Fast fashion: The second biggest environment enemy

You might've heard the fashion industry is the second largest industrial polluter of the planet which is true, but it's not because of what you see in the runways. The real enemy here is the fast fashion business model. Fast fashion is a business model based on trend styles and regular new arrivals - up to 24 collections in one year - that ends up being inherently harmful to the environment.

The 'fashion' industry accounts for 10 percent of global carbon emissions and remains the second largest industrial polluter, second only to oil. The environmental impact of the fast fashion model is significant: the clothing and textile industry is depleting non-renewable resources, emitting huge quantities of greenhouses gases and using massive quantities of energy, chemicals and water. The synthetic fibres often favoured by fast fashion brands, such as polyester, nylon and acrylic, are basically a kind of plastic made from petroleum, which means they could take up to a thousand years to biodegrade. Even the simple act of washing synthetic clothes is harmful—according to a 2011 study, a single synthetic garment can generate more than 1900 micro plastic fibres in one washing machine cycle.

Fast fashion is harmful from a social perspective too. More than 60 million people work in the garment industry to fuel fast fashion: more than 15 million of those are based in Asia and more than 80% are women, often young and from poor rural backgrounds

Female workers in a Cambodian garment factory. Image credit: Mak Remissa/Epa/REX/Shutterstock.

So you should think twice before buying anything from a fast fashion store and if you want to live in a sustainable way you should ban fast fashion for life. I brought some information about the first and second biggest fast fashion groups to help you to understand how they are damaging our planet. They're trying to start a few initiatives towards a greener future but if they don't change the whole cycle and the fast fashion model they will still keep destroying our environment in global scale.

#1: Zara

No introductions needed for this one. Zara is owned by Inditex Group, the biggest fast-fashion group of the world.

Inditex is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative but uses few eco-friendly materials such as organic cotton. It has set an intensity target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations by 15% but it hasn't set a supply chain target. It has set a deadline to eliminate hazardous chemicals by 2020. There is no evidence that it has set a target to reduce water use in its supply chain. Inditex does not communicates clear information on target reductions for its greenhouse gas emissions of own operations and does not yet provide concrete results on reducing climate emissions in the supply chain that is beyond own operations.

Inditex, has started a repair and reuse program called Closing the Loop that offers customers the opportunity to drop off their used garments in-store or through the post in order for their clothes to gain a second life. I don't know about you but I think it's weird that Zara has a program to collect used clothes in-store that no one knows about? In my opinion this is just to look good on their sustainability reports and not to actually generate an impact on the fast-fashion market, otherwise we would've at least heard about it???

One of Inditex’s goals is that, by 2020, they will no longer send anything to landfills from their own headquarters, logistics centres, stores and factories. This is nice but how realistic is it if they keep producing clothes like c-r-a-z-y?

Inditex does not use fur, angora or exotic animal skin and hair but uses wool from non-mulesed sheep and leather and down without stating its sources. Ok, Zara is worse than H&M.

About labour, It has made little to no progress towards ensuring payment of a living wage in its supply chain. It audits most of its traced facilities. It implements some worker empowerment initiatives such as collective bargaining or rights to make a complaint.

About labour, it has made little to no progress towards ensuring payment of a living wage in its supply chain. It audits most of its traced facilities and implements some worker empowerment initiatives such as collective bargaining or rights to make a complaint.

#2: H&M

H&M is the second biggest fast-fashion group and we all have been seduced by their sales, I've been there many times and I'm sure you have too. The company has good goals for the future according to their Report of Sustainability (2018) but at the moment, they're not doing much.

H&M Group implements several measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as using renewable electricity for part of its supply chain, increasing energy efficiency in stores, and is also trying to raise awareness for climate change beyond its own operation. They pledged to become 100% 'climate positive' by 2040. It's more than 20 years. Hi H&M I don't know if you noticed but WE NEED TO CHANGE NOW GODDAMNIT!!! We don't even know if we're gonna be a-live in 2040........................... Anyway, they have a commitment to making the first two tiers of its supply chain climate neutral by 2030. It has also pledged to use 100% recycled or sustainable materials by 2030. Awesome targets but still very far away from the present and they're still only targets, who knows if they're going to make it?

H&M is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative and offers a recycling program 'Garment Collecting' where you can return clothes from any brand in-store (I've never seen this before, have you? Maybe it should let us know about that too!!). It also aims to eliminate hazardous chemicals and solvent-based glues in the manufacturing of its products by 2020. The brand was among the first to stock ‘Conscious’ sustainable fashion collection in its stores.

It's heading in the right direction by using wool from non-mulesed sheep and banning the use of fur, angora and exotic animal and skins. It does, however, use leather specifying where it’s sourced; this means it cannot guarantee animal welfare. The down it uses is accredited by the Responsible Down Standard. Still, they're using leather and down which SUCKS.

In addition to all of that, in 2018, factories that supply H&M were named in reports by Global Labour Justice detailing abuse of female garment workers. And earlier this year labour rights organisations like the Clean Clothes Campaign pointed out that H&M has not delivered on its 2013 promise to pay 850,000 workers a living wage by 2018.

The majority of the materials it uses are not eco-friendly and the brand still operates under an unsustainable fast-fashion model so if I can give you some advice I would say: DON'T BUY FROM H&M. H&M is definitely not the worst but it has to improve a lot to be sustainable and if you aim to support sustainable initiatives, brands and services, you should not only stop buying from H&M but from any other fast-fashion brands :( sorry, but I had to warn you.

If you want to check before you buy, there are two really good sources I know where you can see if the brand is ethical and sustainable or not, those are:

https://goodonyou.eco/

https://rankabrand.org/

If you know any other sites with this kind of information let me know.

Ok, enough for today. I'll bring more information about fast fashion soon because we really need to talk about it and we need to talk now. We don't have much time in this planet so we should fight for what is right. See ya!