Page 4 - Demo

ACKNOWLEDGING THE PROBLEM
We are in the middle of a climate crisis and no one should or can ignore that, we all have to change how business is done. Lets zoom out, what’s really going on? The climate is changing and it is changing far to fast. We are already seeing the devastating impacts of climate change, witnessing bushfires in Australia, heatwaves in Antartica. As the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said ‘human kind has declared a war on nature and nature is striking back in a very violent way’.
Fashion plays an important role in our impact on the climate, and it is not a positive one. According to the United Nations1, the fashion industry accounts for about 10% of global carbon emissions. And while the environmental impact of flying is now well known, fashion consumes more energy than both aviation and shipping combined. When it comes to waste, up to 85% of all clothing produced ends up in incinerators or landfills within years of being made and nearly 20% of wastewater in the world is fashion related.
While this enormous environmental footprint is bad enough as it is, consider then that by 2030, the fashion industry is expected to grow by 81%.
Those are some horrifying facts and figures. If you combine this crazy growth and the resulting shocking impact we all can see this going in the wrong direction. We need to stop, rethink and take action.
Even though many brands are working with sustainability in some ways, and some more than others, the industry is not progressing fast enough to avert the negative impacts of fashion. We have reached a phase where transformation is needed and is needed urgently . Even maintaining the status quo is no longer an option. We are part of a system that is constantly pushing for newness, to produce more in the world. But the world actually needs less. And that’s why I believe that all industry players in fashion must take action now,. We must all take the responsibility and we must change. We have an ethical obligation to do so, whether it is in our organisations, sectors or daily life. It just can’t go on.
Making the problem actionable
Acknowledging a problem is, although a necessary first step, not going to solve it by itself. Especially not since the climate problem is regarded by many 2 as the biggest and most complex problem of this century and beyond. When I said that it is time to take action, I meant this literally and not just as a commonplace alarmist message. But how can we address the most complex problem of our life time?
https://www.unece.org/info/media/news/forestry-and-timber/2018/fashion-is-an-environmental- and-social-emergency-but-can-also-drive-progress-towards-the-sustainable-development-goals/ doc.html
2https://oxfordclimatepolicy.org/sites/default/files/yiced_0.pdf