Latest news with #FashionRevolution
Forbes
04-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Remaking The Future: Real Solutions For A Sustainable Fashion Industry
Mumbai, India: Indian workers sew in clothing factory in Dharavi slum. The global fashion industry, valued at $1.7 trillion has elements of mass production, exploitation, and disposability, and it stands as one of the largest polluters and least transparent industries. From fast fashion's environmental footprint to microplastics found in human bloodstreams, the crisis is undeniable. As outlined in the previous articles on the structural exploitation, environmental collapse, waste colonialism, and health risks, it is essential to pivot to real solutions. Systemic reform is not just possible but there are individuals who are making waves. Dr. Hakan Karaosman, Associate Professor at Cardiff Business School and Chief Scientist at Fashion's Responsible Supply Chain Hub, stresses that sustainability must move beyond marketing slogans and become a governance structure ensuring fairness, transparency, and responsibility. Radical transparency is key and according to Fashion Revolution, when brands openly share information, it empowers the public to examine their practices, demand accountability for their statements, and push for meaningful improvements. The 2024 Global Fashion Transparency Index, as reported by Fashion Revolution, highlights that a significant number of fashion companies still fail to disclose fundamental details about their environmental and labor practices. Only 41% of brands surveyed revealed their wage policies, and just 24% provided data on the actual wages paid throughout their supply chains. Furthermore, for any improvements to the fashion sector, it has to start with the business models assessments and drastic improvements in the supply chain. Small textile factory in the city of Dhaka According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the fashion industry contributes up to 10% of global carbon emissions more than international flights and maritime shipping combined. To align with the Paris Agreement and limit warming to 1.5°C, brands must adopt Science-Based Targets and transparently report progress. Fashion Revolution's Transparency Index shows that while disclosure at the first tier direct suppliers has improved, only 12% of brands reveal information about processing facilities and just 5% disclose raw material suppliers. Without full supply chain visibility, risks of labor abuses, environmental degradation, and greenwashing will continue to remain high. According to the Global Living Wage Coalition, a living wage is the income earned during a standard workweek that enables a worker and their family to maintain a decent standard of living. This encompasses access to essentials such as adequate food, clean water, housing, education, healthcare, transportation, clothing, and other basic needs, along with a buffer for unforeseen expenses. However, according to Clean Clothes Campaign, garment workers in countries like Bangladesh earn on average, far below the estimated living wage of $253 per month. Brands must move beyond voluntary commitments and implement enforceable agreements that ensure living wages across all supplier contracts. Over 70% of textiles used in fashion are derived from fossil fuels, including polyester, nylon, and acrylic. Transitioning to organic cotton, recycled fibers, and emerging bio-based alternatives could reduce the industry's carbon footprint significantly. Moreover, the resultant microplastics are detrimental to the environment and human health. According to a 2025 McKinsey report, global clothing consumption is accelerating rapidly and is expected to grow by 63 percent by 2030, reaching 102 million tons. Fast fashion trends have also shortened the lifespan of garments, with some estimates indicating that low-cost clothing items are discarded after only seven wears. Alarmingly, for every five pieces of clothing produced, three are either sent to landfills or incinerated each year. The textile industry's environmental impact is staggering, generating 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, surpassing the combined emissions from all international flights and maritime shipping. The industry must shift from quantity to quality, designing durable, timeless garments, encouraging circular fashion models, and holding brands accountable for their environmental footprint. The fashion industry's environmental toll and human rights violations are no longer hidden and as consumers grow more conscious and regulatory pressures intensify, brands must evolve. As Dr. Hakan Karaosman advocates, it is not enough to speak about responsibility it must be embedded into the very governance of fashion.
