With fashion’s ever-increasing demand and natural resources depletion Beautiful Connection Group, sustainable clothing production is an urgent need. Many brands have begun adapting their business models in order to reach this goal.
They use sustainable materials and adhere to ethically responsible standards when selecting local manufacturers and using carbon neutral shipping, thus causing minimal harm to our planet.
1. Eco-friendly materials
Over the past 25 years, activewear manufacturers and apparel production has more than doubled, yet three-quarters end up in landfills. Sustainable brands strive to reduce waste by using long-lasting materials in their clothing manufacturing. One way sustainable brands reduce this waste is through zero waste pattern cutting – for instance designer uses geometric concepts like Tetris to arrange fabric patterns like Tetris in order to eliminate that 15 percent that usually winds up on cutting room floors.
Brands strive to reduce their environmental impact by using organic materials and limiting exposure to potentially dangerous chemicals, solvents, and dyes. Some have even implemented digitally controlled waterless dyeing solutions with digital control that are estimated to reduce energy usage by 95% while also cutting waste disposal pollution levels significantly.
2. Recycled materials
Fashion industry promotes itself as being environmentally-friendly with great gusto; yet despite numerous attempts at reinvention, its carbon footprint remains large.
Fashion brands with frequent collection updates (Zara offers 24 lines annually and H&M 12-16), such as Zara or H&M, often source their materials from developing nations with lax environmental regulations that lack worker protections or who employ workers with minimal pay in unsafe working environments.
Sustainable brands prioritize safe working environments and fair remuneration. Furthermore, they utilize recycled materials such as textiles and plastic that can be broken down for reuse; as well as zero waste manufacturing methods – Oregon-based offers one such manufacturing technique by breaking apart hard-to-recycle plastics at their molecular level and turning them into high grade synthetic oils, chemicals, or other materials for high grade synthetic oils or chemicals production.
3. Repurposed materials
Fashion has an enormous environmental impact. From raw material extraction and use, to shipping (which exceeds all flights and maritime transport combined), the industry is an immense source of pollution.
Polyester fibres derived from crude oil take decades to decompose and release harmful chemicals into the environment, thus endangering human health and harming ecosystems.
Sustainable clothing companies can utilize less polluting fabrics to lower their environmental impact, with deadstock fabric often made up of offcuts, manufacturing scraps and unsold garments – also referred to as “available inventory fabric.” Deadstock fabrics have long been favoured among zero waste fashion labels and upcycled clothing lines alike.
4. Biodegradable materials
Bioplastics provide an eco-friendly alternative to petroleum synthetics by employing natural materials that break down upon exposure to oxygen, UV rays, enzymes, bacteria and water. Bioplastics can be made with corn starch, micro-organisms orange peels or plant waste such as pineapple leaves.
These sustainable fabrics can be grown without pesticides, energy consumption and water usage are decreased and chemical treatment is eliminated, and can even be made using recycled PET threads from old garments or recycled yarns and plastics from PET bottles repurposed into old garments re-using existing supply chains as materials. But more is still required from fashion companies when it comes to providing transparency and accountability from their supply chains.
5. Organic materials
Organic materials are composed of carbon-based compounds found both naturally in nature or manufactured synthetically in laboratories, like grass, wood, roots, bark leaves and flowers to leather fur leather parchment hair wool silk proteinaceous shell parchment etc.
Sustainable fashion brands use technology to precisely plan garment details digitally before printing, eliminating trial-and-error and cutting down waste. Designer uses deadstock fabric (offcuts from manufacturing processes, vintage clothing or unworn clothing – not to be confused with repurposed fabrics) in her designs.
Some designers are also exploring regenerative cotton production, which involves growing it without pesticides, fertilizers, or tilling; instead, cover crops are used to enrich the soil while cover plants help add vitality.
- Fair trade
Many shoppers rely on green labels and certified approvals as assurances that their clothing was produced sustainably, yet certification organizations have been accused of corruption; factories using smaller factories as cover have even been caught faking production that meets certification standards to meet certification criteria.
Conclusion
Ethical manufacturing encompasses multiple facets, from fair wage compensation and healthy work environments, to eliminating forced and child labour. Furthermore, energy-efficient processes and carbon neutral shipping partners are crucial elements to sustainability; shipping is the biggest culprit when it comes to creating emissions; yet some brands have found ways to lower their shipping footprint using recycled packaging and biofuel.
