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Why the overconsumption of sustainable fashion won’t change the status quo

by | Jun 6, 2023

Something isn’t adding up: at the heart of the sustainability movement is the recognition that overconsumption – and the resulting waste – is bad news for the environment. But statistics show that we’re still buying more than ever.

The rising revolution of earth advocacy has seen famous individuals including actors like Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh, who is also a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, take to the global stage in support of sustainability in the fashion industry. Vivienne Westwood, who died in December last year, made a statement posing in her “Buy Less” t-shirt. It was messaging aligned with her long-standing critique of rampant capitalism and her refrain “Buy less, choose well, make it last” ethos.

There has also been great fanfare for innovations like biodegradable glitter and vegan leather in fashion. Luxury brands, such as Gucci, have ventured into the secondhand market, with circular economy efforts to extend the lifespan of their high-end products. And even the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton has been seen in public wearing the same outfit more than once, breaking the tradition of royals as fashion icons with new clothes for every engagement.

But despite the high-profile eco-conscious messaging, and the many more grassroots efforts in the sustainable fashion movement, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) statistics in 2022 showed that consumers are still buying 60% more clothing items than they did 15 years ago. Another statistic from the UNEP is that clothing production nearly doubled in the first 15 years of this century but the number of times a garment is worn before being discarded decreased by 36%. The World Economic Forum meanwhile says that the United Kingdom alone discards 300 000 tons of textiles a year with 20% ending up in landfill and 80% being incinerated.

Consumers are still buying 60% more clothing items than they did 15 years ago

One key driver of the upward trajectory of hyper-consumption, even as environmental pressures mount, is that the business-as-usual fashion model still relies on high consumer spend  to prop up the global economy. Conventional fashion retailers and brands – that often fall into the fast fashion category, even if they are punting “sustainable collections” – are happy not to upend the model. They continue to use marketing and advertising to punt their green credentials but they continue to offer more ranges for more and more seasons, special events, and lifestyle activities.

Even smaller fashion businesses, with genuine efforts to change the status quo, still require a level of financial sustainability to continue the work they do. Even if we all have to consume to live, many of us fall into the cycle of consuming mindlessly and excessively, regardless of whether we are buying from a brand with greenwashed sustainability or one with authentic credentials.

Many of us fall into the cycle of consuming mindlessly and excessively, regardless of whether we are buying from a brand with greenwashed sustainability or one with authentic credentials.

The complexity of consumerism and the omnipresence of marketing, coupled with an industry that has not done enough to reform means that the shift to more sustainable models in the fashion industry will take more than a silver bullet approach. It means that effective change will more likely come from multi-pronged efforts: more buy-in, more transparency and accountability, and even legislation and policy reform that come with real consequences and penalties for contravention.

For consumers, a cultural shift in consumption patterns means changing minds about values, getting real about the gaps in our lives that consumerism and consumption can’t fill, and embracing the idea that smart choices come down to choosing well, not more. While fashion businesses need to take accountability for their actions, so do consumers. Ultimately, it’s about recognising that consumers have enormous personal power to affect supply and demand. It’s what can force fashion retailers and companies to adapt to meet consumer needs that set an agenda to align more closely with taking a stand to stop the climate crisis.

As Steven Stone, deputy director of the Industry and Economy Division of the United Nations Environmental Programme puts it, “Addressing consumption is a central part of reducing climate impact – from the volume of new products purchased to the carbon footprint of how we use these products. We must work together to align all stakeholders across the fashion sector towards the 1.5-degree pathway of the Paris Agreement.”

Consumers have enormous personal power to affect supply and demand

The emphasis on messaging and communication to change consumers’ minds has come into sharp focus with the UN’s Sustainable Fashion: Communication Strategy 2021-2024. Included in the report are areas like targeting urban youth around the world, an estimated three billion consumers who shop for fashion online, and regard fashion as part of aspirational living. Another initiative lies in spotlighting initiatives and making these desirable, functional, and on-trend. The likes of the capsule wardrobe concept, for instance, slots in with better sustainability practices. With capsule dressing you can build a personal small-selection wardrobe made up of classic, mostly neutral pieces that can be matched and restyled for a variety of looks that don’t date and have durability year after year. The practice of mending is another, simple low-tech way of extending the lifespan of garments.

For someone like Kenneth P. Pucker, professor of practice at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and former chief operations officer of Timberland, the fashion industry needs a hard look at its failings and also the reality that voluntary efforts have not worked. Pucker writes in The Harvard Business Review in January 2022: “The sad truth is that all this experimentation and supposed ‘innovation’ in the fashion industry over the past 25 years have failed to lessen its planetary impact — a loud wake-up call for those who hope that voluntary efforts can successfully address climate change and other major challenges facing society.”

Pucker says it’s the broader system of pursuing endless growth that’s driving hyper-consumerism. He writes: “This unyielding pursuit of growth, of ‘more’, drives strategies that are specific to the fashion industry. Because it is hard to make a better-performing or more efficient blouse, handbag, or pair of socks, to motivate consumption, the industry pushes change. Not better — just different, cheaper, or faster.”

The concepts, approaches, and models he eludes to – like post-growth, degrowth, circular economies, wellbeing economies, and doughnut economics – are becoming relatable lenses through which to look at new future economic pathways. They may all have conceptual differences and specific applications but they are all focused on making the bold shifts that get us to consume mindfully, to take just what we need, and to hoard less. They may all have a point.

 

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