CBC
15-05-2025
- General
- CBC
These protesters want you to reduce, repair and rewear
Hello, Earthlings! This is our weekly newsletter on all things environmental, where we highlight trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page. These protesters want you to reduce, repair and rewear There's no chanting, marching or waving of signs at this protest. Dressed in colourful vintage, thrifted and hand-knitted clothing, about a dozen women and one man sit on folding chairs around wooden tables strewn with yarn, scissors and scraps of fabric in the basement of a Toronto cafe. They're holding needles and thread, and some have embroidery hoops in their laps as they repair ripped seams, patch up holes and replace buttons on old clothes. In doing so, they're protesting the environmental damage caused by fast fashion — and finding a solution. Sarah Jay is the executive director of Fashion Revolution Canada, the group that co-organized a series of Toronto events for Mend In Public Day in late April. The event bills itself as a "beacon of change in a world inundated with fashion waste," and Jay says it's celebrated around the world. "I think fashion's impacts are so big and they're so vast, but when we all get together and change and shift our habits, every little bit helps," she said. In the lower level of the Maker Bean Cafe, Jacquie Jeffery is embroidering a patch of fabric. She is a founder of the Toronto Vintage Society and helped organize this event. She said buying vintage doesn't just preserve a historical piece of clothing. "We're also saving ourselves from having to buy fast fashion and having to then donate that fast fashion back when it doesn't last for us." She said many people don't realize that even when they donate old clothing to thrift shops, much of it gets sent to other countries. "It ends up in the oceans, it ends up in landfills." Joy Tan, mending nearby, knows Jeffery from another hobby — they're part of the same scooter club. They collect patches on different adventures that they sew on to their matching onesies. Tan says sewing is a great hobby for a fast-paced high-tech world. "Whenever there's an excuse for me to just sit down, get off my phone and actually do something, analog versus digital is always really relaxing and gratifying." A few blocks away at an event space on College St., Ana Ibarra welcomes people to another Mend In Public event. She organizes monthly clothing swaps and workshops on things like visible mending — passing on skills her grandmother taught her. She's concerned not just about the environmental impacts of fast fashion, but labour conditions in the industry. "I am trying to teach people they can repair the clothing," she said. Charlotte Durnford-Dionne is among the volunteers helping less experienced menders around the table learn the techniques needed to mend materials with a needle and thread. She got into mending during the pandemic, after developing an interest in sustainable fashion but finding she couldn't afford to buy new clothing made from materials like linen. She came to realize that "the most sustainable clothing is the clothing you already own, and mending is a gateway to keeping the clothing you already own and finding a newfound … sense of ownership." She adds that while YouTube is a great resource for learning mending, "events like this are so nice because it's just easier to learn things with your hand if you have someone else that knows how to do it." Listen to the audio version of this piece After spending time at both events, Jay says she enjoyed seeing the smiles on people's faces as they helped and learned from each other. Conversations about sustainability in fashion can be very upsetting and dark, she adds. "We do have to find the ways and places that we can find joy and creativity and where we can feel empowered. And Mend in Public Day is exactly that." Check out our podcast and radio show. : Drilling into the ground isn't the only way to source metals for clean energy. You can also get them from cast-off phones, laptops and TVs. It's called urban mining. We speak with Maria Holuszko at the University of B.C.'s Urban Mining Innovation Centre about developing more efficient techniques for harvesting the gold, copper and other materials in old electronics. And Craig Wisehart of the Electronic Products Recycling Association takes us to a depot to find out how to drop off your old stuff and where it goes. What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador. Reader Feedback Last week, Inayat Singh wrote about mandating solar panels on the millions of new homes that Canada wants to build. Margaret Holm wrote that there were other opportunities for decarbonizing new homes: "A far more important requirement for new homes in Canada would be for all the new buildings to use heat pumps and electrical appliances rather than gas furnaces and stoves." Other readers also pointed out that new homes could incorporate energy upgrades beyond solar panels. Marcella Patenaude wrote: "In the same ways that installing solar panels at construction time makes sense, installing the infrastructure for ground source heat pumps makes sense economically with huge benefits to the environment." Similarly, Randal Hadland wrote about how other upgrades to home would reduce the load on solar: "When a house is designed and built to use as little outside energy as possible, through insulation, passive solar heating, weather proofing generally, the size of the solar array can be considerably smaller than a 7.5 kW collector." The five-year-olds of today will experience many more climate extremes like heatwaves, floods and wildfires than previous generations, suggests new research led by Canadian scientist Luke Grant. This graph looks at different warming scenarios, and calculates the percentage of Canadian kids born in 2020 who will see unprecedented climate exposures — in other words, exposed to the kind of climatic event that would have a one-in-10,000 chance of happening in a world without climate change. Using heatwaves, the most reliable data to project according to Grant, people born in 1960 do not see a big change across any warming pathway. But at 1.5 C, 43 per cent of the kids born in 2020 would see unprecedented exposures. In a world 2.5 C warmer, which our current policies put us on the path toward, it jumps to 76 per cent of Canadian kids. At 3.5 C, virtually every kid born that year will have an exposure to a heatwave of unprecedented levels — defined as more than three days at temperatures hotter than the upper limits during pre-industrial times for the same area. To get a sense of what that might feel like, you can use our CBC climate dashboard to find the historic highs and low temperatures in your location. This week in Canada, the temperatures in southern Manitoba went over 30 C, breaking a record. That, sustained for days, could be considered an unprecedented exposure. — Anand Ram Not mowing this May? Here's what scientists say To mow or not to mow — that is the question, starting in May. And a Moncton researcher hopes that for the sake of biodiversity, the answer for many homeowners will be not to mow. The annual "No-Mow May" initiative has gained popularity over the past several years as a way to increase the food supply for pollinators, such as bees and butterflies. But there are critics as well. They cite concerns about weed growth, potential pest problems and lawn health. Gaétan Moreau, a professor of insectology at the Université de Moncton, is a No-Mow May supporter and has helped one New Brunswick city put the