Report documents staggering toll of 'wasteful, polluting' fashion on the world.
Global emissions from textile companies are currently more than 1.2 billion tons annually, more than all flights and maritime shipping combined, the report notes.
Ultimately, fast fashion is driving the industry’s problems, a trend of rapid production and rapid turnover, the report argues.
The amount of clothing units produced globally has doubled since 2000, according to the consulting firm McKinsey, and the amount of use a person gets out of each piece of clothing has declined by 36% over the past 15 years.
The World Resources Institute says that 20 pieces of clothing are made for each person on the planet every year.
Changing the industry is not going to be easy, according to the Guardian.
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The report calls on companies to use more sustainable materials such as naturally occurring fibers; for consumers to use their clothes longer and buy less overall; and for the development of practices like short-term rental shops so that clothes have more long-term value.
Such an approach could reduce revenue in the $2.4 trillion industry, but the alternative isn’t sustainable, the report argues, and better practices could potentially save companies $500 billion annually.
The effort to reform the fashion industry has been ongoing and there are signs that brands are responding.
Companies such as Patagonia, Eileen Fisher, and Stella McCartney have embraced a sustainable model of production, according to the documentary True Cost, which explores the environmental toll of the fashion industry.
Bigger brands like Levi’s, Adidas, and H&M are beginning to incorporate more sustainable materials into their production cycles.
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Taken together, however, these efforts are too isolated and oftentimes incomplete, or even superficial, the report argues.
In the years ahead, huge new markets are expected to open up throughout Africa and Asia, according to the report, and this could further accelerate the pace of fast fashion.
Plus, too much of the industry pays lip service to sustainability, according to an article in the Huffington Post, that argues that the multinational nature of the fashion industry pushes environmental costs onto less regulated countries.
For instance, a lot of production has shifted to lightly regulated countries like India, where pesticide use by cotton farmers has led to severe health consequences and leather tanneries heavily pollute rivers and soil.
Real change will come about when regulations are carried out around the world to limit pollution and improve working conditions, and when companies reform their supply chains, the report says.
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