Vol 18: Fashion's Thirst Problem
Rebuilding roadmaps, Microsoft partnerships, and pineapples
This newsletter is about the fashion world needing to embrace the challenge of transforming into a more sustainable industry.
“The lack of good data is a major impediment to improving fashion’s record on climate change and improving conditions for millions of garment workers”
This week’s edition features an important piece from the Business of Fashion on how our industry’s lack of reliable data presents one of the biggest challenges to fashion’s biggest societal and environmental challenges. The piece features Maxine Sedat, the former Zady cofounder and current founder of the New Standard’s Institute. We’d recommend you head over to the think tank’s site and check out their Roadmap to Rebuild and Standards in Plain Language resources (email required for both).
We’ve written extensively on how the lack of a shared language (both in terminology and datasets) is one of the biggest issues hampering progress. It’s incredibly exciting to see organizations like the NSI helping solve this problem.
Happy Reading,
The Embrace Team
Fashion’s Thirst Problem - Karma Impact
The fashion industry is using up too much water, but the problem is not only water usage but pollution too. While reading the full CDP report, we made several astonishing findings:
Cotton production accounts for 16% of all insecticides used worldwide. Hazardous pesticides used during cotton production can be detected not only in soil and water bodies but also in various pieces of clothing made from cotton. It means that each T-shirt and pair of jeans in your wardrobe have massively contributed to water pollution and are somehow affecting your health.
According to the report, in Bangladesh alone, the textile manufacturing sector discharges an estimated 217 million cubic meters of polluted wastewater, an amount about 85,000 times as big as an Olympic swimming pool.
Micro and nanofiber pollution. It is reported that the washing of 1 kilogram of synthetic garments can release between 640,000 – 1,500,000 microfibers. Here's the good news: apparently, subsequent washes release fewer microfibers, so reusing old clothes reduces pollution risk compared to the use of new products. Hooray to vintage and secondhand items shopping lovers!
Over 92 million tonnes of textiles are disposed of each year, much of which goes to landfill. Ultimately, this textile waste may contribute to local groundwater and surface water sources pollution. What can we do about it? Buy less, mend clothes to use longer, and recycle!
When it comes to fashion’s detrimental effects on our environment, there is more than meets the eye.
UN SDG Fulfillment More Than 60 Years Behind Schedule - Sourcing Journal
The present has often been prioritized over the future, but the coronavirus crisis has underscored the importance of tackling ills such as climate change, income inequality, and diversity. More fashion companies are getting on board now to intensify their sustainability efforts, however, Social Progress Imperative and the UN anticipate a sad state of affairs:
"The organization’s 2020 Social Progress Index, which was unveiled by the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations at a virtual event last week, concluded that the world will not achieve the SDGs until at least 2082, and that’s without accounting for the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis, which could push their fulfillment to 2092 at the earliest."
Given we are 60 years behind on meeting the SDGs, companies should ramp up their ESG and sustainability programs. As sustainability considerations continue to gain prominence, Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance has rapidly emerged as a “new management approach,” WWD notes.
Fashion's Greenwashing Problem Begins with Bad Data - BoF Professional
An interesting read on how the information gaps contribute to businesses and consumers falling victim to greenwashing. Ironically, in the information age, there is a lack of traceability and transparency across the global fashion supply chain.
“Without good data, you end up in greenwashing” - Tamara Cincik, founder and chief executive of UK-based consultancy and industry lobby group Fashion Roundtable
In order to avoid comparing apples to oranges, quantifiable and comparable data is needed on:
materials - what the products were made of
processes - how they were made
and people - who made them
Eon x Microsoft Pledge To Have 400 Million Fashion Products Online by 2025 - FashNerd
Speaking of data and traceability, the tech giant Microsoft is partnering with digital platform provider Eon to track over 400 million online garments by 2025. The program, named Connected Products, aims to promote new business models around sustainability and circular trio "rent, resale and recycle".
In a nutshell, it is the Internet of Things applied to fashion. Provided with a unique digital fingerprint, each garment is tracked throughout its entire lifecycle from production to the store, to the closet, to wherever it ends up further along its journey. Smart clothing is getting a step closer to becoming a reality.
Engineered by NatureEach week we highlight one cutting-edge sustainable material innovation. Hit reply if there are any materials you’d like us to include! 🍍
Piñatex, a Textile Born From of Pineapple Leave Fibres
Created by Ananas Anam, Piñatex is a textile made using byproducts from pineapple farming. To make one square meter of Piñatex it takes 460 discarded pineapple leaves, which otherwise contribute to the 13 million tonnes of waste that comes from global pineapple agriculture every year.
Since its commercial launch in 2015, this sustainable alternative to leather has been used by both fast fashion (H&M) and luxury brands like Hugo Boss and Chanel. In 2020, Ananas Anam was granted B Corp certification.
Around the news
Chanel Creates New Role of Head of Human Rights - as lack of transparency on human rights issues plays an increasingly critical role in the fashion industry, Chanel appoints Agathe Derain to the newly created position of head of human rights and corporate sustainability.
Uniqlo Launches Re.Uniqlo Recycled Clothing Initiative - the Japanese retailer will collect old Uniqlo clothing from customers and breath new life into them. The first product under the program, a 100% recycled down jacket will drop in stores this November.
On to launch subscription service to drive circular economy in sportswear - the Swiss-based footwear brand introduces a subscription-based service to offer fully recyclable sportswear to its customers worldwide.
26 Sustainability efforts of the fashion industry in August 2020 - here is the full list of eco-initiatives launched by brands and retailers this August.
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Mars accused of 'warping, reframing, or ignoring' environmental commitments in major sustainability report - More greenwashing: food industry giants fail to act on their sustainability claims.
GREENWASHING - the act of making false or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a product, service, or company's corporate practices.
The most effective tool in combating greenwashing is educating ourselves on the impact of the fashion industry.
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