Vol 16: Orange skies and GHGs
This newsletter is about the fashion world needing to embrace the challenge of transforming into a more sustainable industry.
As our feeds are filled with images of orange skies from our friends on the West Coast (we’re in NYC), it’s becoming increasingly terrifying that we can now “see” climate change in the skies. It made reading McKinsey’s new report “How the fashion industry can urgently act to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions” feel that much more urgent.
We’ve included a synopsis of the piece. What was impressive in the report was how detailed it gets into the costs of how to reduce our industry’s emissions to a point to bring us back to the 1.5 degree C pathway (it’s still frustrating that we are striving for only that level of temperature increase). In true McKinsey fashion, they outline cost curves and break down the activities that will add costs (introducing recycled materials) while reminding us a lot of positive actions can save us money (recycled polymailers instead of boxes).
We hope you’ll take some time to read through either McKinsey’s summary or the full 57-page report (don’t worry, ~20 pages are appendices, so it’s not that long 😀).
And in the meantime, this Anne Helen Peterson post, Habituation to Horror, was probably the most cathartic thing we read in helping us try to process the endless feed of orange skies.
The Embrace Team
Carbon footprint: today and tomorrow
According to the report, the global fashion industry generated more greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 than the UK, Germany and France combined.
The findings reveal that the majority of carbon footprint occurs at the start of a garment's life: upstream activities such as materials production, preparation, and processing were responsible for 70 percent of the fashion industry's emissions. The remaining 30 percent were associated with downstream retail operations, use-phase and end-of-use activities, of which, we as consumers, contribute to 20 percent of carbon footprint.
If no action is taken to mitigate climate change, in the next 10 years the fashion industry's carbon emission will rise by a third to some 2.7 billion tonnes. Granted the industry continues to embrace decarbonization initiatives at its current pace, the world will overshoot its 2030 emission reduction targets. As producers, brands, retailers, consumers, we are all in the same boat, and clearly we are not doing enough.
Achieving a 1.5 degree pathway
Following McKinsey and Global Fashion Agenda’s recommendations, in order to intensify abatement efforts, industry participants should focus on three key areas:
Reducing emissions from upstream operations
Manufacturers and fiber producers could deliver 61 percent of the ambitious 1.7 billion tonnes of accelerated abatement potential in 2030. These efforts include decarbonizing material production and processing, minimizing production and manufacturing waste, and decarbonizing garment manufacturing.
Reducing emissions from brands’ own operations
Brands and retailers can contribute 18 percent of the accelerated abatement potential by improving their material mix, increasing their use of sustainable transport, improving their packaging, decarbonizing their retail operations, minimizing returns, and reducing overproduction.
Encouraging sustainable consumer behavior
New business models promoting garment rental, resale, repair, and refurbishment would cut down around 143 million tonnes of GHG emissions in 2030.
We as consumers can contribute to the reduction of a significant portion of carbon footprint by embracing a more conscious approach to fashion consumption and learning to care for our clothes. According to the report, reduced washing and drying could deliver an additional 186 million tonnes of reductions. Increased recycling and collection would encourage the fashion industry to move towards a closed-loop-recycling (CLR) operating model.
The Cost
The fashion industry's environmental footprint is enormous, so it's easy to assume that changing the old ways of doing business costs a lot of money, at least in the short-term. Fortunately, many of the efforts proposed to mitigate the carbon footprint could be delivered at a moderate cost: "89% of abatement can be achieved at a cost of less than USD50 per tonne of GHG emissions."
Given the current fragmentation of the global fashion supply chain, a co-ordinated action is required involving all stakeholders: upstream value chain players, brands and retailers, policymakers, investors and consumers.
Around the news
IKEA owner to invest in tackling climate change - the Ingka Group commits €600 million in sustainability solutions including a 'zero fossil fuel' approach to achieve its climate agenda by 2030.
All Timberland Products to Be 100% Circular, Net Positive by 2030 - Timberland plans its products to have a net positive impact on nature by 2030 through circular product design and regenerative sourcing solutions.
Fashion Positive Launches Circular Materials Guidelines - the non-profit for circular fashion launched its first-ever Circular Materials Guidelines to help manufacturers and brands build a more resilient fashion industry.
The clothing of the future completely dissolves after use - Central Saint Martins graduate designed a dress made of an algae-based textile that dissolves in a matter of couple of hours.
GREENHOUSE GASES (GHGs) - gases in the Earth's atmosphere that absorb heat from the sun (e.g. water vapour H2O, carbon dioxide CO2, nitrous oxide N2O, methane CH4 and ozone O3).
Human activities have led to high concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which causes a greenhouse effect, leading to global warming.