The kids are alright
Author | Bel Jacobs is a seasoned fashion editor with a passion for sustainability
A few years ago, fashion buyers were treating sustainability as another trend, rather like tailored denim and tropical florals. It was as if, after two or three seasons, they didn’t believe consumers would care about the planet. They couldn’t have been more wrong. As the world wakes up to the environmental challenges we face, it’s quite clear that ‘sustainability’ is here to stay.
What changed? Quite a lot. For the past two years, barely a week has gone by without news of another part of the planet suffering under the weight of the human footprint. In 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called for urgent changes to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C, after which even half a degree would worsen risks for millions of people.
Communities of ordinary people around the world have started to take action through protests both off and online. In these urgent times, by far the most powerful voices have been those of students, those who are too young to have contributed to the climate emergency but who also look set to bear the brunt of its worst effects.
For many, their inspiration is Swedish school girl, Greta Thunberg. In August 2018, she decided not to go to school one day, starting a strike for the climate outside the Swedish Parliament. Her actions have sparked a global movement, winning her the prestigious Prix Liberte as well as a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
Greta has a way with words. Few can forget her searing speech to the UN Climate Change conference in 2018: “You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to your children. But I don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet. Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury.”
In March 2019, inspired by Greta’s words, students in more than 100 countries took part in the first ever global school strike - ‘Fridays for Future’. Arguably, none of this would have been possible without social media. More than 2,000 separate events, involving over 1.4 million young people, were co-ordinated by volunteers, largely over the internet. Generation Z has woken up and they are demanding better.
From the developing nations of India and Uganda to the Philippines and Nepal - countries already struggling with the impacts of climate change - tens of thousands of students demanded that the political elite change their ways and address the climate emergency.
For those in the fashion community, the call has been particularly urgent. Fashion may be fabulous but, in its current model, it is destroying the planet. Apparel is responsible for around 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions but its impact doesn’t end there. By its very nature, fashion affects literally everything - from land and water use, pollution and deforestation, to oceans of microfibres.
Massive labour rights abuses also plague the industry. Factory owners and managers have been known to fire pregnant workers; deny maternity leave; retaliate against workers who join or form unions and turn a blind eye when male managers or workers sexually harass female workers. Meanwhile, over one hundred million animals are bred and killed for fur each year, while a further billion are killed for leather.
Overconsumption is matched by waste. Worldwide, fewer than one per cent of garments are recycled into new clothing, and only 20 per cent of textiles are recycled at all. And it looks set to get worse. In 2015, it was estimated that global clothing production had more than doubled over 15 years. Global consumption of clothing and footwear is expected to increase by 63 per cent by 2030.
The system is broken and it needs rebuilding. If there is anything the school strikers are calling for, it is a cessation of business as usual. And what will take the place of mainstream fashion? A bold new industry where technology makes swapping and renting mainstream and accessible to all, where repair and up-cycling are recognised as exciting ways to personalise garments, where secondhand sits alongside new in our retail spaces, and where the entire fashion industry works with care for people, animals and planet.
The future will be an industry where millennials - using social media no doubt - will continue to push for the world they want to see. And it will be an industry in which discarded textile scraps and unwanted clothing are no longer regarded as ‘waste’ but instead as precious raw materials from which new and creative possibilities can emerge. The solutions, as the finalists for the Redress Design Award demonstrate again and again, are already here for the taking.
This article originally appeared in the Redress Design Award 2019 Magazine.