Why is Sustainability SO Important in Fashion?
Fast fashion makes shopping for clothes more affordable.
But it comes at an enormous cost to the environment.
Learn how your shopping choices can contribute to the solution.
produces 10% of humanity's carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. It is also the second-largest consumer of the world's water supply. Many of us, particularly in the yoga community, are well informed of the impact our daily choices have on the wellbeing of our planet. We are also well aware of the responsibility we each have to tend to the earth, as we tend to our own bodies - with conscious loving care.
The environmental impact of some aspects of our modern life are widely known, but when it comes to our clothes, they are less obvious. Let's take a look at them, and at how we can - and are - doing better.
THE IMPACT OF FAST FASHION
As consumers worldwide buy more clothes, the demand for cheap items and new styles is taking a serious toll on our planet. Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams.
What’s more, 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year. And washing some types of clothes sends thousands of bits of plastic into the ocean every year.
- Clothing production has more than doubled since 2000, and while people bought 60% more garments in 2020, they kept the clothes half as long
- Major fashion brands have increased from an average two collections per year in 2000 to upwards of 10-24 collections in a single year.
- The equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second. In total, up to 85% of textiles go into landfills each year.
- Washing clothes, meanwhile, releases 500,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean each year - the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles.
- Many of those fibers are polyester. Producing polyester releases 2-3 times more carbon emissions than cotton, and polyester does not break down in the ocean.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Educating ourselves is the first step toward becoming part of the solution to this problem, closely followed by making a series of conscious choices, and living by them.
WHAT SORT OF CHOICES?
- Buy less. Purchase items designed to last with a timeless appeal so you're not always looking to replace them and send your 'old stuff' to the landfill. SAKTI RISING apparel is designed to last and improve with age.
- Choose your fabrics wisely. If you're going to buy cotton, opt for organic. Choose plant based fabrics which require very little water to grow, such as Tencel - made from wood pulp.
- Avoid plastics and synthetics like polyester and spandex, as they don't biodegrade and most often end up polluting the ocean.
- Examine the dying processes - choose clothes which utilize plant based dyes rather than the toxic chemicals which contribute to the world's second largest cause of water pollution.
SAKTI RISING is proud to partner with a local Balinese artisan who has been using only plant based dyes for three generations.
OUR COMMITMENT
Through SAKTI RISING we are committed to continuously researching - and implementing - more and more ways to reduce the negative impact the fashion industry has on our planet. We are here to provide an alternative.
Thank you for taking the time to learn a little more.
It is an honor to walk this path with you - from here to a better world.
xx Natalie + V
Read more about our Sustainability pledge here.
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