The UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the foundation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all member states of the United Nations in 2015, with the aim of achieving prosperity for the planet and people, with the goal of promoting global equality, biodiversity and general well-being. Fashion is one of the industries with the greatest environmental and social impact in the world, and it is vital that companies understand the steps they should take in the face of the Sustainable Development Goals in order to comply with the temporary borders set by the United Nations. With this in mind, this research screened out several goals most relevant to the fashion textile industry, and briefly outlined how these goals relate to industry issues as a response to the following discussion of sustainable fashion.

The first goal of sustainable development is to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. Most workers in the fashion industry are located in developing countries, where laws governing labor activities favor systemic poverty. According to a study by the Deloitte Foundation (Oxfam), only 4% of the price of a piece of clothing goes to the manufacturer, so if fashion brands are willing to pay a fair wage, it could be enough to improve global poverty levels. This significance is closely related to the eighth goal: promoting decent work and economic growth.

• To help achieve this, brands can confirm that workers in the supply chain are being paid fairly.

Manufacturing is one of the industries prone to modern slavery, employing more than 300 million people in global value chains, most of whom are women as garment workers. Most workers experience poor working conditions and are made even more insecure by extremely low wages, forced overtime, child labor, pregnancy discrimination, and physical and verbal abuse. However, most fashion brands outsource manufacturing to factories in developing countries, and companies often do not know how much clothing workers earn. And gender inequality appears to be one of the least addressed issues in the industry.

• Therefore, as a fashion company, a business must be concerned with establishing and safeguarding the rights and interests of its employees in its supply chain.

Textiles are a water-intensive industry, using water at almost all stages of the manufacturing process. In fact, wastewater pollution caused by textile dyeing and finishing can be seen everywhere. It is estimated that more than 80% of wastewater produced by human activities is discharged into rivers and oceans without treating the pollution. That is to say, if the untreated wastewater is discharged into the fresh water circuit used by people's livelihood, the final drinking water of the residents of the town will be polluted.

•  As a textile company, the business must identify improvements to wastewater discharge, practice water management, monitor progress and produce comparable results.

With increasing demand for the latest apparel and changing trends, brands today release multiple collections in a month to keep up with social media consumer mindset trends, rather than quarterly releases in the past. However, clothing consumption today is 400% higher than it was 20 years ago, and the frequency of use is halved. Greenpeace estimates that 20% of the clothes we buy are not even worn once, with an average of four wears per product. Such figures remind us to reflect: Is there a surplus of clothing production and demand now? Brands and consumers may both be held responsible for the environmental and social consequences of the fashion industry.

• Brand companies may be able to more accurately assess the resources required for development and reduce overproduction, so as to meet demand and prevent waste. To actually achieve this change, brands must lead consumers to work together.

The over-expansion of the fashion industry makes "making change for climate change" one of the most important goals. According to a report published by the United Nations, 8 percent of global carbon emissions come from the fashion industry, a figure that could jump to 26 percent in the next 30 years, with the majority of carbon dioxide emissions coming from clothing production. Today, it is necessary to find innovative solutions that can be inserted into the supply chain and reduce CO2 emissions. The linear production systems of the past, the high complexity of the supply chain, led to the depletion of the planet’s natural resources, global warming and the unsustainable environmental impact of high waste production.

•  In order to greatly reduce the exhaust gas emissions caused by the production of textile and fashion industry, brand enterprises should transform to use renewable energy, and improve the energy efficiency and reuse of their supply chain, especially in the most critical areas such as raw material extraction or wet process…etc. In addition to this, it is also necessary to minimize the carbon footprint of the shipping and packaging process. Brands should focus on researching the properties of the materials used in their products and assessing their impact will be able to develop actions to reduce their carbon footprint.

In addition to the potential contamination of water by chemicals in the textile dyeing and finishing process, marine life can also be affected by the movement of textiles from microplastics released during laundry washing. According to a UN report, textiles account for 9% of marine microplastics each year.

• In the manufacturing process of apparel products, in the process stages such as laser cutting, material coating and fabric pre-washing, some technologies using synthetic materials may be transformed into solutions to reduce the release of microfibers throughout their service life .

The fashion industry also has a great impact on the health of biodiversity, including deforestation, intensive use of chemicals to extract raw materials from the land, excessive consumption of natural resources, and increased textile waste caused by overproduction of clothing, which in turn affects terrestrial ecosystems. influences.

• Corporate brands should analyze and evaluate the life cycle of products from a holistic perspective, and make more responsible decisions from commodity supply, processing and waste disposal.

Realizing that the fashion industry is involved in achieving the SDGs is a big step in the transformation of the textile industry. However, how can we make a difference in response to these goals? While not all of this is directly applicable to the fashion textile industry itself, proactive measures taken by brands themselves, supply chains and even consumers could contribute to achieving these goals by 2030.