Climate change & Environment-inspired fashion design

“Fashion reflects the times we live in, and fashion can be very persuasive. We can drive change through creativity,” says Edwina Ehrman. However, the fashion industry also has a devastating impact on the planet Earth. Often, the most vulnerable workers in this industry are at disproportionate risk of experiencing these impacts first-hand.

Throughout the entire fashion supply chain,

• natural resources are extracted
• habitats are exploited
• toxic emissions are produced
• water is polluted
• waste is carelessly dumped.

Fashion Revolution is now calling on brands, retailers, producers, policymakers, educators, designers, students, journalists and citizens to fight back.

Fast fashion is a trending term used in recent years to define inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends. However, it has several negative impacts due to exploiting workers, harming animals and coercing consumers. Additionally, it contributes to the acceleration of Climate Change.

According to Fashion on Climate, the fashion industry contributes approximately 2.1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, equivalent to 4% of all global emissions. This means that if our efforts to reduce fashion’s impact are not rapidly accelerated within the next ten years, emissions will rise to 2.7 billion tons annually by 2030. More can be read here Archived

Reports reveal that the fashion industry consumes more energy compared to the energy consumed by the combination of aviation and shipping industries. There are a lot of active supply chains in the fashion industry. Hence, it`s challenging to get an exact calculation of emissions.

•  Let`s take an example of the emission of greenhouse gases in the fashion industry.

Jeans manufacturer Levi Strauss predicts that a pair of their iconic 501 jeans will emit the equivalent of 33.4kg of carbon dioxide across its entire lifespan. This emission is the same as driving 69 miles in an average US car. Furthermore, over a third of those emissions come from fibre and fabric production, while another 8% is from cutting, sewing and finishing the jeans. Packaging, transport and retail account for 16% of the emissions while

Here are a few alarming impacts that fast fashion has on the planet,

• The equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second. Follow UNEP, 2018, for more information.
• Approximately 60% of all materials used by the fashion industry are made from plastic follow UNEP, 2019 for more details.
• Five hundred thousand tons of microfibers are released into the ocean each year from washing clothes — the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles mentioned by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017.
• The fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of humanity’s carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. 
• Some 93 billion cubic meters of water – enough to meet the needs of five million people – is used by the fashion industry annually, contributing significantly to water scarcity in some regions. More can be read from here, Archived. More facts and sources on Business Insider

Sustainability in fashion is often confused with eco-friendly or ethical fashion. but they are not the same.

• Eco-friendly fashion refers to clothing made from sustainable materials that don’t harm the environment.
• Ethical fashion is about ensuring fair treatment of all workers in the supply chain with living wages paid.  
• Sustainability goes beyond these two concepts as it considers the entire life cycle of a garment, from production to disposal.

Sustainable fashion is a design philosophy and a movement that promotes the environment and social responsibility. Sustainable fashion is defined as clothing, shoes, and other accessories that are manufactured and used in the most sustainable manner considering both environmental and socio-economic paths. More can be read here Archived. 

Eco-friendly fashion designs are in fact making a change in the world by,

• Reducing toxic waste and supporting animal rights
• Designing distinct and unique clothes
• Leading to less strain on the planet’s resources due to sustainable practices
• Not harming you or the planet.

Zaynab Khodabocus, Sustainability manager at Trophic knits, says from a manufacturing perspective that the most important thing is maintaining policies and laws to tackle fast unsustainable fashion as its repercussions are a global issue.

The tale of Prince Vijay’s arrival in Sri Lanka, then known as “Rathnadeepa”, marks not only the beginning of the written history of Sri Lanka but also gives the very first account of the fabric industry that had already been established. As mentioned in the “Mahavansa”, When Prince Vijaya landed on the shores of Thambapanni he was greeted by the sight of Kuweni, The Yaksha Princess of Lanka, working on her weaving wheel. – “Kapu Katimin siti Kuweniya”

With a history of more than 2500 years, the hand-weaving industry of Sri Lanka has come a long way from generation to generation to where it is today. However, due to modernization and the increase in demand, hand weaving has been mostly replaced by more modern mechanical methods, and only a handful of places still use the age-old technique. More can be read here, Archived.

MAS Holdings, a giant in the apparel trade, is a Sri Lankan company that is actively involved in the sustainable fashion sector. Director of Environmental Sustainability at MAS, Sharika Senanayake, says, “First, we prevent an industrial waste product from entering our environment, helping habitat restoration. then we create a raw material out of it.” The company is also planning to add a waste-to-energy component to the project. This will generate steam and energy to run manufacturing operations. When that happens, the project will facilitate zero waste and generate energy.

Moreover, MAC manufactures men’s 2022 T’20 Cricket world cup jerseys using ocean plastics and recycled fugitive plastics connected from around the island. This year’s design incorporates descriptive elements from deforestation, melting glaciers and farming livestock and highlights island nations like Sri Lanka are highly susceptible to the impacts of global warming due to rising sea levels, increasing temperatures and extreme weather patterns.