movement's claims to the test. Now he's written a report on what effects not mowing has on biodiversity. "I've been talking for a few years now about No-Mow May all over the place, and Alexandre Truchon-Savard from Dieppe called me one day … and said, 'Would you like to test No-Mow May here in Dieppe?'" Moreau said. Truchon-Savard, the City of Dieppe's director of environment, said the idea came after a change to the municipal bylaw on lawn height. As of last year, he said, there is no longer a requirement that lawns on private property not exceed a certain height, as long as the grass doesn't interfere with public spaces or signage. To test the No-Mow May rationale, Dieppe identified some municipal areas that have always been mowed but aren't necessarily used a lot. They picked six spots and applied three different treatments. They let one section grow, kept one section mowed and replaced one section with a mix of wildflowers. This is where Moreau came in. He said because they would need to trap pollinators in order to count them, they instead chose to study resident organisms such as ground beetles, which live above ground, and invertebrates that were under the ground. Testing the abundance of these organisms allowed Moreau to identify whether the area was a good habitat, which would in turn help pollinators. Over the summer, he said, the unmowed area had a positive impact on below-ground organisms. But the area replaced by flowers showed the biggest improvement, with beetles even moving to those areas. For Moreau, this proved that No-Mow May can be beneficial. "When you stop mowing, you're giving a break to this ecosystem," he said. But not everyone is thrilled about the catchy concept of No-Mow May. For Sara Stricker of the Guelph Turfgrass Institute, the expansion of No-Mow May throughout North America was a red flag for fellow grass experts. She would rather not pin the effort to a particular month, given how weather and other factors affect the growth of lawns. "We don't do anything based on a calendar," she said. "We don't time our management based on what month it is." For the last few years, she's been doing a research project based on No-Mow May, letting a plot of land grow for the month unrestricted. Two years ago, there was heat but not much rainfall, which led to the grass growing 35 centimetres tall. The next year, there was much more rain and more heat, leading to 108-centimetre grass, along with ticks. Eric Lyons, an associate professor of plant agriculture at the University of Guelph, said most of the grass species that make for good lawns require constant lawn mowing. "If you want to use your lawn in June and July, it's important to mow it in May, so that those species do not get weak and do not basically shade each other out, get very thin and then not be able to withstand the use that we want to use our lawns for," he said. Jordan Phelps, a Bee City Canada co-ordinator based in Ontario, said some concerns with No-Mow May and letting your lawn run wild include the potential spread of invasive species. Phelps said it's important to consider that No-Mow May originated in the United Kingdom, where a lot of plants that occur naturally on yards are native, but in North America, this isn't necessarily the case. He said it's also important to be thinking outside May, because a lot of pollinators emerge in April, and are really active in June. But he believes that having the initiative is an important way to spread awareness and encourage support for pollinators in the longer term. "It's kind of a way to get people in the door so that they're interested in learning more and more about pollinators," Phelps said. "They can then kind of take further action and ideally just have less grass overall and use some of that space for planting native plants." — Hannah Rudderham What on Earth? comes straight to your inbox every Thursday.
The Guardian
24-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Outfits of defiance: would you wear shoes made from rugs?
In 1942, the British government's Board of Trade launched a Make Do and Mend scheme. It was one of several campaigns encouraging the public to save resources during the second world war by learning basic sewing skills alongside taking on bigger projects such as remodelling men's clothing into womenswear. Today, Fashion Revolution, a non-profit social enterprise founded in the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza factory disaster in Bangladesh, is gearing up to launch its own Mend in Public Day. This weekend participants from all over the world will be able to join free local community classes to learn how to mend and stitch. However, this scheme is aimed at addressing not scarcity, but overconsumption. Cheap prices and a fast-paced trends cycle has made fashion the most polluting industry after oil and gas, causing 10% of global carbon emissions. Microfibres from synthetic clothing are found in food chains, while in 2023 a photo taken from space of a mountain of clothes in Chile's Atacama Desert went viral. We live in an era of social media clothing hauls and a 'wear once, then toss' mentality. It's often cheaper to buy a replacement of a stained item than it is to get it dry cleaned, and the same is true for rips and tears. Even the threat of tariffs on fast-fashion giants such as Shein and Temu is unlikely to significantly deter garment gluttony – their prices are so low (Temu once sold boots for $0) that they will still be deemed cheap with higher duties added. Fashion Revolution describes the scheme as a protest. 'In an age of throwaway fashion, repairing our clothes is a revolutionary act,' they say. 'While the fashion industry operates on a global scale, its impacts and required solutions can vary by region, calling for localised action.' But this collective action is not just about repairs. They are also encouraging upcycling – reusing existing garments or discarded materials to transform them into new products. Luxury designers such as Ahluwalia, whose knitted ribbed tops made from deadstock fabrics have been worn by celebrities such as Doechii, and the French designer Marine Serre, who transforms old terry cloths and silk scarves into dresses and jackets, are proof that upcycling is cool not crusty. Many smaller independent UK brands are driving the change. World Secrets makes clogs using antique kilim rugs, while Helen Kirkum sources secondhand trainers from charity retailers and then deconstructs and remakes them into shiny new versions. Then there's Pikol Clothing, which crafts White Lotus-esque holiday shirts from vintage tablecloths, and Spilt Milk, which makes everything from fisherman vests to bishop-sleeved blouses from pretty vintage textiles. For those who are staring at moth-eaten cashmere jumpers ('tis the season) or party dresses with ripped hems, a newly launched upcycling app, Loom, is hoping to be part of the solution. The platform lets you upload a photo of your damaged or unworn item then connects with you designers offering everything from visible mending to dyeing and redesign. In a world where fashion trends take off then burn out within days, repairing and reworking something you love could just be the ultimate act of defiance. Sign up to Fashion Statement Style, with substance: what's really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved after newsletter promotion To read the complete version of this newsletter – complete with this week's trending topics in The Measure and your wardrobe dilemmas solved – subscribe to receive Fashion Statement in your inbox every Thursday.
