What Does Sustainable Fashion Really Mean?
What Is the Definition of Sustainable Fashion?
At its most basic, the word “sustainable” means something can be maintained at its current rate or level. It can be applied to business: Can a company keep going while earning the same amount of money? It can be applied to the way you’re living your life. You’ve probably been admonished at least once by a well-meaning friend about your packed schedule, poor sleeping habits, or workload. “You just can’t keep going like this. It’s not sustainable.”
The same could be said for how we’re treating the planet, and how we make our fashion. We can’t keep going like this. It’s not sustainable.
We’re pulling non-renewable oil out of the ground to turn into plastic packaging, polyester threads, and polyurethane shoes, all of which will end up in the landfill within a few years—if not a few months—where they will languish for anywhere from 500 to over a thousand years.
We grow water-thirsty cotton in water-scarce areas, dumping pesticides on the land and ruin the soil so that we have to dump more synthetic fertilizers on it, too. We cut down rainforests in Indonesia and Canada to feed into pulp mills, mixing these precious trees with toxic chemicals to create viscose fabric.
Fabric mills run on dirty coal and diesel. Dye houses dump toxic dyes into waterways and kill all aquatic life. Leather tanneries in Asia poison their communities and their workers with chromium effluent. Factories pay their workers such low wages in such poor conditions that they are trapped in a cycle of poverty and poor health.
This isn’t sustainable. If we keep going like this, we will run out of trees, out of clean water, out of fertile soil, and we will heat our planet so much it will be unlivable. The shocking thing is that this is normal in fashion. It’s business as usual.
As more and more people find out about what their dollars are supporting, they are starting to seek out sustainable fashion, or fashion that is made in a way that protects and preserves the environment for future generations.
It may be created in an efficient factory using renewable resources—like wind, solar, geothermal, or hydropower—so it has low or neutral greenhouse gas emissions. The materials may be light on the environment, like polyester made from recycled water bottles, nylon made from old fishing nets, upcycled or vegetable tanned leather, organic cotton, linen, alpaca, or Tencel, a viscose that is made in a closed-loop process from sustainably harvested wood. It may be dyed in a factory that carefully treats its wastewater.
Most importantly, sustainable fashion is high quality and made to last for years and years, so that you don’t have to keep buying more of it every month. Because that isn’t sustainable for your finances.
But we’re in a period of intense innovation and excitement. In a few years, we might even have regenerative materials to choose from. These are materials that take carbon out of the atmosphere, like viscose made from recycled cotton, and wool sheared from sheep that roam outdoors like the bison used to do, in perfect harmony with nature as they lightly munch on wild grasses.
So what we currently call “sustainable fashion” is actually fashion that’s trying to improve on the status quo. It’s fashion that is created by people who care deeply and who want to help create a better future for the planet, people, and animals. It’s fashion that is taking the leap to try out new innovations, or alternatively, getting back to our roots of natural fibers and dyes and repairing our clothing. It’s fashion that is made by artisans and workers in a safe and clean factory who are being paid fairly.
Shopping for sustainable fashion is actually a pretty powerful way to engage in the fight against climate change. Fashion brands are exquisitely attuned to what customers want. And the more people like you who say they want something better, something sustainable, the more brands will feel compelled to take the leap into a clean, just, and abundant future.
You can contribute your part to the environment by either donating or purchasing from a thrift store. This will help in reuse and recycling of the clothes. You can upcycle the clothes and create something new. Visit a thrift store in Panama City, Beach, FL if you want to buy gently used items.
Comments
Post a Comment