Sustainable fashion is a philosophy that seeks to change the current production model for an ethical one based on sustainability. It is committed to creating quality garments, made to last and timeless that are given a lot of use through minimalist models away from fashions.
What is the current production model?
The current model is known as fast fashion, fast and changing fashion where the focus is on low prices, large productions and high rotation of collections. Its production model uses designs, colors and materials that aim to create a fashion in which everything before it looks "old". This perception forces us to always "have to be fashionable" and to have a closet that needs to be renewed because the clothes are outdated.
What are the consequences of fast fashion?
The fashion industry is responsible for between 4% and 10% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. This model is unsustainable both environmentally and socially. On the one hand, it doesn't matter what or how many resources are used, or whether they have toxic products that end up in the water, on the land and in the people who work.
Waste generation is enormous, not only during the production process, but also afterwards. Something they don't tell you is that many companies, faced with the surplus of clothes produced that have not been sold, choose to burn them so that they are not sold at a lower price than that of the sales season.
On the other hand, low sale prices are possible because that money is being saved by other means, sacrificing environmental and human cost. Low prices are achieved because the textile industry is a model based on the exploitation of poverty.
Don't buy so much, buy better
Sustainable fashion is committed to an awareness of "Don't buy so much, buy better". Clothes define us as individuals, for this reason, before buying a garment, we have to ask ourselves 3 questions:
- What do we want to buy and why?
- What do we really need?
- Will we wear this garment at least 30 times?
By answering these questions you will buy less, that is, only what is necessary.
How to buy better?
By investing in sustainable brands or second-hand garments.
Sustainable fashion brands are interested in the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, the resources needed during production, overproduction and the people who work throughout the production chain. For this reason, sustainable fashion brands offer products with low CO2 emissions, with production chains where resources and logistics have been optimized, we bet on a limited stock to avoid surpluses, we care about the raw materials that have been used, how the waste that has been produced during production has been managed; and finally, we ensure that workers have fair wages and working conditions.
For example, by choosing organic cotton instead of conventional cotton:
- 91% less groundwater is consumed.
- Soil and water have 70% less acidification.
- It has 46% less impact on global warming.
Through sustainable fashion brands you will find quality products, durable, manufactured under an environmental awareness and committed to fair trade.
How to recognize sustainable clothing?
Look for garments with sustainable certificates such as: GOTS, OEKO TEX, PETA Vegan, Organic Blended, Global Recycled Standard, among others.
Also look for garments that have been manufactured with a living wage and fair labor conditions. The quickest way to identify them is through Fair Wear certification when they have been manufactured outside Europe or by buying garments produced in Europe, because of the high labor regulations that apply. If a garment is not made in Europe and does not have Fair Wear certification, trust transparent brands that make public wage information and working conditions.
Bet on brands that generate an extra positive impact on the environment, such as reforesting endangered areas, collecting plastics from the sea, collaborating with NGOs to improve the environment and people's quality of life, etc.
What is the next step in sustainable fashion?
The fashion industry is currently one of the most polluting industries, and through sustainable fashion we are minimizing the impact that dressing every morning has on the planet. But it is possible to go further and turn the fashion industry into a source of regeneration for the planet.
Through innovative technologies such as the one we have developed at Greener®, it is possible for clothing to reduce CO2 emissions just by wearing it, day or night. Thus creating Carbon Negative garments capable of offsetting the emissions emitted during their production and even eliminating even more CO2 and other greenhouse gases.