Planet
There are four pillars studied within Lcf fashion business school, Planet, People, Profit, Purpose.
Arguably the pillar most negatively impacted by the fashion industry is Planet (The Environmental Pillar) and that’s what this blog post is going to focus on today.
The Planet pillar consists of ideas of sustainability which the fashion industry is failing to embrace.
The industry has experienced incredible growth in the last 3 decades, with clothes production doubling between 2000 – 2014 as well as the number of garments a person purchases increasing by 60%. (McKinsey & Company, 2016)
Additionally, 80 billion new items are being consumed each year globally which is a 400% increase from 20 years ago. (Rashmila Maiti, 2020)
With statistics like these there is no way the industry is having any other effect on the planet other than a negative one, as consumerism becomes increasingly prevalent within society today.
This idea of overconsumption and the throw away culture needs to change if today’s society wants any chance of reaching the 17 Sustainable development goals set by UN members in 2015.
The goals were set as a “blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet now and into the future” (Sdgs, 2015)
One of the major goals in the fashion industry is number 12, Responsible Consumption and Production which some brands in the industry are trying to adopt. For example, Patagonia set a goal to reduce the number of products their customers purchased Two-fold. They called this their Common Thread Program. Firstly, they encouraged customers to fix damaged clothes by posting, do it yourself repair guides as well as creating a second-hand market for their garments. (Francisco Szekely and Zahir Dossa, 2015).
This is also an example of the Circular economy. This is a model of production and consumption that increases sustainability, as a product life cycle is elongated by garments being shared, leased, and repaired as a way to make use of them for as long as possible, and minimise the amount of clothes making their way to landfill.
Reference List:
Francisco Szekely and Zahir Dossa 2015, Patagonia’s sustainability strategy: Don’t buy our products.
McKinsey Sustainability 2016, Style that’s sustainable: A new fast-fashion formula. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/sustainability/our-insights/style-thats-sustainable-a-new-fast-fashion-formula.
Rashmila Maiti 2022, Fast Fashion and Its Environmental Impact. https://earth.org/fast-fashions-detrimental-effect-on-the-environment/
United Nations 2015, History. https://sdgs.un.org/goals