Planet

Fashion business school sustains four pillars: planet, people, profit, and purpose. In this blog pillar “planet” is going to be covered in terms of how fashion impacts the world, and how the waste of water can be minimised in the fashion industry. The “planet” pillar sets a crucial obligation for the sector to achieve sustainability and expose the negative effects of wasteful activities on the environment.

One of the main issues is that the fashion industry needs the environment’s resources to prosper. However, the environment has been largely affected by the industry in various bad ways. This means that the fashion industry is mainly not sustainable. Meeting human needs today without sacrificing the potential of future generations to satisfy their own needs is what is meant by sustainability (D. Mollenkamp, 2022). For the past decades, most fashion brands have been working in a linear economy. It relates to creating something and then wasting it. It is not a sustainable model of working. Not only old clothing and materials have been wasted due to fashion production, but also water. Clean water and sanitation are 6th out of 17 sustainable development goals created by United Nations. A significant consumer of water is the fashion industry. Cotton is one of the most common materials used in clothing production. It should be borne in mind that just one kilogramme of cotton can be manufactured using up to 20,000 gallons of water (M Charpail, 2017). The water required to cultivate cotton in India would be enough to meet 85% of the country’s whole population’s daily water needs. In India, 100 million people lack access to clean water (M Charpail, 2017). This is where the fashion industry should change to a circular economy, to solve problems as water scarcity that society is facing in 2022. A production and consumption paradigm – the “circular economy” emphasises sharing, repairing, and recycling old goods for as long as possible. The life cycle of items is extended in this way. It suggests minimising waste (European Parliament, 2022).

 One of the fashion brands that has enabled a circular economy in their production process is Pangaia. Instead of cotton, they created new sustainable fabrics. One of them is PLNTFIBER. It does not only require less water to produce but also is a sustainable material. PLNTFIBER is made of bamboo, which helps maintain healthy soils and increases carbon absorption, which naturally slows climate change (Pangaia, 2021).

To conclude, if more fashion brands switch to the circular economy and adopt sustainable ideas in their production process as Pangaia does, there would be a big contribution to the 6th SDG in minimising water waste.

Reference list:

Charpail, M. (2017) What’s wrong with the fashion industry? SustainYourStyle

(Accessed: October 8, 2022)

Europian Parliament (2022) Circular economy: definition, importance and benefits. News European Parliament

(Accessed: October 8, 2022)

Fernandes, P. (2020) Circular Economy As A Way Of Increasing Efficiency In Organizations. CIRCULAR ECONOMY, CLIMATE CHANGE, GLOBAL WARMING, PORTO PROTOCOL.

(Accessed: October 8, 2022)

Mollenkamp, D. (2022) What is Sustainability? How Sustainabilities Work, Benefits, and Example

(Accessed: October 8, 2022)

Pangaia (2021) PLNTFIBER™ & FRUTFIBER™ Science

(Accessed: October 8, 2022)