I am excited to welcome back Christian Smith as a guess blogger to Sustainability in Review about sustainable fashion.
Christian Smith works as a CSR Manager for a leading online UK retailer. His focus is on the environmental side of things, measuring out Greenhouse Gas emissions as well as finding ways to reduce our overall impact. Recently graduated from University College, London with an MSc in Environment and Sustainable Development.
Fashion and the environment
H&M
do it, so do Nike, Patagonia are doing it well. All of a sudden lots of big
(and small) fashion companies are talking about the environment and the people
who work for them. Not just where they sell clothing but also where they make
them. This series is going to focus on why that’s happened and what it means
for the broader industry. We are going to take a look at fashion in relation to
areas such as water, soil/agriculture, food production, health and oil. Fashion,
believe it or not, is dependent on all of these things and the people who work
in these areas.
Water
The
impact of fashion on water is immense. From the growing process through
production to the end user, water use has been essential to the fashion
industry since the beginning. And that reliance is concerning. The demand for
clothing is increasing, not just through keeping up with fashion but also the
increasing global population.
A
lot of clothing is made from cotton. And
cotton is a very water intensive crop. An estimated 25million tonnes is
produced annually. On an annual basis, approximately 70million tons of water is
wasted. The cotton industry evaporates
210 billion cubic meters of water while at the same time polluting 50billion
cubic litres.[1] 3.5% of global water usage is for cotton crop
production.[2]
60kg of water is used to create a cotton t-shirt, from cultivation of cotton
through to production. An additional 45kg is discharged as waste per kg of
output. This figure, however, only includes the virtual or embedded water, and
does not take into account the use of water once owned by the consumer.[3]
One
of the most devastating effects of cotton production has been the shrinking of
the Aral sea (pictured above) to just 15% of its original size. The loss of
water affects not only the cotton and textiles industry, but the livelihoods of
all those using the sea. For instance, the Aral Sea was once home to 24 native
species of fish providing 40,000 tonnes of fish a year – a valuable source of
income and nutrition. Beyond the direct effect on the sea, the surrounding
biodiversity has also been severely damaged with only an estimated 15-20% of
the Tugai Forests remain - in an area home to 29 native plant species.
This
damage has opened the eyes of many to make a change. Many companies now understand
the problems with water use and have started working on minimising their
impacts in this area. Levis, for example, has developed technology to create
its WaterLess denim range at the same time launching a save water campaign.
Many companies now recommend washing clothes at 30 degrees or lower and
sometimes even less frequently. Replay, the Italian brand, has developed a
dying process that also uses technology that enabling the company to use less
water to dye its denim.
In
addition to the quantity of water used is the quality of water. Conventional cotton uses 25% of the world’s
pesticides and impacts surrounding environments as they persist in the soil and
water. A lot of work is being done to
encourage farmers to use fewer pesticides. Organic cotton is the aim as that
truly minimises water pollution, but other solutions are also available. Cotton
Made in Africa/Better Cotton initiative are two programs which work alongside
farmers, helping them to grow cotton more responsibly therefore reducing their
overall impact on their water supply.
[1] Chapagain, A.,
Hoekstra, A., Savenije, H., & Gautam, R. (2006). The water footprint of
cotton consumption: An assessment of the impact of worldwide consumption of
cotton products on the water resources in the cotton producing countries. Ecological
Economics, 186-203.
[3] Well dressed? The present and future sustainability of
clothing and textiles in the United Kingdomhttp://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article458101.ece
