«It takes about 700 liters of water to produce a cotton T-shirt. That's enough water for a person to drink at least eight cups a day for three and a half years. It takes around 2,000 liters of water to produce a pair of jeans. That's more than enough for a person to drink eight cups a day for 10 years."
By Francesca Pennisi
That's what he declares Morgan McFall-Johnsen in an article entitled These facts show how unsustainable the fashion industry is, on the World Economic Forum (WEF) website, describing the fashion industry as one of the most water-intensive, as well as pointing out many other critical issues, referring more specifically to the phenomenon of fast fashion, as opposed to a slow vision of the same.
The fashion industry is complex and fairly recent, having developed since the 20th century as a consequence of the capitalist model and mass production. Fast fashion, on the other hand, was born around the 1990s, when retailers began to offer collections on the market at a dizzying pace, destined to grow over time thanks to the influence of external factors such as cinema, art and music.
Some reports show that in about 20 years the production of clothing has doubled, while the life cycle of these products has decreased by half the time. An article published in September 2022 on Sole 24 Ore reveals that «sales of the traditional fast fashion segment have grown by more than 20% in the last three years, but new online players are also gaining ground». In fact, especially during the pandemic, we have witnessed the affirmation of some new large clothing giants, such as Shein or Asos, heavily criticized by the media and on social networks both for choosing to use low-quality synthetic raw materials and with a strong impact on the environment, both for the use of cheap labour.
And if on the one hand the very young are attracted to this economic model, which requires them to follow the trends of the moment even if this implies using a garment only once and then throwing it away, on the other they are also very critical of this concept[1]. Fast fashion is in fact characterized by large production volumes, by the exploitation of economies of scale and provides for a vast and highly variable offer over time. If in 2000 companies offered two collections a year, in 2011 the average rose to five. In some cases there is even talk of 24 collections a year. All of this translates into an inability to find a market for tons and tons of clothing items.
From an environmental point of view, it must be remembered that the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of carbon emissions with dramatic environmental consequences: just think of water pollution, the use of toxic chemicals, the large masses of waste – every second, the equivalent of a garbage truck full of clothes is in fact burned or dumped in a landfill – and, again, under unfavorable conditions for the mainly female workers employed in this industry.
But, returning to the materials and in particular to polyester, the World Economic Forum also indicates that every year an average of 500,000 tons of microfibers are released into the ocean with washing, which is equivalent to 50 billion plastic bottles. “Many of these textile fibers are polyester, a plastic found in about 60% of clothing and whose production releases two to three times more carbon emissions than cotton. And polyester doesn't decompose in the ocean.” explains again McFall-Johnsen.
A change of mentality involving companies and consumers is therefore indispensable, a dialogue that can favor a sustainable transformation of an industry which today is worth 2 trillion dollars, according to WEF estimates. And it is clear that all of this has a cost that cannot be sustained by businesses alone. The change must, above all, be based on greater awareness to be implemented by making product information more transparent (contexts, production processes, raw materials, but also the effective authenticity of the values underlying the brand).
One of the major global movements that aims to clarify the issue is represented by The Fashion Revolution Foundation, founded following the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh in 2013. Thanks to the hashtag launched by the foundation in 2014, there has apparently been an increase in consumer awareness of how garments are made: this has had a reaction chain, inducing big brands to increase the level of transparency regarding supply chains.
In 2016, in agreement with Ethical Consumer, the Fashion Transparency Index, with the aim of classifying companies according to their level of transparency where points are awarded on the basis of 5 criteria:
- policy and commitment;
- governance;
- traceability of the supply chain;
- the criterion called "know, show and modify";
- other important issues concerning, among others, the conditions relating to the workforce (wage, degree of unionization and collective bargaining); gender and racial equality; procurement systems and the use of sustainable materials; the business model; waste and circularity; use of water and chemicals; climate change and biodiversity.
The 2022 report highlights that progress is still slow and that, although companies communicate a lot about the actions taken, they still do not provide enough information about the results and the actual impact of these efforts. The study focuses on the crucial aspect of supply chain traceability, on which about half of the brands involved still do not provide any information. Again, the data on the workers involved remains a taboo and there continues to be a disparity in wages from the point of view of gender and racial equality. And there is still a long way to go in terms of climate change:
- less than a third of large companies disclose a decarbonisation goal covering the entire supply chain, verified by Science Based Target initiative;
- the 85% of the brands continues to hide the data relating to production volumes despite the growing evidence of overproduction and waste of clothes (see for example the largest "fashion cemetery" in the world represented by the Atacama Desert in Peru, which welcomes 39,000 tons of used or unworn clothes every year).
- only the brands 11% reveals the results of their suppliers' wastewater tests, despite being one of the most water-intensive industries. Additionally, only a quarter of brands disclose the process of conducting water risk assessments in their supply chain.
- only the 24% of the brands reveals how it reduces the environmental impact of microfibers although fabrics, as anticipated, are the main source of microplastics in the ocean.
Once again, as for many other sectors, it is necessary to arrive at a more sustainable and "circular" model of development. Transparency is a necessary first step in order to "create" more informed and, therefore, more aware consumers.
Francesca Pennisi, Head of Marketing & Operations of Eccellenze d'Impresa
[1] Just one Ipsos study on GenZ informs that "putting the environment and sustainability first" is the first priority of the seven identified as being able to contribute to the improvement of society and regenerate a sense of the future. The 40% of young people believes that the costs of having eco-sustainable products must be borne by businesses and they expect a strong commitment to change the world.