Fashion United
24-04-2025
- General
- Fashion United
'Mend in Public Day' - when repairing one's clothes becomes a revolutionary act
Just a generation or two ago, it was common practice to mend an old garment at home – broken zippers, torn knee or elbow areas, ripped hems, loose buttons – none of this was a problem. Every household relied on their darning and sewing utensils, and many even had a sewing machine. Difficult cases were handed over to the trusted tailor, which could still be found on almost every street corner. Today, the situation is different – garments with even minor problems like a loose button end up in the back of the closet and later in the trash. Why is this? What has changed? Home sewing machine. Credits: Eduard Kalesnik / Pexels On the one hand, people hardly have time to sit down and mend clothes. On the other, repairing clothes is no longer a 'cool' leisure activity; it has gone out of fashion, and with it, the skill. After all, it is an art to mend a hole so that the repair is barely visible and it is covered for good. Or to sew a hem straight back on, or even to make clothes tighter or looser. The main reason, however, is that clothing (unlike most other consumer goods) has not become more expensive over the decades, but rather cheaper. This is due to factors such as mass production, globalisation and the rise of fast fashion. This means that while a t-shirt cost 10 to 12 euros (or whatever the equivalent in the local currency was) back in 1980, it can be had for half that price today. This has resulted in people buying two or more t-shirts instead of one; in fact, we buy more of everything, we have too much - pants, shirts, t-shirts, skirts, outerwear, etc. Our wardrobes are bursting at the seams and when an item of clothing is no longer usable because it has a stain, a button is missing or a hem is ripped, we throw it out instead of mending it. We are secretly relieved to have reduced our clothing heap a little. 'Mend in Public Day' on 26th April So the question of mending does not arise for most consumers. Unless it becomes a public, revolutionary act. Like this Saturday, April 26, for example, when the non-profit organisation Fashion Revolution is once again calling for a 'Mend in Public Day' as part of Fashion Revolution Week, a whole day dedicated to collectively repairing and beautifying garments. For those who have forgotten how to sew, darn and be creative with a needle (or perhaps were never taught), there are instructions, tips and tricks. Sewing kit. Credits: Suzy Hazelwood / Pexels In the UK, US, Canada, Europe, Asia - worldwide, in fact - Fashion Revolution is organising its 'Mend in Public Day' again, which was a hit when it was started last year. In many cities around the globe, it will be all about repairing and beautifying clothes as a communal activity. Materials are often provided, as are snacks and drinks, as well as information about garments and the garment industry. Clothes can also be swapped. Detailed information about what is happening in individual cities and where one can swap clothes, repair them, participate in discussions and learn more can be found in the 'Events' section of the Fashion Revolution website. Fashion companies offer repair services Fashion companies have also realised that it is more sustainable to offer repairs for the garments they produce than to bombard customers with ever-increasing quantities of new goods. Just yesterday, for example, Hamburg-based fashion group Tom Tailor announced a partnership with Dutch repair platform Mended, and resale platform Vestiaire Collective has been collaborating with the repair and alteration platform Sojo since June of last year to provide Vestiaire customers with access to tailoring and repair services. Swedish slow fashion brand Asket, British footwear brand Dr. Martens and outerwear specialist Patagonia all offer repair services. Even clothing retailers with great ambitions for worldwide market penetration such as Decathlon and Uniqlo, are now focusing on repairs: Decathlon through repair workshops in stores and Uniqlo through its Studios, which offer repair, alteration and donation options.
