Fast Fashion Driving Climate Change

This essay explores the ways in which fast fashion drives climate change and leads to environmental damage. It discusses the impact of fast fashion on the environment, labour exploitation, and animal harm with significant contribution to climate change.

Fast Fashion Driving
Climate Change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Fast Fashion is defined as affordable and stylish clothing which takes inspiration from
celebrity and runway fashion to produce clothing lines at breakneck speed fulfil demands of the
consumers (Zamani, Sandin and Peters, 2017). The rise of fast fashion in the global fashion
industry can be attributed to demand for cheap clothes and globalization enabling creation of
international supply chain and access to cheap labour and materials in developing countries. Fast
fashion has an extreme impact on environment, labour exploitation and animal harm with
significant contribution to climate change. This essay looks at the ways in which fast fashion
drives climate change and leads to environmental damage.
MAIN BODY
After food and construction industry, fast fashion has gained the third rank in term of
industries which cause global pollution on a large scale. The fast fashion industry releases 1.2
tons of carbon dioxide per year which is more than even the shipping and aviation industry
(Shukla, 2022). These global carbon dioxide emissions can be attributed to the fast fashion
supply chain which involves number of steps from growing fibres, making yarn, weaving and
knitting, processing fabric (dying, printing, finishing and washing), sewing, sourcing and
management and the final step retail sale of the product to the consumer. Complicated and
lengthy supply chain of fast fashion prioritizes cost reduction and speeding up time of production
to capitalize on latest fashion trends (Teona, Ko and Kim, 2020). In this way fast fashion
encourages ignorance towards environmental issues and concerns which leads to climate change.
An important characteristic of fast fashion is that it offers thousands of clothing styles
and garment lines for different consumers, which encompass all ages, cultures and trends. This is
and advantage of fast fashion which had made it popular on a global scale. The negative impact
of this key feature of fast fashion on the environment is that it has increased apparel consumption
and production (Camargo, Pereira and Scarpin, 2020). The average person in the current age
buys 60% more garments compared to the 2000. The enhanced pace of manufacturing in the fast
fashion industry harms the environment as the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of global
carbon emissions (THE WORLD BANK, 2019). The primary reason behind climate change is
rise in carbon emission which is now accelerated because of the fast fashion industry.
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The extreme negative impact of fast fashion stems from the usage of cheap synthetic
materials and toxic textile dyes in most of the products which cause high damage to the
environment. It is because of fast fashion that many daily use garments are composed of
synthetic fibres such as Nylon. The usage of low quality material and dyes drives climate change
by increase quick abandonment of newly purchased fashion products and increasing
consumption and manufacturing at fast rate (Klepp and Tobiasson, 2022.). In addition to this
usage of synthetic materials and toxic dyes has more direct impact on climate change as 342
billion tonnes of oil is used in production of synthetic fibre (Climate Council, 2021). This
showcases that the production of fast fashion is rooted in usage of fossil fuel which is the main
factor increasing global carbon emission harming ecosystem and rising temperature of the earth.
Therefore, fast fashion brands such as H&M, Misguided, SHEIN, Zara, Boohoo etc. are directly
linked with increasing global temperature and accelerating the process of climate change.
A characteristic of fast fashion which has made the industry such large component of the
global fashion industry is that it makes trendy fashion more accessible to middle class and lower
class groups across the world (Heuer and Becker-Leifhold, 2018). Online fast fashion sites such
as Boohoo and Misguided are particularly profitable because of their frequent sales and
availability of latest trendy products at low price. This is an advantageous feature of digital fast
fashion brands winch is enabled by the usage of big data to search for latest profitable trends and
offer consumers cheap versions of latest trends through online channels. This advantage of fast
fashion resulted in rise of online fashion shopping £2.7 billion during the pandemic
(Econsultancy, 2022). However, better accessibility provided by fast fashion digital brands such
as Booohoo, Misguided and Shein comes with a huge environmental cost.
UK based digital fast fashion brands such as Boohoo, ASOS and Misguided have
negatively impacted the environment on a drastic level when compared to physical fashion or
fast fashion enterprises. In 2018 the British government conducted an enquiry on fast fashion
brands to evaluate their impact on sustainability and rise in carbon footprint. Many digital fast
fashion brands of United Kingdom including Boohoo, Amazon UK and Misguided did not sign
up to targets set by the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) to reduce their carbon, water
and waste footprint (Petter, 2019). This inquiry highlighted the unsustainable of fast fashion
brands specifically digital fast fashion brands such as they make the maxim profit from fast
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fashion while taking minimum steps towards reducing environmental harm. In this way fast
fashion brand create a globally unsustainable industry leading to higher rate of climate change.
Instant gratification of consumers a the receive the latest fashion trends popular on social
media along with democratization of clothing are another aspect of fast-fashion clothing which
supports its popularity. Fast fashion has made fashion more democratic by supplying chap
clothing options in thousands of styles for every age group and consumer segment (Miotto and
Youn, 2020). In the current age where fashion is considered a mode of expression instead of
simple garment, fast fashion provides consumers opportunity for indulging in purchase of the
latest fashion micro trend to get quick fulfilment. This advantage of fast fashion has made it
popular among younger social media savvy consumers who are more aware of climate change
and unsustainability of fast fashion. Despite the positive psychological impact of fast fashion on
consumers, it creates serious environmental issue by advancing climate change.
