What Is Sustainable Fashion?

by Nurcan Rutter

 The Fashion industry plays an important role in the global economy with yearly revenues totaling over £1 trillion. The fashion industry also one of the most resource-intensive industries in the world. So, What is sustainable fashion and why is it important?

Sustainable fashion refers to clothing that is created, manufactured, distributed, and used in many environmentally friendly ways. If you look in-depth, sustainable fashion is also about utilization the people involved throughout the fashion supply chain from farmers to consumers to a huge amount of the people working in that industry end of life facilities such as production factories. 
 
Why does sustainable fashion matter?
  • Sustainable fashion matters as it is firstly, a huge climate footprint issue for the world. Making only one garment involves several important steps from the design development stage until the end of use. The fashion industry created 10% of carbon emissions on the planet. 
  • The fashion industry created 10% of carbon emissions on the planet. 
  • The fashion industry is also responsible for 20% of the world’s industrial water pollution.

 

  • More than 300 000 tonnes of clothing goes to landfills each year and just 15% of textiles we no longer need are recycled.

 

 

 On the other hand, there are some other big issues that the fashion industry have unethical practices in such as paying unlivable wages, child labor, modern slavery and much more. According to the Fair Fashion Center back in 2016, they recognized that 150 million lives are touched by the global fashion industry daily. Most of these people still do not receive a living wage and are also working in terrible conditions. 

 

 

As you can tell, being ethical is prevalent in the conscious consumerism world, reference to clothing made in ways that under utilize social welfare workers' rights. Environmentalism goes hand in hand with being beneficial to society, however ethical and sustainable fashion are strongly tied together.

Lastly, The image above dramatically explains how textile waste harmful to the planet. 

 
Most of the fashion items have a terrible end-of-life outcome, and fast fashion doesn’t help a circular economy, fashion also generates physical textile waste. It is a fact that all the waste, scraps and trimmings that come from textile production (usually referred to as dead-stock) or clothing that’s made in stores but doesn’t sell before going out for style generates waste. In a way, fashion companies generally burn these items rather than donating or recycling them. 
 
As a summary
Sustainable fashion concentrates on clothing that does not harm the planet and mainly focuses on humans right considering the ethical way to designed, manufactured, distributed and used in environmentally friendly ways. 
In addition to your green wardrobe, you can consider these main tips when you practicing your new consumerism ways. 

 

Look to purchase clothes made locally and ethically run on renewable energy or made with low impact, recycled, up-cycled, or dead-stock materials that other ways would end up in landfills, ecol-friendly dyes, or zero or low waste methods designs.

 

Purchasing secondhand clothing would be another great way to be more sustainable.

 

 

 Always choose well and timeless item and take good care and make it last.

 

 

Take good care of your clothes, mending and tailoring as needed or altered to make them more modernized to match your current style. 

 

 

Below is an image that shows 7 ways of being a sustainable consumer in a graphic and it will give you more direction on your sustainable consumer journey.

 


   Stay sustainable and make the world a better place. 

 

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