Is it possible for “fast fashion” brands that dominate the sector to become sustainable?
When considering the fact that the fashion industry is the second biggest polluter, next to the petroleum industry, the sustainability of the fashion industry is an important area of interest. In recent years, the fashion industry and its supply chains have been gaining considerable attention. At the same time, the working conditions and environmental impact of the fashion industry have also become a hot topic.
The brands that take notice of these interests and criticisms are starting to change their business models by employing various sustainability initiatives.
The important question is as follows: Is it possible for “fast fashion” brands that dominate the sector (such as H&M, Zara, Bershka, and Forever 21) to become sustainable?
We have tried to answer this question by shining a light on the social-environmental impact of the fashion industry and the sustainability endeavours of fast fashion brands.
In order to evaluate fast fashion, the industry’s supply chain and its impact need to be investigated first. Although the speed of our consumption and the variety of clothes seem normal today, fashion production and consumption trends have undergone a great change in the last 20-30 years. With the shift of production facilities to Asia, clothing prices went down quickly. Thus, the fashion industry has become the world’s third-largest industry.
We normally do not think about the processes through which various clothing materials find themselves on colourful display shelves. Yet, if we were to trace back the steps, the clothes on displays could suddenly lose their appeal.
From the 1990s onwards, there have been many protests criticizing the exploitative production systems in Asia (especially in China). These criticisms have been partially eased by the development of monitoring mechanisms and transparency promises in response to criticisms. After the relative improvement of the conditions and increase in wages in China, the production processes moved to the countries where living/working conditions are worse and legal mechanisms are less rigid (such as Bangladesh, India, and Vietnam). Although China continues to be the leader in clothing exports, Bangladesh and Vietnam are following China.
Behind the cheap products, there lie serious social and environmental problems such as cheap labour and dangerous working conditions. With the collapse of Rana Plaza, in which the production processes for major brands took place, resulting in the deaths of 1133 textile workers, the eyes turned towards the fashion industry once more.
Even though there had been significant improvements in production and working conditions in the previous 15 years, the collapse of Rana Plaza, the fourth biggest industrial accident in history, proved that those developments had been insufficient.
What is the situation in Turkey as one of the biggest clothing and shoe producers in the world?
Although textiles and clothing production usually bring to mind Asian countries, Turkey is among the top five in terms of textile production and export, ranking higher than a number of Asian countries. A lot of big brands such as Zara and H&M produce in Turkey. The suppliers that work for global brands are better monitored. However, Turkish brands do not discuss labor rights or working conditions, or generally speaking, sustainability. To increase transparency in the sector, especially with a high concentration of illegal Syrian workers, it is of utmost importance that Turkish brands should focus on supply chains.
Today, nearly none of the brands are actually conducting their own production processes. The clothing materials pass through various producers before they take their final form. Cotton, thread, and fabric production as well as dyeing and sewing processes take place in different facilities.
These labour-intensive processes are usually conducted by subcontractors in low-income countries (such as in Asia) to substantially lower the costs. The brands, on the other hand, focus solely on design, marketing, and sales. However, with the growing pressures to make brands accountable for the conditions within their supply chains, these brands are now monitoring the actors throughout their supply chain and expect them to accept and implement certain principles.
Many of the big brands have environmental and social compliance monitoring mechanisms. These mechanisms monitor the degree of conformity with the standards in different areas such as child labour, occupational health, hygienic working conditions, the chemicals being used, treatment facilities, etc. Nevertheless, there are many brands that do not monitor at all. The effectiveness of these monitoring mechanisms, on the other hand, is another matter for discussion.
It is not enough for brands to monitor producers who are direct suppliers. There are many sub-contractors operating in the textile industry; and they are the ones causing the biggest environmental pollution. So, what kind of processes do clothes go through before they reach us and what kind of impact do they have?
Our clothes are produced from two fundamental raw materials; cotton and polyester.
Cotton
Cotton is a water-intensive plant, and a lot of pesticides and chemicals are used in its production. Not only these chemicals pollute the environment and water sources, they also pose significant threats to workers’ health.
A big portion of the labour force in cotton production consists of child labourers.
Polyester
Polyester is produced by the most polluting industry in the world: petroleum.
Includes thread production, weaving, fabric production, and dyeing.
This last step mainly includes the cutting and sewing processes.
In the old times, clothing brands renewed their collections twice a year and present two collections: spring/summer and fall/winter. Fast fashion has emerged as a way to deliver luxurious brand trends with more affordable prices to a greater consumer audience. In order to keep the prices low, the production costs needed to be low, and the production had to be carried out in places where labour was cheap. Although this model offers reasonable prices, it is reliant on a continuous increase in sales. To draw consumers to the stores, the number of new trends and the pace of presenting new collections have increased.
The production and design processes that used to require months, now take only a couple of weeks to complete. New products emerge every week, 20 new collections are introduced every year, and the pace of production and consumption continues to increase.
Today, fast fashion is defined by cheap, low-quality, and disposable clothing.
On average, more than 100 billion clothing materials are sold in a year
As one of the biggest fast fashion brands, H&M is trying to integrate sustainability within its business model. H&M is answering the criticisms regarding the unsustainable nature of fast fashion with its closed-loop strategy. With its clothing collection campaign, H&M aims to recycle or reuse the clothes that consumers would normally throw away after use.
