Planet
Planet is one of the four pillars of fashion business which focuses on the environmental sustainability and issues that damage the planet caused by the fashion industry. Sustainability in relation to fashion is how ethical the practices are in the fashion industry to satisfy the present and future generations to improve their standard of living. The fashion industry is one of the most harmful and the biggest contributor to pollution and climate change in the world due to the irrational amount of waste, usage of energy and water which “accounts for up to 10% of co2 being produced” in the production process (Racheal Dottle, Jackie Gu, (2022). However, over the years, social trends show the rise in concern of the planet and business ought to take action to ameliorate their production method to increase its sustainability. “In 2015, the United Nations set up the SDGs which are 17 goals with 169 targets that all 191 UN member states made an agreement to achieve by 2030 to improve the planet” (World Trade Organization 2022). These goals are all interconnected in a system and aims to reinforce businesses to have a virtuous and environmentally friendly approach. In terms of the fashion industry, this may enable fashion businesses to reduce waste, prone recycling and a more coherent usage of water and energy to produce less co2 which may reduce the potential warming of the globe. Not only would this help contribute to the planet, but this can also improve the businesses image and reputation due to the ethical acts that ease the consumer concerns.
This is linked to the circular economy, which is “the model production and consumption” that can be handled in a more ethical way to better the planet in which this extends the product life cycle (Jaume Duch Guillot (2015). For example, Adidas has a partnership with ‘Parsey for the Oceans’ to utilize recycled plastic debris and certified plastics in its designs, with half their product portfolio made of recycled polyester (Talia Abbas, Shanna Shipin, (2022). This satisfies the 12th SDG of ‘Responsible Consumption and Production’ which is plausibly the most significant SDG in the fashion industry, as they are prone to waste an excessive number of materials in the production process. Moreover, “around 80-150 billion garments are made each year globally” (Alden Wicker (2020), despite how fashion is not considered a necessity for some people.
However, regarding the fashion industry, this could be argued that recycling does not necessarily improve the planet. Despite the minimized waste of recycling, a limitation is that “other chemicals and metals in certain materials may contaminate the water and land during the sorting of recycling, therefore polluting the nearby environment and inhabitants”, (Amelia Josephson, (2022). This practice dismisses the 6th goal of the SDG’s which is the aim to have clean water and sanitation. “More than 733 million people live in countries with high and critical water stress” (United Nations (2019). Therefore, this could be argued that even if one focuses on a certain SDG aspect, this may cancel out the other remaining numbers of goals in the system.
REFERENCES:
(Racheal Dottle, Jackie Gu (2022): The Real Environmental Impact of the Fashion Industry (bloomberg.com)
(World Trade Organization (2022): Sustainable Development Goals (who.int)
(Jaume Duch Guillot (2015):Circular economy: definition, importance and benefits | News | European Parliament (europa.eu)
(Talia Abbas, Shanna Shipin, (2022): 31 Sustainable Fashion Brands to Shop in 2022 | Glamour
(Alden Wicker (2020): The sustainable fashion conversation is based on bad statistics and misinformation – Vox
(Amelia Josephson, (2022): The Pros and Cons of Recycling – SmartAsset
(United Nations (2019): Goal 6 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs (un.org)