Planet
The term sustainability is broadly used to indicate programs, initiatives, and actions aimed at the preservation of a particular resource. However, it actually refers to four distinct areas: planet, people, profit, and purpose– known as the four pillars of sustainability.
Planet refers to environmental sustainability, which aims to improve human welfare through the protection of natural capital (e.g. land, air, water, minerals, etc.). Initiatives and programs are defined as environmentally sustainable when they ensure that the needs of the population are met without the risk of compromising the needs of future generations (GBM, 2021).
Though the fashion industry has doubled its production of clothing over the past 15 years, 75% of the clothes consumers purchase end up in landfills and less than 1% are being recycled into new clothing, according to research by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (Martin Koehring, 2022). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity (UNDP, 2022).
One of the most important goals for the fashion industry is tackling climate change (SDG 13). In total, the textile industry is responsible for between 4% and 10% of global emissions, according to various estimates, and this could reach 26% by mid-century (Javier, 2022). The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) points out that carbon emissions from this sector exceed those from all international flights and maritime shipping combined. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the fashion industry’s production chain is the third largest sector in terms of emissions, after food and construction (The World Bank, 2019). Meanwhile, the greatest weight falls on materials: the Australian Climate Council notes that two-thirds of a garment’s carbon footprint comes from the production of synthetic fibers, which today account for 65% of all textile materials. The consultancy McKinsey & Company estimates that, on its current trajectory, this sector will miss the 2015 Paris agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. To achieve this, it would need to cut its emissions from 2.1 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) today to 1.1 billion tonnes by 2030.
The circular economy will reshape the apparel industry, where the value of products, materials, and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible, and the generation of waste minimized’ (European Commission, 2015). In a nutshell, the circular economy model proposes the prolonged use of what is taken from nature, in order to reduce future access to primary resources and reduce waste production (Murray et al, 2017; Winans et al, 2017). It is therefore a multi-dimensional concept, which presents different fields of action. First of all, the order of priority in waste management, which sees landfill disposal as an extreme ratio. Then, the enhancement of by-products and the connection of waste with the production and use of new raw materials (end-of-waste). Eventually, the attention to the production phase and the transition to a sustainable economic model in which the raw materials obtained from renewable sources replace raw materials obtained from non-renewable resources, such as fossil fuels (Valentina Jacometti, 2019).
Reference
GBM (2021) ’The four pillars of sustainability. Available at: https://gbm.news/en/the-four-pillars-of-sustainability/ [Accessed: 8 October 2022]
Javier, Y. (2022) ‘How Our Clothes Contribute to Climate Change’, 13 May. Available at: https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/environment/how-clothes-contribute-to-climate-change/ [Accessed: 9 October 2022]
Martin, K. (2022) ‘Inside the circle’ Episod 3: Circular Fashion [Podcast], 9 June. Available at: https://impact.economist.com/sustainability/circular-economies/inside-the-circle-circular-fashion? [Accessed: 8 October 2022]
European Commission (2015) Communication “Closing the Loop—An EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy”. COM (2015) 614. Brussels: European Commission. [Accessed: 9 October 2022]
Murray, Alan, Keith Skene, and Kathryn Haynes (2017) The Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Concept and Application in a Global Context. Journal of Business Ethics 140, pp. 369–380. [Accessed: 8 October 2022]
The World Bank (2019) ’How Much Do Our Wardrobes Cost to the Environment?’, 23 September. Available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/09/23/costo-moda-medio-ambiente [Accessed: 9 October 2022]
UNDP (2022) ‘What are the Sustainable Development Goals?’. Available at: https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals [Accessed: 8 October 2022]
Valentina, J. (2019) ‘Circular Economy and Waste in the Fashion Industry’. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/8/4/27/htm [Accessed: 9 October 2022]
Winans, Kiara, Alissa Kendall, and Huiqiong Deng. 2017. The history and current applications of the circular economy concept. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 68, pp. 825–833. [Accessed: 9 October 2022]