and supply chain waste
-a failure to clearly define a brands key actions (@goodonyou_app).
Fast Fashion
The term fast fashion denotes inexpensive, fashionable clothing rapidly produced by mass-market retailers. The attitude behind fast fashion that demands high volumes of clothing to be produced at a fast speed means that profit is prioritized over the people who make the clothes.
The fast fashion business model creates a consumerist culture that is impossible to keep up with. When low prices are paired with rapid trend turnover, we learn to see clothing as disposable. Beyond the environment impact of fashion waste, the production process of clothing is resource intensive. Whether clothing is plastic-based and extracts non-renewable resources or calls for deforestation for cotton farming or uses harmful chemicals in material sourcing, the production of clothing causes environmental degradation. Our clothing releases microplastics, toxic dyes pollute rivers, and an excess of water is used to produce our clothes. We cannot continue to exploit our planetary resources like this in the face of a climate crisis. (@secondhand_sustainability)
Ultra-Fast Fashion
Ultra-fast fashion takes fast fashion and puts it on a treadmill so to speak. This means faster production cycles, faster trend turnover and faster route of waste to landfills. Most of the clothing is made from ultra plastic resulting in environmental impact skyrocketing. Throw into this mix the poor treatment of workers and working environments.
While fast fashion is influenced by the runways and copying the latest style, the goal of ultra-fast fashion is to support overconsumption and the need for new clothing with sites uploading hundreds to thousands of styles daily. Inspired by celebrities and social media influencers (“fashion hauls”), consumers are inherently told that new clothing is required, wear something once and then buy something else.
“Ultra-fast fashion’s relentless churn makes it impossible to consider a purchase before you commit. Instead, you take the risk and buy – because when it’s only the price of a sandwich, what do you have to lose?”
Lauren Bravo (journalist and author of ‘How to break up with Fast Fashion’)
Sustainable Terminology
- Slow Fashion
A counter movement to the current fashion culture. It is all about intention, thoughtful sourcing and design, and slowing down our consumption and production as a way to care for the environment and people who make our clothes. There are many ways to engage in slow fashion from prioritizing using what exists to second hand business model sot conscious new production. - Zero Waste
About preventing waste by prioritizing reuse and repurposing, redesigning product life-cycles so that outputs can be viewed as useful, renewable inputs rather than waste. The goal of the movement is to avoid sending trash to landfills, incinerators, oceans or any other part of the environment. The movement takes cues from nature, as waste doesn’t exist in nature – everything has a purpose and is useful in every stage of life. - Decarbonization
The process of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through phasing out dependance on carbon and fossil fuels in human and industrial activities in order ot limiting warming. In the fashion industry emission-reducing practices must be enacted across the supply chain from choosing less fossil fuel-dependent materials, prioritizing renewable energy, cutting back on overproduction and pursuing circular practices. - Net Zero
Be careful not to confuse this term with “zero waste”. This refers to using carbon offsets to create a false balance of emissions. Net zero and carbon neutral principal can allow polluters to continue their harmful practices by using offsets that often don’t live up to the their promises or actually level out the harm of the initial emissions. - Degrowth
Counters the idea of exponential economic growth and focusses on shrinking economies so that we use less energy and resources. It prioritizes peoples and the plants wellbeing over profit it recognizes that we don’t have endless resources and therefore must limit growth in order to responsibly use and care for what we have. - Biomaterials
In fashion are innovative new materials that rely on re-engineering nature-based inputs to replace harmful materials like leather or plastic-based fabrics. These new materials are being created with fungi, fruit et. Many of these materials are in the early stage of development aiming to offer an alternative to many extractive petroleum based fabrics used today. - Greenwashing
The marketing practice in which businesses convey a false impression that they are more environmentally friendly than they actually are. Brands will misuse information or adopt eco-terminology and aesthetics to mislead consumers. Examples are hidden trade offs, no proof, vagueness, irrelevance, lesser of evils or lying. - Transparency
In the context of fashion this refers to how much a business communicates about their practices, supply chains and policies. By transparently disclosing the specifics of how a brand operates, we can scrutinize and understand whether they actually live up to their claims. Transparency opens the door to accountability which can drive action. - Waste-led Design
A circular model of fashion production seeks to keep items in use for as long as possible and design waste out of the system. Rather than viewing waste as an inevitable by product, circular fashion aims to rethink waste, use it as an input and develop a closed loop system. In doing this circular fashion reduces the amount of virgin inputs, designs clothing with its end of life in mind and diverts textile waste from landfills.
Know your Materials
