Sustainable Fashion Essay

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.

This papers purpose is to teach fashion heavy consumers on the real price of fast fashion and how buying it affects the environment. This type of audience can be anyone who partakes in the buying of well-known cheap retail stores that have a large audience of being fast and obtainable. These consumers should have the information on how fast fashion effects are environment so it could possibly alter their buying habits to be eco-friendlier but buying either less or more sustainable clothing instead of the cheap alternatives. This audience should care about this purpose because this will affect the world now and for future generations as their environment is being mistreated because of these fast

Today, new clothes are sold in synchronization with a consumer’s weekly paycheck making a cycle of about 52 seasons – one per week in each year. This is generating about 80 billion pieces of new clothing created annually which is 400% more than two decades ago. Because of this high demand, a term ‘fast fashion’ has come into focus – those looking deep at this term are both clothing companies and environmentalists. We’ve all

It is timely to consider the current and proposed meaning of the term sustainability as it corresponds to fashion. Kate Fletcher writes:

Generations ahead of us only had a tiny wardrobe, where clothes were not washed every day. In our generation, fast fashion is in. It’s ok to have multiple shirts or shoes of the same color. It’s actually ok to throw away unwanted apparel. Apparel companies are beginning to focus on sustainable fashion, also known as eco fashion. Apparel, fashion, and textiles is the most polluting industry in the world. Every stage, that a garment goes through, uses up and threatens our resources.

Sustainability is a topic that has become very important in recent years. Sustainability is defined as, “the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely.” ("Finding and Resolving the Root Causes of the Sustainability Problem", 2014)

According to Green Stategy, sustainable fashion is where products are created, sold, and used in "the most sustainable manner possible, taking into account both environmental and socio-economic aspects." This basically means that a sustainable product is environmentally friendly, as it has been made from natural resources, and can be reused to the best of its abilities. Limited or no processes through the clothing's lifecycle should be harmful to the environment.

Although most customers are unaware of the flaws of the clothing industry, some consumers are and do not care enough to act in a sustainable manner. The consumers lack care due to a combination of things. First off, consuming more clothing does not affect their day to day lives in a negative manner. These people have the mentality that if it does not affect me, it does not matter. One article articulates this lack of concern by millennial consumers perfectly, “They may care deeply about eating organic foods, but fast fashion consumption is exempt from such moral decisions. This approach can in part be explained by the fact that youthful consumers may fail to fully grasp issues of sustainability, in particular the disastrous future of environmental risks associated with unsustainable production” (World Financial Review). As we can see from this editorial, consumers are willing to buy organic products because they believe it will have a positive effect on their health. Clothing on the other hand is a

Sustainable fashion, also known as eco fashion, is the use of resources to construct fashion that is environmentally friendly. Sustainability in fashion is important because the goal is to preserve the environment and help improve instead of taking away from it with harsh resources. The purpose of the study was to examine the knowledge students have on sustainable fashions, in addition, examining how the awareness amongst peers and how the globalization of the awareness can change the fashion industry as a whole.

Given the negative environmental impact of the fast fashion industry, it’s great to see brands launching ostensibly eco-friendly collections like H&M’s “Conscious” right? Well, it’s not quite that simple.

Sustainable: pertaining to a system that maintains its own viability by using techniques that allow for continual reuse, e.g. sustainable agriculture.

Haug & Busch (2016) presented the model that explains the focus should be on “ethical consumer” in the context of fashion and the consumer is the victim. Ethical fashion should be ecologically friendly and ought to relate to working conditions throughout the entire supply chain, and the environmental footprint of the fashion production process. Literature provides the simplistic view on fashion actors ethics and responsibility. To provide a clari-on picture of the ethical fashion status one should identify the relevant actors and their cumulative influences. The application of informing system of EFSW transdisciplinarity, as shown in the figure 5, the stakeholder actors are the backbone of the fashion industry, they have the power and should take the responsibility for transforming the fashion industry to ethical and fashionable. There is an increased focus on making ethical products fashionable to solve the social and ecological aspects of the fashion industry as demonstrated by the cases (Cicret, OMsignal, Ringly & Beddit) presented in this study.

As people get more aware of the environmental issues, the demand of sustainable products will rise. Many companies believes that as you get more environmental friendly, the level of competitiveness will decline. This is not the case as the authors of the article “Why sustainability is now the key driver of innovation” describe. They believe that it is a smart move to conform to the rules before they are enforced.

Sportswear brand Puma, are aware of the waste the fashion industry is believed to be contributing towards environmental issues, so the company teamed up with designer Yves Behar in 2015 to create the ’clever little bag’. This is their new sustainable way of distributing their shoes to customers instead of using cardboard boxes. Instead the bag is made with less material and as the packaging is a sleeve with handles there is no need for a use of a plastic carrier bag when the shoes are first purchased. The main concept behind the change of the packaging was to help reduce the amount of wastage that happens when shoes are distributed in shoe boxes. Because shoe boxes are not being re-used or recycled into something else more and more cardboard is being wasted, which goes back to a big amount of trees are being cut down to produce these boxes. It

Due to globalisation caused different ethnic subcultures to come together, the identity and status will be changed during different eras, and women have become more likely to focus on their symbolic values, behaviours and new images, the new techniques of design and production is used by “Fast Fashion” retailers (H&M and Zara) to decrease an unprecedented price, production time, and the lifespan in fashion clothes to attract people to buy their items. In comparison to the 1960s, the levels of private consumption increase approximately four times (Lawless & Medvedev 2016). It is shown that people own more clothing than they need and only wear a few times, replacing products (Anguelov 2016). Nevertheless, the global scale of production, consumption, distribution, and disposal required for a wide range of environmental and human resources cause the negative impact on environmental sustainability (Lawless & Medvedev 2016). Firstly, the plenty of dangerous chemicals are used in production. When plants are grown to manufacture clothing fibers such as cotton, the crops are heavily sprayed with pesticides and herbicides (Gibson, Farbotko & Gill 2013). These toxic chemicals not only will flow into soils, groundwater, and rivers but also will remain in the fabric after finishing, and are released during the lifetime of the dress (Gibson, Farbotko & Gill 2013). Although cotton just accounts for 2.4% of the arable land globally, it is responsible for 25% of insecticides and 10% of the