Ecology of Fashion

2 Commentsby Jenny Gai on January 16, 2012

This article marks the second in Urban Times’ EcoFashion Series. We hope to shed some light on the eco fashion industry by exploring elements such as the sustainability, culture, ecology, psychology, labour and future of fashion. Our authors explore to what extent eco fashion is on the cusp of becoming the next big trend.

Previous episode: Sustainability of Fashion

The Grass Could Definitely be Greener

Recycled fashion. Source: Urban Woodswalker on flickr.com

Long before the Houses of Chanel and Prada, the ready-to-wear boutiques of Vera Wang and Michael Kors, and the mass market retailers of Target and Marks & Spencer, clothing was simpler—organic in the truest sense of the word. In that era, clothes were made to endure and we favored quality over quantity. But, like other facets of society, fashion became industrialized and cheaply produced for the masses.  Unfortunately, the price of being able to change one’s clothes as often as changing trends is heavily borne by the environment.

But for the environmentally friendly fashionista, things are looking up. Given that clothes have become such an avenue for self-expression, it is no wonder that at a time when sustainability is such a prevalent societal theme that green has become the new black in the fashion industry.

The Thread of Sustainability

It’s difficult to pinpoint when the fashion industry turned towards sustainability, but it’s clear that the rise of eco-fashion has drivers from all sides of the industry. The remainder of the article seeks to explore how sustainable practices are being implemented at various stages of the fashion life cycle—from the raw materials used to make an article of clothing all the way to its final downstream consumer.

Raw Materials

It seems appropriate that any shift towards sustainability should cascade down to the most basic raw materials used. In the fashion industry, this is predominantly cotton—one of the world’s most water-intensive crops, accounting for over 3% of the world’s agricultural water use. In addition to being incredibly water-intensive, cotton production has the additional vice of pesticide use—about 6% of the world’s total pesticide purchases—making cotton one of the world’s dirtiest crops.

Given the increased frequency of droughts and floods in cotton growing regions leading to hundreds of acres of lost crop and millions of dollars in revenue, the clothing industry is looking for ways to preserve its most valuable crop. In one such effort, clothing retail giants like Levi Strauss & Co, H&M, adidas®, and Marks & Spencer came together in 2005 with other cotton users to create the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). The BCI “aims to promote measurable improvements in the key environmental and social impacts of cotton cultivation worldwide to make it more economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable” (About BCI).

Cotton Fields. Source: ing jorge on flickr.com

Following its founding, the BCI developed the Better Cotton System, which integrates the various components of cotton’s life cycle to find opportunities for systematic improvement, better management, and overall growth. On the production side, the BCI works to implement programs catered to individual farms in Brazil, India, Pakistan, and West and Central Africa. All of the programs are based on an initial assessment of the farm and aim to enable knowledge sharing, skills development, increased regional organization, and greater access to financial resources. In one pilot project, BCI helped 450 farms in Bahawalpur, Pakistan implement new farming methods and irrigation techniques. After one year, total water usage decreased on average by 38%, pesticide use by 47%, and synthetic fertilizer use by 39%. The positive findings and best practices were collected from this pilot project and since implemented in over 14 other areas across Pakistan and India.

While cotton remains the staple material of the fashion industry, leather is another commonly used material that has less than a green standard. Suffice it to say, modern tanning techniques (the process of transforming an animal hide into the durable material we call leather) require a whole host of heavy metals, such as chromium, and a toxic soup of chemicals that includes pentachlorophenol and formaldehyde. Although the environmental effects left behind are appalling, the process is fast, requiring only a day, and produces the ultra-soft leather consumers love for gloves, furniture, and handbags.

Leather tanning in Fes. Source: Michal Osmenda on flickr.com

A second, much greener technique called vegetable tanning uses naturally occurring tannins found in tree bark. The technique requires a longer period of time—several weeks—compared to its industrial counterpart and the resultant product is pliable, but less soft. While small boutique companies such as Organic Leather utilize vegetable tanning and sell hides in bulk, much of the fashion industry has chosen a different route. Instead of purchasing vegetable (i.e., greener) tanned leather, clothing producers are opting for leather alternatives such as cork, embossed and glazed cotton, and recycled and reconstituted post-industrial materials. For example, Olsenhaus, a pioneering vegan, eco-fashion store, created a shoe line showcasing Ultrasuede® Ambiance fabric. The fabric is a synthetic suede-like material that is made from 100% recycled microfibers from reconstituted materials such as scrap polyester film from old television screens. Although most designers and clothing manufacturers have not gone to this extreme, many labels such as adidas®, Kate Spade, and Diesel have opted for non-leather and synthetic substitutes.

Production

Source: Tenize on flickr.com

Another large piece of the sustainable fashion puzzle is what clothing manufacturers are doing to reduce their products’ environmental footprints after the raw material stage.  With the rise of eco-couture, many clothing companies are beefing up their environmental programs as part of their overall corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Gap Inc., which includes popular brands such as the Gap, Banana Republic, and Piperlime, demonstrates one example of integrating measurable environmental objectives into its companies’ manufacturing processes. As a large denim retailer, Gap Inc. as part of the Business for Social Responsibility’s Sustainable Water Group, helped to create and establish strict waste water guidelines for toxic chemicals and discharge in its mills, denim laundries, and factories.  In 2004, the corporation established its own Water Quality Program, which monitors denim laundries’ waste water discharge and audits them against the programs benchmarks and standards. On another front, Gap Inc. partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Responsible Sourcing Initiative in 2009 to develop and implement best practices in Chinese fabric mills, which aimed to water and energy consumption, chemical use, and improve overall mill efficiency.

