The fashion industry is the second least eco-friendly business in the world, just after the oil industry. 10% of worldwide carbon emissions come from the fashion industry. Additionally, as per the 2018 records of UNECE, around 85% of all textiles are disposed of annually, and laundering particular kinds of clothing, such as synthetic ones, often discharges a big chunk of microplastics into the water bodies, causing pollution.
Unfortunately, despite these facts coming to light, most clothing companies all over the world continue to manufacture their products at a fast pace and operate their businesses without considering the environment. If it continues to stay this way, it will negatively impact our beloved Earth!
Even though there is no such option as "eco-friendly clothing" yet, there is a rising trend to bring forth sustainable fashion. This initiative will not only meet the demands of customers seeking fashionable clothing, swimwear, wedding dresses, shoes, and other fashion accessories but will also ensure that the manufacturing procedure of these products has no adverse effects on the environment.
Sustainable Fashion Overview | Importance Of Sustainable Fashion | Ways To Achieve Sustainable Fashion
Sustainable Fashion Overview
The term "sustainability" refers to a social, economic, and ecological mission that essentially seeks to establish long-term human coexistence on Earth by securely utilizing natural resources in a way that meets their present needs without interfering with the ability of future generations to meet their requirements.
Sustainable fashion, often referred to as ethical fashion or eco-friendly fashion, is an approach within the fashion industry towards incorporating and promoting sustainability. Such sustainable fashion industries design, produce, distribute, and utilize reusable clothing or accessories in an environmentally safe manner.
Importance Of Sustainable Fashion And Reusable Clothing
Maintaining sustainability in an eco-friendly fashion is important for a variety of reasons, including the ones listed below:
Environmental Well-Being
As mentioned before, the main purpose of sustainable fashion is to enhance both the overall well-being of the environment and the quality of life for both our human community and other living creatures.
Eco-friendly fashion garments and accessories use less water, power, and generate less landfill waste. It gets rid of the toxic herbicides and insecticides used to grow cotton, as well as various other harmful chemicals that are contaminating the water supply and harming the health of the general population involved in the supply chain.
Cruelty-Free Fashion
Annually, more than 2 billion cows, calves, buffaloes, pigs, goats, etc. are slaughtered for their skins worldwide. Sustainable fashion on the other hand utilizes plastics or even garbage from the ocean as substitute items that are used in the process of manufacturing similar products. As a result, no animal gets harmed in the manufacturing process.
The Perks Of Reusable Clothing
Reusing or repurposing used garments gives them a fresh look while avoiding the massive amounts of textile waste that are generated by the fashion industry.
Also, the 5Rs (Reduce, Repair, Recycle, Repurpose, and Reinvent) of waste management happen to be the framework of sustainable eco-friendly fashion brands. The strategy helps create manufacturing methods that are effective, affordable, and use minimal raw materials. These reusable clothes contribute to resource conservation and enhance brand recognition.
Quality Over Quantity
Also known as "slow fashion," sustainable fashion is all about quality rather than quantity. As a result, the reusable clothing or accessories produced by this practice will last for years, as opposed to the cheap, quickly produced, "fast fashion" garments or accessories that are meant for temporary usage.
Although it is bound to be more pricey, most smart customers are more inclined to keep it for the long term and purchase fewer items altogether each season.
Also, the total amount of greenhouse gases generated by general cloth production will be significantly reduced if customers start purchasing a small number of high-quality things annually rather than many cheap, less environmentally friendly ones. By doing so, they will be able to spend less, save money, and invest it.
A Better Workplace For Fashion Industry Workers
For years fast fashion has managed to keep its manufacturing costs low at the expense of poor working and living standards in developing and underdeveloped nations. These sorts of businesses do not give factory workers a healthy workspace to work in.
On top of that, a majority of these workers are women, who face exploitation, forced overwork, less pay, harassment, etc.
Ethical and sustainable fashion brands will ensure that there is no sort of mental or physical harm inflicted on the workers and give them their deserved rights, such as a good living wage, properly maintained work-life balance, standard working hours, safe working conditions, etc.
A Step Towards Abolishing Child Labour
As per the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 170 million children work as child labourers, most of whom produce textiles and clothing to meet the demands of customers.
Toxic chemicals used in manufacturing lead to illnesses in workers and occasionally create various physical deformities in children who engage in on-field labour, including visual or hearing impairments, limb damage or loss, and facial injuries.
The brands following sustainable eco-friendly fashion practices will be upfront regarding their recruitment strategy and thus will avoid this sort of modern-day slavery.
