Green Stategy: What Is Sustainable Fashion?

TenTree has created a product with the positioning to give customers clothing options that are environmentally and socially responsible. They promise to plant ten trees for every item purchased and only use factories that are approved by WRAP. (TenTree, n.d.) They also have a large selection of t-shirts, hoodies, sweaters, tanks, hats, and toques, in a variety of different colours and sizes. (TenTree, n.d.) Satisfying the customer wants for a wide variety of socially and environmentally responsible clothing has created functional-instrumental value for their customers.

Fashion is everything to society and the media. The fashion industry has transformed into a necessity in the life of people. Everyone wants to look good, feel fabulous and feel as if we belong with everyone else. The envy and desire to wear certain things and look a certain way all come, from wearing the latest fashion handbags, accessories, dresses, shoes, and the list goes on. But, when is considering fashion into an individual’s life going too far to the extreme? Many do not consider the whereabouts of fashion materials and how the environment is affected by the mere existence of certain garments. Some may believe these objects grow on trees. But that is clearly not the case. Even though it would be nice. The fashion industry as a

In this article, Barenblat outlines some of the key reasons as to why fast fashion is detrimental for women and the environment. The author supports her claim by suggesting fast fashion is expensive for the planet, encourages young women in poverty to work in sweatshops, and leads to million tons of landfill each year. This information in the article is useful because it provides relevant statistics on the damages caused by the clothing industry.

So what is sustainability? It is the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance.

Sustainability is defined as the ability to endure.(1) Though the idea of sustainability can be applied to most anything from a sustainable ecosystem that has survived thousands of years to a sustainable workplace that uses green technologies. Paul Hawken captured today’s connotation of sustainability in saying “Sustainability is about stabilizing the currently disruptive relationship between earth’s two most complex systems—human culture and the living world.” (2) There are countless ways to live, work, and produce sustainably. Sustainability not only needs to be practiced by citizens, but businesses need to join the green movement as well. Without creating, following, and enforcing green policies, negative effects will be evident and innumerable

There will always be that one or two patrons that are looking to save the environment and if the company can look to incorporate environmentally friendly designer clothing and accessories into the business, the business will be leading the future in clothing retail sales. For example, designer blue jeans become a designer purse; a designer silk shirt becomes a new designer pajama top. Reusing material is not a new idea however, creating new items from high-end designer clothing to create environmentally friendlier clothing or recycled designer clothing from the designer is, and if it is made exclusively for Christina’s Unique Clothing Store the company’s future is secured.

Fashion does not simply consist of the clothes we pick out of our closets in the morning. That daily decision only constitutes the last step of a much larger process, foreign sweatshops, multi-billion-dollar businesses, celebrities on red carpets, and sophisticated advertising campaigns. Fashion emerges out of pattern-making and design, the cultivation and production of raw materials, the manufacturing process, and the distribution of the finished product. Although all this creates the materials, fashion is more than just cloth and jewels. Fashion is the expression of oneself whether it's based on emotion, fashion trends, or music videos.

I know what you’re thinking, because it's exactly what I thought: ‘How does fashion have anything to do with sustainability?’ It's easy to think that your sustainable just by putting your food scraps in the compost or recycling your plastics, but in reality it goes much further than that. It’s true that sustainability starts in the home but, all too often it slips our mind the impact our clothing has on the environment.

Interesting question, I would like to start by saying that sustainability is a complete cycle that can be used to achieve a goal, whether it regards supplying products or operating an organization. Sustainability also touches on the very important issue of interacting with customers with the target of optimizing the benefits accruing from social, economic and environmental outcomes.

With manufacturing moving overseas, we should realize that with it moves the dyed chemical water. Countries such as Bangladesh dump their wastewater in ditches that can be see when driving to textile mills and manufacturing plants (Cline, 2012, pg. 123). With environmental forces such as global warming, we are overlooking the waste the fashion world is creating. Instead of donating to The Salvation Army or Goodwill, “a tremendous amount of clothing is in fact not getting recycled but getting trashed” which means consumers aren’t realizing where their used garments are really going (Cline, 2012, pg. 123). Cellulosic fibers seem to be environmentally friendly because they come from cotton, flax, and bamboo. Even though these fibers start off

For Reformation, sustainability is the core of their business, and it is implemented in every level, even though the fashion industry is the third most polluting in the world, this business attempts to do things right by leaving a green footprint. Reformation is actually living up to its mission, “ to lead and inspire a sustainable way to be fashionable.” A clear example of the sustainability in Reformation is that they are a certified B Corp (Benefit Corporation); this means that they use their power as a business to solve environmental and social issues, and it meets rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, responsibility, and transparency. Some of the company highlights in terms of environment is that it has a written

Sustainability is a process of changing the way things are done to optimize performance and minimize waste. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) enforces laws and regulations on

Rachael Cassar’s clothes are very unique and eco-friendly. Her clothes are all made out of 90% recycled materials. She transforms them into something edgy, spectacular and creative. She is one of the most forward thinking designers of all time. Rachael says that in order for eco-fashion to ‘succeed’, designers need to replace cheaply made fashion with equally appealing sustainable items. This is good to the environment. Sustainable clothes are important because it reviews what we use to manufacture them in the first place (eg. soak them in chemicals). Eco-fashion is much better for the environment, people and animals. Rachael Cassar’s work on eco-fashion is truly exceptional.

Sustainable living is a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual 's or society 's use of the earth 's natural resources and his/her own resources. Practitioners of sustainable living often attempt to reduce their “carbon footprint” by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet. Proponents of sustainable living aim to conduct their lives in ways that are consistent with sustainability, in natural balance and respectful of humanity 's symbiotic relationship with the earth 's natural ecology and cycles. The practice and general philosophy of ecological living is highly interrelated with the overall

Finding an exact definition for the terms “sustainable fashion”. “Green”, “Eco fashion” to a name a few, is close to impossible. We all have the impression everyone understands it the same way but it is false, it has different meanings for all of us.