SUSTAINABILITY

The extent to which the fashion industry degrades the environment is slowly but surely becoming better understood. The vastness of the industry has made it difficult to quantify and properly measure. It can encompass agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, advertising and even tourism to name just a few of the sectors involved worldwide. While some frequently circulated statistics were debunked [1], a more nuanced and verifiable assessment is emerging. The industry is responsible for 20% of all industrial water pollution and consumes a quarter of the world’s chemical production output[2]. Depending on which sectors are measured, the carbon emissions attributed to the fashion industry equals around 8%[3]. Other serious problems include microplastic and microfiber contamination, landfill accumulation, soil degradation and forest destruction. It’s clear and undeniable the industry has a tremendous amount to correct, cleanup and reinvent.

At the same time, it’s not just the industry. Our existing system of consumption and disposal is excessive and damaging. It is estimated that we now buy 60% more clothing than we did 15 years ago, while also disposing 85% of our clothing annually[4]. The growth of at-home delivery over the past decade creates another level of environmental degradation. Then there’s the new ‘return-shopping’ trend (i.e. buying several pieces and returning the majority) that contributes yet another layer of colossal waste and pollution. Deliveries and returns generate more air and noise pollution with increased traffic and fuel consumption. Returns require additional resources (i.e. extra packaging, labels) and increase landfill with 5 billion tons a year of returned merchandize getting directly thrown out[5,6].

We have to reconsider what and how we buy and fortunately many are doing so. Substrate is working to reimagine the way clothing is made and owned. This means we will use fabric and materials that are less damaging to the environment. We will construct in ways that decrease our commercial waste. We will support fair-wage and generative working relationships. We will make and sell durable, long-lasting clothing. We will participate in communities that repair and recycle clothing. We will also question excessive consumption and our role as a clothing business and to this end we will follow in the footsteps of the visionary ,Jesse Kamm and limit our production and growth.

For anyone interested in some of the ideas described above, there’s a solid body of work produced by a cadre of journalists, documentarians and researchers investigating and explaining how the industry has worked and how to improve conditions and outcomes listed furthest below.

[1] The Biggest Fake News in Fashion: Untangling the origins of a myth repeated so often that no one thought to question it, by Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/fashion/fashion-second-biggest-polluter-fake-news.html

[2] Fashionopolis: Why What We Wear Matter by Dana Thomas, Introduction, http://www.danathomas.com/fashionopolis.html - @DanaThomasParis

[3] The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good by Elizabeth L. Cline, Introduction, https://www.elizabethclinebooks.com - @elizabethlcline

[4] Why Clothes Are So Hard To Recycle, BBC by Abigail Beall July 12, 2020 https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200710-why-clothes-are-so-hard-to-recycle

[5] Those Amazon Returns? They’re Killing the Environment. Bloomberg Business by Adam Minter, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-05/apple-car-a-21-billion-wager-on-who-will-build-it

[6] Free Returns Come With An Environmental Cost, The Verge by Justine Caima, https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/26/21031855/free-returns-environmental-cost-holiday-online-shopping-amazon