FASHION

Sustainability experts for the fashion industry

Holistic sustainability transformation is required across the booming fashion sector

Fashion consumption has doubled in the past 15 years and this trend is expected to continue, driven by developing markets in Asia and South America. The global $1.3trillion textile industry currently operates in a linear model of ‘take-make-use-dispose’, contributing to significant negative environmental and human impacts , leading to the acceleration of the climate crisis. This calls for radical transformation at all levels – from business models used to how materials are sourced, processed, products manufactured, transported, used by customers and disposed. The Covid-19 pandemic has also exacerbated human rights issues and further highlighted the poor working conditions in global supply chains. Fashion companies face significant reputational and regulatory risks that must be understood and addressed. The time for action is now and radical change is needed to pave the foundation for a sustainable future and prosperous business.

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Buying clothes has never been easier. Over 100 billion items of clothes are manufactured every year using thousands of different chemicals. Consumers are buying more garments, wearing them less often and disposing of them at an alarming rate. In Britain, more than 300 000 tonnes of clothes end up in landfill each year. It’s the fastest growing category of waste in the country. This however is a global problem. Expanding middle classes in emerging markets are hungry for more and cheaper fashion. How can the fashion industry continue to grow while addressing the environmental need for people to buy fewer clothes?

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The boom in the fashion industry has made it the second biggest polluter behind oil and gas, bringing to forefront a myriad of sustainability issues. Our hunger for fast fashion is pushing animal species to the brink of extinction, destroying the habitats that provide us with clean air and polluting the rivers that give us fresh water. Carbon footprints are increasing, emitting about the same quantity of GHGs per year as the entire economies France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined.

These sustainability issues, coupled with increasing requirements from regulatory bodies, investors and consumers for transparency and disclosure of impacts, are putting pressure on fashion brands to look beyond the typical financial metrics and to also embed ESG metrics into the heart of the business. The big brands are setting ambitious sustainability strategies and leading the way in commitments to use recycled materials or sustainable fibres such as organic cotton, increasing the use of renewable energy across all operations, trialling methods to reduce textile waste through in-store collections. This is progress but not enough and the industry is called to collaborate and innovate to achieve a holistic transformation.

Sustainability Issues

Disclosure and reporting

The range of risks and opportunities that fashion brands must understand nowadays go beyond the traditional financial, market and consumer trends; but expand into new areas of climate change, water and waste management and business ethics in supply chain. The requirements for transparency, relevant disclosure and consistent reporting of impacts and action plans to manage these issues are becoming more sophisticated and stringent. Businesses face a complex task of navigating through the relevant frameworks, preparing for disclosure and providing concise information to be compliant and competitive in a rapidly changing world. Investors, regulators and a growing number of consumers are expecting high-quality information and robust action plans to be in place.

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Sustainability targets and Net Zero roadmaps

The urgency to mitigate climate change has led countries, cities and companies to set Net Zero emission targets. Whilst the movement is growing and more market players are seizing the opportunity to be seen as leaders through their commitments, there are currently a host of Net Zero variations in relation to the level of ambition to decarbonise, base year selected for reference, target year to achieve Net Zero, offsetting strategy and internal plans to achieve and communicate progress. Every business aspires to achieve long term growth, but the context is different and committing to Net Zero can be risky without a comprehensive strategy and analysis of what is feasible that stands to external scrutiny.
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Zero waste

Fashion has a mounting waste problem that has come to the limelight over the past 30 years with the advent of fast production and consumption of clothes sold at very low prices. This is the dominant business model of the industry, which capitalises on low-paid workers in developing countries, large scale access to cheap resources for garment production and a fast-consuming market that feeds the ‘take – make – waste’ system. However, as consumers and investors understand the perils of the status quo, fashion brands are called to innovate and adapt their business model to support the transition to circular economic models, where waste is minimised and resources and kept in the loop starting with product design and a lifecycle system thinking when bringing new products to market.
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Client success Stories

Bio-bean Ltd is an award-winning clean technology company that has industrialised the process of recycling waste coffee grounds (WCG) into advanced biofuels.

UK fashion brand Seasalt addresses the key environmental hotspots across its value chain by measuring its carbon, water and waste footprint, resulting in the creation of a strategic sustainability roadmap.

Belu’s purpose is to change the way the world sees water. In pursuit of this purpose, Belu invests all of its profits into saving carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere, implementing a circular economy and bringing clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene to everyone, everywhere.

AVIECO ANSWERS: FASHION & SUSTAINABILITY

The fashion industry has had a disastrous impact on the environment. In fact, it is the second-largest polluter in the world, just after the oil industry accounting for 10% of global GHG emissions with a 50% growth by 2030 expected at the current pace.

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Fashion
Sustainability Consultants

With a specialist fashion sustainability team, Avieco is well placed to support your business, your impact, and your sustainability challenges, to help you identify what really matters to you in your journey to becoming sustainable.

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