Environmental impact

Environmental impact

Ethical fashion means providing workers with fair hours, wages, and rights, as well as a healthy work environment. Further it refers to practices that take into consideration all associated with apparel supply chains including management, designers, production workers, sales and even we the consumers. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Fair and living wages for workers

• Safe, clean working conditions

• Worker’s rights (For example, those outlined in the ILO conventions)

• Workers’ freedom of association and voice in the workplace

• Promote traditional skills

• Promote rural development

• Locally made

environmental issues

Fashion has an impact on the environment in many places, throughout the entire lifecycle of a product. This includes the production of raw materials (natural and man made fibers), dyeing, spinning, weaving, finishing, cutting, sewing, packaging, transport, sales, consumption, and disposal. At least 8,000 chemicals are used to turn raw materials into textiles, many of which are toxic, corrosive, or include biologically-modifying reagents.

A few statistics:

• Production of textiles per year is estimated at between 60-70 million metric tons (more than 120 billion pounds)

• Around 40% of textiles produced around the world are polyester. Polyesters, nylons, and acrylics are made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource.

• The dying and finishing stages of the textile production process usually require chemical use and high water use. The majority of compounds used for applying color are highly carcinogenic or otherwise toxic, often being discharged into waterways.

• According to the EPA, the 2.5 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste in the US represents 10 pounds for every person in the United States.

• Two thirds of a garment’s carbon footprint will occur after it is purchased. Washing and disposal is a big issue.

• A glance at conventional cotton:

• Current consumption of cotton is higher than ever before – with annual demand over 25 million tons.

• Worldwide more than 10% of all chemical pesticides and 22% of all insecticides are sprayed on cotton. The World Health organization estimates 20,000 farmers die a year as a result of the use of agricultural pesticides in developing countries. Developing countries bear the brunt of pesticide use – using only 25% of the world’s pesticides they experience 99% of pesticide-related deaths.

• Cotton is responsible for the release of US$2 billion of chemical pesticides each year – within which at least US$819 million are considered toxic enough to be classified as hazardous by the World Health Organization.

• In India, home to over one third of the world’s cotton farmers, cotton accounts for 54% of all pesticides used annually – despite occupying just 5% of land under crops.

• It takes over 1,800 gallons of water to grow the cotton needed for the average pair of jeans and over 400 gallons of water for one t-shirt.

Environmental responsibility

Ethical fashion ensures that the process of getting the product from raw materials to the consumer has as little negative impact on the environment as possible. This can be done in a number of ways, depending on the impacts identified and the design strategies applied:

• Use of environmentally responsible materials (organic fibers avoid chemical use in growing fiber, polyester fibers can be made of recycled materials and require less energy in washing and drying, for example)

• Minimizing negative environmental impact by employing sustainable best practices (shipping, office waste, etc.)

• Reusing, reassembling, and maintaining clothes in use for longer (vintage/used clothing stores, repair services, taking apart old clothes and sewing new finished products with them)

• Designing for disassembly and repurposing clothes so they have a second life (disassembling clothes and using the material to create new finished products)

• Employing energy and water efficient processes for dyes and finishes and using non-toxic substances.

• Does not use pesticides or harmful chemicals

• Use innovative textiles that minimize harm on the environment and follow the precautionary principle with new technologies (produced from recycled or newly engineered materials)

• Minimize load on landfills by using Biodegradable products (e.g., ones that could easily be broken down by the environment at the end of their life cycle. Embodies cradle to cradle concept that materials should protect the ecosystem and be free of waste.)

• Minimal waste in the production process

Innovative new businesses that are not based on the make, use waste principle, but are based on principles of cycles

• Animal products are ethically sourced and vegetable tanned