sustainable fashion challenge
The necessities of food, shelter, and clothing all become a mixture of necessities and wants as the basics evolve into luxuries. The clothes we wear, the places we live, and even the food we eat are often designed to look good. We live in a world where scarcity and poverty are rife, yet most people, most everywhere, do not experience poverty.according to US Census Bureau: “The official poverty rate in 2021 is 11.6%, and there are 37.9 million poor people. There is no significant difference between the poverty rate and the number of poor people in 2020.”
Globally, the World Bank sets far lower standards than the U.S. and measures “extreme poverty.” They estimate that some 860 million people live in extreme poverty. A study by the Brookings Institution There are approximately 250 million wealthy households and another 3.6 billion middle class globally.
The environmental impacts of the rich and middle class include the outsized influence of culturally bound but increasingly destructive fashion practices. Moving towards sustainable fashion must address several key questions: What do we wear? Why? How are the garments made? How much do we have in our drawers and closets? What happens when we throw away our clothes? Even as we tackle these issues, many experts remain deeply skeptical about the possibility of sustainable fashion.in a Harvard Business Review Article titled “The Myth of Sustainable Fashion”, former Timberland COO Kenneth P. Parker observed:
“Few industries advertise their sustainability credentials more forcefully than the fashion industry… New business models including recycling, reselling, renting out, reusing and repairing are being sold as environmental lifesavers. However, the sad truth is that , all these experiments and so-called “innovations” in the fashion industry over the past 25 years have failed to lessen its impact on the planet… Take, for example, the production of shirts and shoes, which has more than doubled in the past quarter century —— Three-quarters end up burned or buried in landfill…Due to trade liberalization, globalization and persistent cost pressures, few brands own the assets of their upstream factories and most companies will end up outsourcing production… Fashion, like all industries, is nested within a broader system . It’s a system premised on growth…Combining the imperative to grow with accelerated product declines, long lead times and global supply chains, the result is an inevitable overproduction…Forecasting seasonal rollout numbers Ten styles are much easier to demand than they are to be, as are the thousands of styles released each month… Five years ago, McKinsey report Technology and revised business systems have shortened production cycles, allowing brands to “launch new lines more frequently. Zara offers 24 new clothing lines a year; H&M offers 12 to 16, updated weekly.” The acceleration and proliferation of “freshness” continues to attract consumers back to websites and stores. “
This business model is enabled by technology and the lack of effective regulation of global supply chains. But it’s profitable because of a culture of changing fashion and the need for “novelty.” Social media and visual apps like TikTok and Instagram have accelerated the need for a new look. Clothes are worn not for practical purposes, such as warmth and public modesty, but as a form of personal expression. This expressive element is not going away. Pucker’s point is that the private sector alone will not be able to increase the use of sustainable materials and the development of sustainable business models. Going back to the old economist’s solution, he suggested that we price negative externalities.according to wrinkle: “After a quarter-century of experimentation with voluntary, market-based, win-win approaches to fashion sustainability, it’s time for a shift.”
If he doesn’t think voluntary change will work, wait until he tries to force change. Pricing externalities is an elegant economic theory that worked well until it collided with political reality. In most cases, it is not politically feasible to put a price on externalities. People don’t like paying taxes for what they want, and pricing externalities affect fairness because the poor pay the same price as the rich. The best way to change behavior with money is not to charge more for destructive behavior, but to subsidize constructive behavior. The new culture will be hard to disrupt. It is enhanced by business needs in design, finance and social media.
But the same situation is that people are becoming more and more aware of the nature of the problem, and young people who are the main market of fast fashion are also beginning to realize the damage fast fashion causes to the environment. Dieter Holgerrecently wall street journal piece, wrote:
“Fashion companies are planning to buy more recycled fibre, part of a broader trend of businesses using their spending power to foster innovative, low-carbon suppliers. Fashion Brand Owner H&M, Companies including Zara, Gucci and Stella McCartney said on Monday they would collectively buy 550,000 metric tons of alternative fibers to make textiles and packaging, such as those made from agricultural residues or recycled materials. Planned purchases make up only a fraction of its total production and no deadlines have been set, largely because materials are currently in short supply…Like many industries, fashion is under pressure from consumers and regulators Increasing scrutiny of the source of fabric and the waste it generates. In the United States, textile waste sent to landfills has been on the rise since 1960, reaching 11.3 million tons in 2018, According to the latest data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The fashion industry is also EU regulationsits executive agency, released a plan in March saying that by 2030, clothing should be “durable and recyclable, made largely of recycled fibres”.
None of this contradicts the point made by Kenneth Pucker, as these efforts are mostly small and symbolic. Another issue that neither article discusses is the pervasive oppressive labor practices in the industry.In a recent review article New York Times, Rachel GreenleeGraduate students studying and working in the fast fashion industry report:
“In this 75 million garment worker Globally, it is estimated that less than 2% of people are able to sustain themselves 2017 data collation by an advocacy group. When we buy fast fashion from the comfort of our couch, we support a system in which low-wage workers (mostly people of color) make clothes on the other side of the world, while other low-wage workers (among them Many also have people of color) dealing with returns not seen in the concrete suburbs of American cities. ”
I assume that as the economy develops further and over time, many manufacturing jobs will be replaced by automation. However, today’s fashion industry must have an oppressive and polluting character. It must also be seen as having cultural significance. Its connection to our culture is built on its deep connection to contemporary art, cultural taste and design. Those who design clothing are creating beauty and expressing their own aesthetic, and enabling their customers to do the same. While I’m not personally involved in this world, I admire some who do. The contemporary fashion business model is not admirable because it creates pressure for continued growth. The challenge for sustainable fashion is to make this growth less disruptive and oppressive.
In New York City, back to the mid-20th centuryday A century before the fashion industry expanded on a massive scale, 500,000 workers used to produce nearly all of America’s apparel. For many people today, clothing remains a necessity rather than a luxury. Today, we only produce samples in New York, but approximately 100,000 people design, market and manage fashion operations in New York. It is part of the culture, arts, information, finance, education, health, wellness and media economies that keep New York City financially intact. Switching to sustainable materials, renewable energy and business models that promote ecological well-being and fair labor practices is not easy or straightforward. But frankly, the fashion industry is no different than other industries now engaged in the generation-long transformation we have begun across the developed world: towards an environmentally sustainable world economy. Like the earlier transition from agriculture and trade to manufacturing and from mass manufacturing to today’s automated manufacturing and service economy, the transition to sustainability was not always apparent in its early stages. Nonetheless, the sustainability transition is underway, and no one should underestimate the complexity and difficulty of the challenges ahead.