On the higher end of the fashion spectrum, designers like Calvin Klein, Versace, and Stella McCartney tried their hands at eco-couture in Earth Pledge’s FutureFashion show that opened the 2008 New York Fashion Week. The runway show displayed 30 one-of-a-kind pieces (one from each designer) that showcased eco-friendly textiles like hemp, peace silk, and synthetic fibers. Jumping on the eco-(high)fashion bandwagon, Vogue created a program called Runway to Green, which kicked off with a runway show this past March featuring designs from 24 participating designers such as, Michael Kors, Burberry, and Marchesa. In addition to the initial runway show, each of the designers has agreed to work with the NRDC’s Clean by Design initiative to incorporate sustainability into the design and production processes.

Retailers

Another important facet of the fashion industry’s ecology story is where the clothes are being sold and what actions are being taken at the retailer level to reduce overall environmental footprint.

One leading example in the industry is Marks and Spencers (M&S), a UK retailer of not only clothing, but also home products and food, where clothing retail accounts for about 49% of the business. As part of its sustainability initiative, M&S launched Plan A in January 2007 which includes 180 sustainability related commitments to be met by 2015. The environmental commitments fall under three broad categories: climate change, waste, and sustainable raw materials. The overall climate change goal for the retail giant is to make all UK and Irish operations (which includes stores, offices, warehouses, business travel and logistics) carbon neutral by 2012. One of the commitments to aid in achieving this goal is to reduce the energy used in stores by 25% per square foot of floor space in the same time period. So far, the company has reduced total CO₂ emissions by 96,000 tons since 2007.

Another ambitious goal is in waste generation, where the company has committed to reducing operational waste sent to landfill to zero by 2012. Many of their waste reduction commitments regard packaging wastes from transporting products and reducing and recycling clothing hangers. In addition, M&S has launched a clothing recycling initiative.

Consumers

Finally, we reach the end of the line—the consumer. Consumers have a large role to play in the development and continuation of eco-fashion as demand increases for clothes that come from more sustainable origins. The role consumers play in this story follows the three Rs—reduce, reuse, recycle.

Don't Buy This Jacket Campaign. Source: Patagonia.com

With regards to the first R for reducing our consumption, the example of Patagonia’s Black Friday Campaign comes to mind. In short, the outdoor apparel retailer placed an ad in the New York Times on Black Friday that urged consumers not only to buy less on a day that glorifies American consumerism, but also to think more carefully about purchases and their real costs.

In a second, more extreme example of reducing consumption, meet Andrew Hyde, a New York City blogger and the founder of three start-ups. What’s remarkable about Andrew, is that he only owns 15 items, eight of which are articles of clothing (not counting underwear and socks). After becoming attracted to the minimalist lifestyle, Andrew sold all of his worldly possessions—save for his current 15 things—in August 2010. Given that this author owns more than 15 pairs of shoes, it may be time for some reducing of my own.

In the meantime, let me move on to the next R—reuse. Reusing can be difficult when it comes to fashion and may take a measure of creativity and a sewing machine. An example of someone with both of the above is blogger Marisa Lynch, whose blog, “New Dress A Day” documents her journey to spend a year revamping old dresses found in yard sales, thrift sales, or through donations, into something new and fabulous. Her budget: one US dollar per day. Even if you can’t sew (like me), there are thousands of easy DIY projects to be found to transform something that was “so 2007” into something fresh for 2012.

Finally, the last R—recycle, which for many is becoming the easiest and most popular R to achieve given the vast number of clothing swap programs that have sprung up in the last few years. One example is Plato’s Closet, a US based swap program that allows participants to bring in brand name clothing and accessories in good condition for cash. The Closet doubles as a store where customers can purchase clothing others had sold at significantly discounted prices. The program creates a way for participants to earn money for recycling clothes they no longer wear and a venue to buy “new” used clothes to update their closets.

Another example I recently stumbled up is Style.ly, an online clothing network created in 2011. The site, reminiscent of an Amazon strictly for clothing and accessories, allows users to create a profile and post pictures of items they wish to sell. Users can also browse the marketplace for what others are selling. The site is also integrated into Facebook, Twitter, and your iPhone (through an app) to make selling and buying even easier.

In looking at the fashion industry’s ecology story from beginning to end, I guess what they say is true—fashion is cyclical. In the midst of what appears to be a very long cycle, it seems that fashion is turning back towards its roots, when quality was valued over quantity and the things and processes we used to make clothes took on less of an industrialized feel, and more of a natural and organic one.

About Jenny Gai

I am a UPenn graduate supposedly trained in the fields of biochemistry and environmental studies. I currently work at DuPont as a Product Stewardship and Regulatory Analyst, and I appreciate the fact that I love my job. In my spare...

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