To What Extent is Fast Fashion Driving Climate Change?

This research essay explores the impact of fast fashion on climate change, including carbon footprint, sustainability, and environmental impact. It concludes that fast fashion is a major contributor to climate change and suggests solutions for the fashion industry to reduce its negative impact on the environment.

Research Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
To what extent is fast fashion driving climate change ?.............................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Climate change refers to the change from the long term perspective in the patterns of
weather which is average that basically defines about earth’s local, regional and climates which
is at global level as well. These changes have large scale effects of observed level that are
synonymous with the term. Climate change is important because it help in terms of determining
the future climate expectations and with support of latitude, it can be easily determined about the
likelihood of snow and hail reaching the surface(Bratman and et.al., 2016). A topic is taken into
consideration in the present report which is named as “To what extent is fast fashion driving
climate change. The present report will cover discussion about fast fashion and also about carbon
foot print as well. The report consist of the factor of sustainability and environmental impact as
well.
MAIN BODY
To what extent is fast fashion driving climate change ?
Fast fashion basically refers to the marketing, design and manufacturing method which is
focused on the prodution of large scale of clothing fast pace manner. Within the fast fashion, it
has been observed that it lead towards the wastage of water on a very large scale. This is the by
product from factories of textile that produces fast fashion in countries which is en mass which is
toxic waste water that is toxic. The wastage of textile basically contains substances such as lead,
mercury and arsenic that are harmful for human life. Up to a very high extent fast fashion is
responsible for the climate change. It has been observed that due to fast fashion there is wastage
of water which lead towards the negative impact on the environment which will result into
imbalance between activities of human and the environment(Gao, J. and O’Neill., 2020). There
are also other certain factors which are responsible for the climate change where scientists has
found out that gas and increment in temperature also act as the natural phenomenon who leads
towards the change into climate.
The activities of human also lead towards the global warming where atmospheric gases
plays a very significant role as well. There are certain gases which has started increasing since
the year of 1751 which includes CO2, NO2 and CH4 as well where atmospheric levels have
increased from 220 ppm to 460 ppm.

It has been observed that climate change is basically the result of humans and the
environment as well So up to a very large extent it has been observed that there are certain other
factors which are responsible for the changes into climate. So in context of fast fashion, the
climate change has majorly done by the daily activities of human within this industry which will
leave a negative impact on the environment(Karaosman and et.al., 2016).Fast fashion is all about
the garment production leverages trend application and low quality materials for bringing
inexpensive styles to the end consumer. It also described about the low-priced but stylish
clothing which moves on the fast pace manner from design to stores of retail for meeting out the
trends with brand new collections which has been introduced into continuous manner. For
instance, innovation in management of supply chain among retailers makes the fashion of fast
possible. H & M and Zara are the two giants of the field of fast fashion.
There are certain activities which has been done by the human beings within the industry
fast fashion which lead towards in the increment of carbon dioxide. From the perspective of
technical terms, carbon foot print basically refers to the measurement of the amount of carbon
dioxide that their activities produces. A carbon foot print is about the total amount of green
house gases which are generated by their actions. At the global level, it has been observed that
the average carbon footprint is more closer towards the four tons (Kozlowski and et.al., 2015). It
is very important to reduce the carbon foot print because it mitigates global climate change,
improves public health, boosts the global economy and also maintains the biodiversity as well.
When there is reduction in carbon emissions then it help in terms of ensuring about cleaner
water, air and food for their generation and for generations which has yet to come.
In context to fast fashion, it is very necessary that they have to work into sustainable
manner so that they can reduce the negative impact on the environment. Its very important for
fast fashion to work into sustainable manner so that they can create minimum negative impact on
the environment. Sustainability refers to the quality of no change and small changes within the
environment and it ha been continued for longer period of time. Sustainability refers to the
fulfilling their own requirements wihout compromising the generations ability of future for
meeting their own needs.

