The global fashion industry emits a hefty amount of greenhouse gases per year, thus contributing massively and actively to global warming. One of the reasons is that the vast majority of our beloved clothes are petroleum-based and made from fossil fuels, including polyester, acrylic & nylon (check your clothing labels, you may be surprised). These materials require significantly more energy in the production phase than natural or recycled fibers. Sustainable brands on the other side often use materials from natural or recycled fabrics that require significantly less to no chemical treatment, little water, less energy and no fertilizers or pesticides to grow. Most organic fabrics such as linen, hemp, organic cotton & TENCEL™ (made from sustainable wood pulp) are even biodegradable. These environmentally-sound fabrics go easy on the planet and are amazing sustainable alternatives. 

This may not be news for you, but the fashion industry loves to kill for fashion. A common misconception is that leather for instance, is a by-product of the meat industry. However, this is not always the case. It’s estimated that the leather industry alone is slaughtering and killing over 430 million animals per year. Not going into more detail here as it’s a topic for itself, but if wish to educate yourself more on animal suffering in the fashion industry, follow this link. PETA has a plethora of articles on this topic. 

Sustainable fashion brands have started to increasingly embrace the use of cruelty-free alternatives, and there’s one for nearly every piece of fashion materials - polyester made with trash from the oceans (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?), bags created from recycled seatbelts, plant-based compostable sneakers, silk created from yeast, and bio-fabricated vegan wool. But one of the most demanded leather alternatives these days comes from pineapples. The fabric is produced using the leaves of pineapples in the harvesting process, giving by-product waste a new purpose.

Water is a major resource for the fashion industry. It is used in the dyeing and finishing process for nearly all of our clothes. It takes an incredible amount of 2,700 litres of water to produce a single T-shirt. Cotton in particular is highly dependent on water, but is usually grown in hot and dry areas where water is a scarce resource already. 

By contrast, organic cotton reduces water consumption by 91% as opposed to conventional cotton. However, only 1% of global cotton production to date is organic. This is mainly due to the much higher cost of non-GMO seeds, which often require additional investments into materials & machinery, which farmers only use for their organically grown crop. 

Other sustainable fabrics that require little to no water during the production phase include linen, hemp, REFIBRA™ & recycled fibers like recycled cotton.