The rise in climate change because of fast fashion creates an existential threat for all of
humanity which is extremely important compared to the consumer advantages of fast fashion.
The waste problem created by fast fashion links this industry with climate change, global
warming, ecosystem damage, global pollution, animal harm and habitat loss. Fats fashion items
equivalent to a garbage truck are dumped in landfills or burned every second (BUSINESS
INSIDER, 2019). This statistic shows the harmful impact of fast fashion on the environment as it
reduces opportunity to recycle or reuse products while promoting unsustainable waste
management at large scale. In addition to this, the fast fashion industry also introduces large
amount of micro-plastics in water and air. In this way the fast fashion industry ensures
continuous pollution from its stating stage of growing fibre which uses large amount of water to
its final stage of wastage by realising large amount of plastic waste (Roozen and Raedts, 2020).
This makes climate change rapid as pollution leads to loss of greenery which is needed for
cooling the atmosphere and fighting global warming.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that fast fashion need to be made more sustainable
as it plays a crucial role in advancing climate change. Despite offering many advantages such as
affordable clothing, thousands of trendy clothing lines, better accessibility, democratization of
fashion and instant gratification fast fashion is a grave vexation as it creates a grave threat for
future of humanity by accelerating climate change. The complex and profit focused supply chain
of fast fashion ignores climate change concerns. In addition to this fast fashion contributes
significantly to global carbon emissions and uses fossil fuels to produce synthetic garments. Fast
fashion also creates large amount of waste which is treated in an unsustainable manner which
includes burning and landfills. This pollutes the environment and leads to global warming and
climate change. In this way a highly unsustainable global industry is created because of fast
fashion and drastic improvements need to be made to make this industry more sustainable so that
existential threat related to concerned industry can be protected.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Camargo, L. R., Pereira, S. C. F. and Scarpin, M. R. S., (2020). Fast and ultra-fast fashion supply
chain management: an exploratory research. International Journal of Retail &
Distribution Management, 48(6). pp.537-553. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/ijrdm-04-
2019-0133
Heuer, M. and Becker-Leifhold, C. eds., (2018). Eco-friendly and fair: fast fashion and
consumer behaviour. Routledge. doi:https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351058353
Klepp, I. G. and Tobiasson, T. S. eds., (2022). Local, Slow and Sustainable Fashion: Wool as a
Fabric for Change. Springer Nature. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88300-3
Miotto, G. and Youn, S., (2020). The impact of fast fashion retailers' sustainable collections on
corporate legitimacy: Examining the mediating role of altruistic attributions. Journal of
Consumer Behaviour, 19(6). pp.618-631. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.1852
Roozen, I. and Raedts, M., (2020). The power of negative publicity on the fast fashion
industry. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 11(4). pp.380-396.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2020.1798802
Teona, G., Ko, E. and Kim, S. J., (2020). Environmental claims in online video advertising:
effects for fast-fashion and luxury brands. International Journal of Advertising, 39(6).
pp.858-887. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2019.1644144
Zamani, B., Sandin, G. and Peters, G. M., (2017). Life cycle assessment of clothing libraries: can
collaborative consumption reduce the environmental impact of fast fashion?. Journal of
cleaner production, 162(1). pp.1368-1375.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.128
Online
BUSINESS INSIDER (2019)
The fashion industry emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping
combined. Here are the biggest ways it impacts the planet. Available at:
https://www.businessinsider.in/slideshows/miscellaneous/the-fashion-industry-emits-
more-carbon-than-international-flights-and-maritime-shipping-combined-here-are-the-
biggest-ways-it-impacts-the-planet-/slidelist/71640838.cms (Assessed: 29 June 2022 )
Climate Council (2021) FAST FASHION NEEDS TO SLOW FOWN FOR THE CLIMATE.
Available at: https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/fast-fashion-climate-change/
(Assessed: 1 July 2022 )
Econsultancy (2022) Stats round-up: the impact of Covid-19 on e-commerce. Available at:
https://econsultancy.com/stats-roundup-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-ecommerce/
(Assessed: 29 June 2022 )
Petter, O. (2019) 'FAST FASHION: BOOHOO AND MISSGUIDED AMONG WORST
OFFENDERS IN SUSTAINABILITY INQUIRY', Independent, 30 January. Available
at: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/fast-fashion-boohoo-missguided-
brands-sustainability-environmental-audit-committee-2019-a8754496.html (Assessed:
28 June 2022 )
Shukla, N. (2022) 'Fast Fashion Pollution and Climate Change', EARTH.ORG, 21 February.
Available at:
https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/harvard-website-reference/#:~:text=To
%20reference%20a%20website%20in,which%20you%20accessed%20the
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%20website.&text=Author%20surname%2C%20initial.,Accessed%3A%20Day
%20Month%20Year). (Assessed: 1 July 2022 )
THE WORLD BANK (2019) How Much Do Our Wardrobes Cost to the Environment?.
Available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/09/23/costo-moda-
medio-ambiente#:~:text=Every%20year%20the%20fashion%20industry,needs%20of
%20five%20million%20people.&text=The%20fashion%20industry%20is
%20responsible,flights%20and%20maritime%20shipping%20combined. (Assessed: 30
June 2022 )
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