Another brand that is building its image on sustainability and proving its impact through a B Corp certificate is Patagonia. Patagonia, which produces nature sports clothing, believes in the importance of more resilient clothes and less consumption.
We investigated the approach and implementations of the H&M and Patagonia models that emerged to decrease environmental effects throughout fashion supply chains.
H&M is focused on the reusing and recycling of clothing materials, rather than a model focusing on less consumption. So, it encourages the closed loop system to fight against the buy-wear-dump model.
H&M needs the cooperation of consumers to close this loop. So, H&M is conducting an awareness campaign for consumers to bring their clothes back to the stores.
There is only one rule in the fashion world: to recycle your clothes.
H&M is investing in innovative projects that can help close the loop with the “Global Change Award”.
Based on the fact that even the best production process has undesired effects, Patagonia constructs its sustainability understanding as "no unnecessary harm" instead of "minimizing the effects (the least impact)". For this aim, it works towards long-lasting products and less consumption.
4R: Reduce consumption, Repair, Resale, and Recycle
Patagonia 2011 Black Friday advertisement – Patagonia criticizes the shopping spree on Black Friday, an annual day where special discounts and promotions are offered, with the message "Don't buy this jacket unless necessary."
The clothes we don't want are either thrown away or donated to charities/municipalities. What about the clothes that are collected or donated? Some of them are resold, some of them reach people in need, and a significant part of them are sold second-hand in African countries. For example, 81% of people in Uganda wear those second-hand clothes. African countries want to ban imports as it destroys their local industry, but it seems unlikely due to the resistance from large countries as the second-hand clothing industry amounts to almost 3.7 billion dollars.
In addition to sending the clothes to Africa, recycling is a separate issue. Clothing now consists of several different materials, and it is not possible to transform these mixed fabrics. Cotton is recycled, but its quality declines so it can only be used in new products to a certain extent. Recycling polyester is an expensive technology. The technology needs to evolve to be commercially profitable and to be applied on a large scale.
In 2016, the Global Fashion Agenda called on clothing brands to take action to establish a circular system. So far, 64 companies have joined the movement. The main steps of this movement are the establishment of circular production systems, the collection and resale of used clothes, and the increase in recycled textile products. Much more innovation and new technological developments are needed to recycle clothing and create a circular fashion industry.
With the increased adoption of fast fashion, along with fast-changing consumption trends, and the already well-established buy-throw away model, the environmental and social footprint of the industry has rapidly been growing. The industry has many problems and effects, from harmful chemical dyes to child labour, from bad working conditions to mountains of clothes accumulating in landfills. Brands that want to change this model in response to the pressure from consumers are taking part in new initiatives.
While Patagonia focuses on more durable products and less consumption, fast fashion brands such as Zara and H&M focus on collecting, reusing and recycling clothes collected from consumers. The recycling of collected clothes is still not commercially profitable enough; the technology is limited, and besides, most of the second-hand clothes are sold to Africa, hindering the development of the local textile industry. Many new and promising steps are being taken in the field of fashion and sustainability, and brands are collaborating more and more. However, there seems to be a long way to go from changing consumers' behaviour to developing new technologies to achieve a circular and sustainable fashion industry.
What can be done?
• Ask where and how the clothes are being produced.
• Encourage brands to become more transparent.
• Join social media campaigns. To learn who produced your clothes, you can question the brands directly by using the #whomademyclothes hashtag.
• Shop by considering what you actually need.
• Repair your clothes or transform them into other products.
• Sell, donate or recycle your clothes.
• Join clothing swap organizations or organize one.
• Choose more transparent and sustainable brands.
• Support local and responsible production.
• Do not forget that each time you buy cheap products produced in bad conditions, you support this system.
You can check out the following websites for further information:
Prepared by: Beril Cev
Design: Volkan Babaotu
References
Annamma Joy, John F. Sherry, Jr, Alladi Venkatesh, Jeff Wang and Ricky Chan; Fast Fashion, Sustainability, and the Ethical Appeal of Luxury Brands;
https://www3.nd.edu/~jsherry/pdf/2012/FastFashionSustainability.pdf
Fashion Revolution;
Fashion Revolution; It’s time for a Fashion Revolution White Paper WRAP; Valuing our clothes;
http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/VoC%20FINAL%20online%202012%2007%2011.pdf
Nathalie Remy, Eveline Speelman, and Steven Swartz; McKinsey and Company; Style that’s sustainable: A new fast-fashion formula
Goldberg, Eleanor; Huffington Post; These African Countries Don’t Want Your Used Clothing Anymore
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/maryam-rehman/make-a-choice-to-change-the-fast-fashion-industry_a_23072887/?n cid=tweetlnkcahpmg00000004 57cf19bce4b06a74c9f10dd6
Rehman, Maryam; Huffington Post; Make A Choice to Change the Fast Fashion Industry
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/maryam-rehman/make-a-choice-to-change-the-fast-fashion-industry_a_23072887/?n cid=tweetlnkcahpmg00000004
