Fashion shows captivate us with their allure and artistic ingenuity, yet concealed beneath the glitz is a sobering reality – the industry’s substantial environmental impact. In recent times, the fashion world has faced mounting scrutiny for its colossal carbon footprint. Let’s delve into some eye-opening statistics that unveil this issue.
The Figures: In a comprehensive study spanning a 12-month period, commencing with the Spring/Summer 2018 season, researchers uncovered a staggering revelation – the fashion industry gave rise to an immense 241,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
This daunting carbon footprint resulted from activities like air travel, accommodation, intercity transportation, and the logistics of transporting collections for approximately 11,000 retail buyers and 5,000 designers.
Impact of fashion shows
The industry as a whole has come under scrutiny in recent years for its huge environmental footprint, be it through resource use, pollution or unsustainable materials. But one element that is somewhat overlooked is the impact of the many shows themselves.
And there are many – while London, Milan, Paris, New York make up the ‘big four’, there are many more in other cities, including major trade shows in Copenhagen, Tokyo and Seoul. Not to mention that womenswear and menswear often have different collections for both the Spring/Summer season and another for Fall/Winter, as well as Pre-Fall and Resort lines.
The report researched by Carbon Trust & ORDRE on the emissions generated from the business travel of designers and buyers attending fashion weeks and collections in a year revealed: In the 12 months starting from the Spring/Summer 2018 season, a total of 241,000 tonnes of carbon emissions were created from air travel, accommodation, intercity travel and the transportation of collections by roughly 11,000 individual retail buyers and 5,000 designers.
That’s more than the 2017 greenhouse gas emissions of Saint Kitts and Nevis (238,000 tCO2e), and would be enough to light up Times Square, New York City for 58 years.
The following chart shows that New York was the city whose fashion weeks had the worst environmental impact worldwide, responsible for 60,000 tCO2e that year alone, followed by Paris with 45,000 tCO2e and London with 28,000 tCO2e. The average carbon footprint for a buyer is 12.1 tCO2e while the average footprint for a designer employee is 7.6 tCO2e.
According to the report, these are even likely conservative estimates, considering the fact the research only focused on the travel emissions associated with the commercial aspects of fashion weeks and collections, i.e. the movements of designers and buyers, rather than all other groups such as the media and influencers.
A separate report by McKinsey research states: The fashion industry carries a significant environmental burden, accounting for approximately 2.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2018.
This amounted to roughly 4 percent of the total global GHG emissions. To put this into perspective, the fashion sector’s annual GHG emissions equaled the combined emissions of entire economies, such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
What can be done?
This report has fuelled already mounting global pressure to improve the sustainability of the fashion industry. While there’s still some way to go, the calls have been heeded by many companies.
There has been a shift towards sustainability. For example, London Fashion Week June 9-12 is a hybrid of both online and real life, while Copenhagen Fashion Week introduced a number of requirements around the business practices and materials designers must abide by in order to be included in the show.
There are several steps to improve the emissions generated in future years, including avoiding flying business class which has a higher carbon footprint per passenger than economy class, seeking to combine long distance trips, choosing to travel by train rather than flying where possible and combining seasons and collections.
The scope of the research included travel to and from fashion weeks, travel within cities during fashion weeks, staff accommodation, and the transportation of collections, including at collections in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Auckland, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Florence, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Madrid, Munich, Naples, Seoul, Shanghai, Stockholm, Tokyo and Zurich.
Let’s rally behind sustainable fashion choices and actively contribute to positive change! Fashion possesses remarkable influence, and by embracing sustainability, it can shape not only fashion trends but also a more sustainable future.
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