All eyes are on Glasgow, where the UN Climate Conference COP26, is currently in full swing. Could sustainability watchword ‘de-growth’ be the radical method that changes the fashion industry’s current impact on the planet?
As world leaders, CEOs, brands and sustainability experts discuss ever more urgent measures to take, our climate change anxiety levels are heading off the scale. Fashion has played an epic part in our current planetary disaster zone and while there are a whole host of actions we can take as individuals (‘buy less, choose well, make it last’ is the very *least* we can do) de-growth is a growing movement that could really make a difference to everyone’s future on earth.
What is fashion de-growth?
According to @degrowth.info “De-growth is an idea that critiques the global capitalist system which pursues growth at all costs, causing human exploration and environmental destruction.”
At the moment, and for centuries previously, our personal and economic success has been rated on expansion, growth and wealth. The more we have, the ‘better off’ we are perceived. But, the more we consume, the more damage it can do to the planet and other people. De-growth pushes the opposite of society’s current mind-set.
How come fashion has such a negative impact on the planet?
As brands and economies grow, they need planetary and human resources. They want these as cheaply as possible to maximise profits. But this is an ultra damaging way to do business for the world and those that live in it. Most of fashion’s pollution is emitted during textile manufacture (although washing clothes at home also releases micro-plastics into the seas.) Most brands currently follow a pattern of over-production which leading to garments being incinerated, shredded or sent to landfill. In 2018, one high street brand destroyed around $4.3 billion worth of unsold clothing (and still made mega profits.) The de-growth movement believes that making less product is the way forward and honestly? It’s a no brainer.