In addition to natural resources, they also require social and economic resources and it is
a kind of normative concept which stresses on the intergenerational equity which is commonly
considered to have three dimensions which includes environment, social and economic
dimension as well. Sustainability is important because it contribute in terms of improving the
quality of their lives, preserve natural resources, protects the ecosystem for future
generations(Scinocca and et.al., 2016). In context to fast fashion, sustainability is basically
associated with a holistic approach of organisation which takes into account everything from
manufacturing to logistics to customer service. Fast fashion has to adopt certain measures which
are helpful for their further growth and development as well. It is necessary to reduce their
negative impact on the environment so that environment can be impacted on a very low extent.
An environmental impact basically refers to the any change to the environment whether it
is beneficial or adverse which results from the facility's products, activities or services.
Environmental impact is all about the effect that people's actions have on the environment.
Environmental impact is very important because it promotes for the sustainable development,
safe environment by measuring impat of environment which is likely to be caused by the actions
of human. So its very important that fast fashion has to work into such a manner that the negative
impacts on the environment can be reduces to a very lower level.
In context to fast fashion, the increased consumption and production of fashion has long
lasting and serious environmental impacts. According to the studies, it has been find out that fast
fashion has contributed around ten percent of global CO2 emissions on the annual basis.
According to the figures it has been observed that the impact of environmet is of pair of tshirt an
jeans that is separarted down by the proportion of CO2 which is emitted in every phase of life of
production of garment and yarn, to personal use, to transportation and finally disposed(Yang and
et.al., 2017). Within the industry of fast fashion, under the phase of production, it basically
includes growing and working raw materials into textiles and assemble them into environment
that is most harmful at the level of environment. Half of the costs of environment is related with
a T-shirt which comes from in jeans and its production which is more than half.

There has been another impact on the environment which arises from the materials which
are non-biodegradable synthetic like polyester. They introduce more plastic and also energy
intensive to produce into the world. Fibres which are synthetic have proliferated into the industry
of fashion which act as the low substitute to natural resources ad organic which is at a cost to the
environment of surrounding (Yool and et.al., 2015). The recycling becomes difficult when it is
produced from fossil fuels, synthetic materials which makes the effective impossible. When once
disregarded then it end up in terms of landfills. So in the overall manner, there are fundamental
changes which needs to be made within the fashion industry which are from the production and
consumer end as well. It has been observed that to a very large extent, fast fashion which drives
towards the climate change.
CONCLUSION
The above stated report concludes that climate change is basically the major result of
human activities. It has been concluded that fast fashion is the industry which creates a very
large impact on the environment due to its way of working which majorly lead towards the
wastage of water. It has been analysed that fashion industry has to necessarily work into
sustainable manner so that it can impact the environment up to a very lower extent. It has been
observed that there are lots of activities which has been done by the humans and it result into
emissions of different types of gases which include carbon dioxide as well. The environment
impact has result into either positive development or lead towards the destruction into the
atmosphere. These kind of activities of human beings lead towards the condition of global
warming due to which it result into rise of temperature on a very higher scale. So in the overall
manner, the industry also plays a significant role in terms of climate change as well.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bratman and et.al., 2016. Justice is the goal: divestment as climate change resistance. Journal of
Environmental Studies and Sciences, 6(4), pp.677-690.
Gao, J. and O’Neill, B. C., 2020. Mapping global urban land for the 21st century with data-
driven simulations and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Nature communications,
11(1), pp.1-12.
Karaosman and et.al., 2016. From a systematic literature review to a classification framework:
Sustainability integration in fashion operations. Sustainability, 9(1), p.30.
Kozlowski and et.al., 2015. Corporate sustainability reporting in the apparel industry: An
analysis of indicators disclosed. International Journal of Productivity and Performance
Management.
Scinocca and et.al., 2016. Coordinated global and regional climate modeling. Journal of Climate,
29(1), pp.17-35.
Yang and et.al., 2017. Sustainable retailing in the fashion industry: A systematic literature
review. Sustainability, 9(7), p.1266.
Yool and et.al., 2015. Future change in ocean productivity: Is the Arctic the new Atlantic?.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 120(12), pp.7771-7790.