More than 100 billion tons of resources enter the economy every year – everything from metals,

minerals and fossil fuels to organic materials from plants and animals. Just 8.6% gets recycled
and used again. Use of resources has tripled since 1970 and could double again by 2050 if
business continues as usual. We would need 1.5 Earths to sustainably support our current
resource use.

The fashion industry has a disastrous impact on the environment. In fact, it is the second largest
polluter in the world, just after the oil industry. And the environmental damage is increasing as
the industry grows. Clothing production approximately has doubled from 2004 to 2019, driven
by a growing middle-class population across the globe and increased per capita sales in
developed economies. This increasing pace of consumption and production puts more pressure
on the planet, the workers making clothes and the communities impacted by associated
environmental hazards like air pollution and water contamination.  Think about how many
sweaters, scarves and other clothes were given as gifts this holiday season and how many times
will people wear them before throwing them out?

Probably far fewer than we think. Gone are the days when people would buy a shirt and wear it
for years. In a world of accelerating demand for apparel, consumers want and can increasingly
afford new clothing after wearing garments only a few times. Entire business models are built on
the premise of “fast fashion,” providing clothes cheaply and quickly to consumers through
shorter fashion cycles. This linear fashion model of buying, wearing and quickly discarding
clothes negatively impacts people and the planet’s resources. Here’s a look at the social and
environmental implications:

 Every year the fashion industry uses 93 billion cubic meters of water —
enough to meet the consumption needs of five million people.

 Around 20 % of wastewater worldwide comes from fabric dyeing and

treatment.

 Of the total fiber input used for clothing, 87 % is incinerated or disposed of
in a landfill.

 The fashion industry is responsible for 10 % of annual global carbon

emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping
 combined. At this pace, the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions
will surge more than 50 % by 2030.

 If demographic and lifestyle patterns continue as they are now, global

consumption of apparel will rise from 62 million metric tons in 2019 to 102
million tons in 10 years. 

 Every year a half a million tons of plastic microfibers are dumped into the
ocean, the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles. The danger? Microfibers
cannot be extracted from the water and they can spread throughout the
food chain.

Making a pair of jeans produces as much greenhouse gases as driving a car more than 80 miles.

 Discarded clothing made of non-biodegradable fabrics can sit in landfills for up to 200
years.

 It takes 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton shirt, enough to meet the average
person’s drinking needs for two-and-a-half years.

 Garment workers, primarily women, in Bangladesh make about $96 per month. The
government’s wage board suggested that a garment worker needs 3.5 times that amount
in order to live a “decent life with basic facilities.”

 A 2018 U.S. Department of Labor report found evidence of forced and child labor in the
fashion industry in Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Philippines,
Turkey, Vietnam and other countries.

It is more urgent than ever to shift from linear, use-it-up-and-throw-it-away models to a

circular economy: where waste and pollution are designed out, products and materials are
kept in use for longer, and natural systems can regenerate.

One garbage truck of clothes is burned or sent to landfills every second! The average consumer
bought 60 percent more clothes in 2014 than in 2000, but kept each garment for half as long.
Much like pieces of a puzzle, these bits and pieces come together, each with its own story.

When it comes to environment sustainability, there is no bigger mantra than “Reduce, Reuse, and
Recycle”. Even though the principles of reduce and recycle have been somewhat practiced, reuse
remains a completely unexplored option. The western societies have adapted the principle of
‘Reuse’ to a greater extent, which is why garage sales and second-hand auctions are increasingly
popular. But the concept of reuse is not exactly novel and has been used for centuries.

While durable products like electronics and automobiles hold a majority share in the second-
hand market, products like clothes are rarely thought about in most of the countries.

Interest in garment recycling is rapidly on the rise due to environmental awareness and landfill
pressure.

These were some alarming stats that led us into creating a brand using fabric that would
otherwise go into landfills

social and environmental issues go hand in hand and through exploring the connection between
these issues we may find innovative design solutions to sustainability.

all about breathing new life into old, creating colourful backpacks, satchels and laptop sleeves
made from recycled fabrics and locally sourced African fabrics.

The textile and fashion industry is experiencing a radical transformation. The global
demographic growth, digitalization, scarcity of resources, and accelerating climate change
challenge the current business models to become more innovative and sustainable in order to
remain profitable. Sustainable brands selling organic and recycled products are revolutionizing
the fashion market. Consumer’s worldwide display increasing interest in the environment-
friendly products, and more and more people are eager to support clothing reuse and recycling.
Companies pioneering sustainable business practices gain a strong competitive advantage by
differentiating their products through eco-fashions. 

Take the textiles industry. Each year, huge quantities of fossil fuels are used to produce clothes
from synthetic fibers each year. Textile production (including cotton farming) uses almost 100
billion cubic meters of water per year, approximately 4% of global freshwater withdrawal. At the
same time, people throw away still-wearable clothes worth an estimated $460 billion each year.

Creating a circular economy for textiles means shifting to recycled and recyclable materials in
order to reduce the amount of land, water and fossil fuels used to produce new clothes. It means
changing consumption patterns to reduce new purchases and keep clothes in use for longer, for
instance by developing the second-hand and rental markets as well as changing the culture of fast
fashion. Research suggests that the purchase of 100 second-hand garments can displace the
production of 85 new garments. And finally, it means ensuring that clothes at the end of their life
are collected and recycled or repurposed into new clothes, further reducing resource use.

Rapid consumption of apparel and the need to deliver on short fashion cycles stresses production
resources, often resulting in supply chains that put profits ahead of human welfare.

sustainability principles are based on using certified organic cotton, making careful choices about their
production facility, and increasingly raising awareness about sustainability to their target customers,
including developing educational school programmes in their local community

aims is to make responsible fashion accessible for everyone, regardless of background or financial ability

it is important for us to reach out and appeal to the youth, from late teens to late 20s and including
students and young professionals. We want to see responsible fashion become the norm. In order for
that to happen, we have to break into the mainstream and tackle some of the major issues within the
fashion industry in its current state, head on. Fast fashion is perhaps the most important aspect to tackle
and the youth are the main consumers of fast fashion. So, if we want to make a positive impact in the
industry, it is the youths’ mindsets that we need to change.
But perhaps the most important is direct customer contact, through events, roadshows and various talks
that we give here in Singapore on sustainability in the fashion industry and in business in general. This
direct contact allows us to bring our message across to a degree of depth that is difficult to achieve
through other means. We’d like to think that when we talk to people about what we do that they can
see our passion for it and understand the importance of it all a bit better.