Ways To Achieve Sustainable Fashion
Without a doubt, the mere thought of building a long-lasting, sustainable fashion brand is overwhelming. We have to carefully consider each stage in the entire chain of business operations required in the process of manufacturing clothes or accessories.
In addition to that, we also have to reduce waste and emissions, encourage global gender and wage equality and improve overall ecological preservation and protection.
Some of the best practices that can be followed to create a sustainable fashion brand are listed below:
Sustainable Use Of Resources
Brands will utilize resources more effectively with advanced planning. Forecasting demand is the first factor in establishing that you order the right amount of eco-friendly material. So, you must research which are the in-demand materials that are environment-friendly at the same time. Such materials can include certified Organic Cotton, EcoVero, Organic Cotton, Organic Hemp, Organic Jute, Bamboo Linen, Pineapple Leather, Ramie, Semi-Synthetic Fabrics, and Tencel.
Other than these, you can also opt for bio-based resources like cotton grown without pesticides or chemicals, or traditional fibres that are organically biodegradable like wool or silk. Also do try to utilize eco-friendly packaging for shipping your products.
Minimize Consumption Of Unwanted Resources
We must try to prevent excessive resource consumption. One way is by figuring out the demand for resources. You can start by conducting research on which fabrics are the most popular, likely to draw your potential customers or the long-lasting ones and then only invest in fabrics.
Secondly, we must refrain from purchasing fabrics that require a lot of water, land, or energy to produce, as well as those created from fossil fuels.
Prevent Waste & Carbon Emission
To deliver their clothes or accessories to customers, fashion brands often engage in bulk warehousing and transport a significant number of garments to their facilities following production. Increased waste and carbon emissions result from this. We can minimize this issue by having products manufactured and stored in the same location and then shipping them directly to your customers.
As an eco-friendly fashion brand, we must also avoid burning or dumping unshipped and unsold stock, make a discounted line of "mistake clothes" (clothes with sewing, colour, or size defects) that are on sale, and maintain a reliable infrastructure for disposing of garbage or how to reduce and reuse fabric waste.
Manufacture Less but Good-Quality Products
Many customers have experienced the disappointment of spending a lot of money on pricey garments only to discover a few months later that they already appear worn out or have holes in them. This is because fast fashion clothing places a lower priority on quality.
Customers have thus ceased purchasing low-quality clothing and started favouring higher-quality garments that will last for a longer time. Therefore, rather than producing an excessive amount of low-quality, less environmentally friendly clothing, you must invest in improving the quality of their apparel.
Purchasing higher quality and more sustainable materials to produce less, in-demand clothes will almost certainly cost you more money. However, improving your brand's reputation will draw in more customers rather than drive them to choose different brands.
To make it more appealing to your customers you can promote custom clothing and personalize the entire purchasing experience. This is a smarter way of connecting better with your customers In the age of consumerism.
Consumers who care about the environment will pick custom apparel over mass-produced apparel. By doing so, you will conserve raw materials and natural resources while also promoting ethical and eco-friendly fashion.
Taking Into Account The 5 R's Of Waste Management
Last but not least, redesigning and repurposing are currently the top trends in the fashion sector. Brands and customers are both adhering to the 5 R's of fashion: Reduce, Repair, Recycle, Repurpose, and Reinvent.
The process involves disassembling, reusing, and recycling unusual secondhand materials such as leftover garments and offcuts from other clothing brands or outdated stored stock of materials to make brand new innovative, and trendy outputs.
By producing such reusable clothing, many fashion businesses will be able to save a lot of money fashion industries usually spend on materials and thus lessen the use of resources such as land, water, and oil.
Many eco-friendly clothing companies also offer their customers the chance to have their unwanted, worn-out, or torn clothing repaired. Not only does this boost customer satisfaction, but it also allows your business the chance to recycle old clothes properly or reuse resources to create something new, both of which help keep unwanted items out of unwanted wastage and landfills.
Conclusion
It is tough for fashion industries as well as fashion designers to apply this innovative approach to produce elegant and enduring clothes and accessories.
However, We must also keep in mind that the road to success depends on possessing a strong, sincere desire and worthwhile aim, notwithstanding the proverb "If there's a will, there's a way."
After all, we won't want to witness a time when there are so few resources available that people are compelled to don clothing made from tree bark and leaves.
So, build an eco-friendly, sustainable fashion brand today to make the planet a better place for everyone!
By Priyanka Biswas
She is a content writer and an avid traveller. She loves to write about various topics. She cares for Nature and sustainability.