CSR In The Fashion Industry

One image just disrupted a £22 billion fashion empire more effectively than a thousand sustainability reports. 🔥 This isn't an official SHEIN campaign gone wrong. It's artist Emanuele Morelli's AI creation—a haunting visualisation showing what fast fashion's "affordability" really costs us. The image speaks volumes: a SHEIN billboard where the model's flowing dress transforms into a cascade of textile waste. Art communicating what statistics alone cannot. 5 uncomfortable truths this image forces us to confront: 1. The scale of fashion waste is staggering → 92 million tonnes of textile waste produced annually  → The equivalent of one rubbish lorry of textiles dumped every second  → Most fast fashion items designed to be worn fewer than 10 times 2. The business model depends on our amnesia → Constantly changing trends keep us buying  → Ultra-low prices remove financial friction  → Digital marketing creates artificial scarcity and FOMO  → We're trained to forget yesterday's purchases 3. The true cost isn't on the price tag → Environmental damage from production chemicals  → Microplastics shedding into water systems  → Supply chain ethics compromised for speed and cost  → Communities near production sites bearing health consequences 4. Our definition of "affordable" is broken → When clothing is cheaper than a coffee, someone else is paying  → True cost spread across communities, environments, and future generations  → Psychological cost of constant consumption never factored in 5. Solutions exist but require systemic change → Circular fashion models gaining traction  → Rental and resale markets growing rapidly  → Consumer awareness rising but needs to translate to behaviour While SHEIN isn't the only culprit in the fast fashion ecosystem, Morelli's artwork throws a spotlight on an uncomfortable reality we've normalised. What we wear reflects our values more than our taste. What is your wardrobe saying about yours? Image: Emanuele Morelli ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost to share with your network.  ⚡ Want more content like this? Hit follow Maya Moufarek.

Every 10 minutes, 6,000kg of clothes are thrown away in Australia 🌎 Most of this waste ends up in landfill, underscoring the urgent need for systemic change in the fashion industry. Fast fashion’s model of high-volume production and short product lifecycles drives unsustainable resource consumption and significant environmental harm. The production of clothing demands extensive water, energy, and raw materials, yet much of it is discarded within a year. This linear approach to fashion—produce, consume, dispose—leads to inefficiencies and growing environmental costs that recycling alone cannot resolve. Transforming the industry requires ambitious solutions: embedding circular principles into design, prioritizing durability and repairability, and fostering resource-efficient production. A shift toward responsible consumption, combined with robust policies and corporate accountability, can reduce waste and extend the lifecycle of materials. The transition to a circular and regenerative model is not only a necessity but also an opportunity. It can drive innovation, conserve natural resources, and position the industry as a leader in addressing global sustainability challenges. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #climatechange #climateaction #circular

Human rights violations and abusing natural resources go hand-in-hand in the fashion industry. #SHEIN is trending (yet again) for reported inhumane working conditions. Laborers in their Chinese factories are putting in 75+ hour work weeks, with minimal to no breaks, AND not making a living wage. Their environmental impact is also astounding, with up to 10,000 new items dropped online DAILY (per NPR). Made of materials like polyester, nylon, and acrylic, they’re mostly synthetic—AKA partially plastic and fossil-fueled. When washed, these fibers leach microplastics and end up in our waterways and ocean. And many low-quality items end up in landfills and contribute to the global waste crisis (there is an entire landfill in Chile of unused, discarded clothing). Zara, H&M, Forever 21, and more fast fashion leaders are guilty of similar injustices, but this issue goes beyond low-cost brands. Luxury fashion is no exception to the greater problem at hand. One of the largest global luxury fashion houses, LVMH and its Italian subsidiary Loro Piana sell garments made of the finest wool for a fortune. Just one Vicuña coat goes for $30,000+ USD. But they’re profiting off the backs of skilled Indigenous laborers who’ve been herding Vicuñas in the Andes Mountains for centuries. These artisan workers are expected to sheer the camelids for them FOR FREE in what’s being called quiet slavery. The most recent Peruvian poverty survey found 41% of the local population lives on less than $91 USD a month and survives mostly on farming. Truly unconscionable. Moral of the story? Fast fashion or luxury fashion, synthetic fibers or the most expensive natural fiber on Earth… You could unknowingly be contributing to the interwoven problem of human rights & natural resource abuses. So what’s the solution? Fashion industry reformation. Platforms and brands have a role to play moving forward, and consumers deserve transparency. We need to know about working conditions and materials, so we can support brands paving the way for equitable, sustainable practices. Not sure where to start? Some reputable resources for the conscious consumer include Good On You, Conscious Fashion Collective, Bluebird Climate (powered by rePurpose Global), Delve, and more. Let’s use our collective purchasing power to spark change! (Pictured: the massive clothing landfill enveloping and polluting Chile’s Atacama Desert) #FastFashion #FashionIndustry #ConsciousConsumer #HumanRights #EnvironmentalJustice

Using pineapple leaves to save the planet, here's how you can change what you wear every day. From Waste to Wardrobe! Piñatex, developed by Dr. Carmen Hijosa, an eco-friendly leather alternative is made from pineapple leaf fibers. Here are the key benefits of Piñatex. Ready to embrace sustainable fashion? • Made from agricultural waste (pineapple leaves). • Biodegradable and eco-friendly. • Durable and versatile. • Requires no additional land, water, or pesticides. • Utilizes about 40,000 tonnes of pineapple leaf waste annually. • Each square meter prevents 12kg of CO2 emissions. • Uses 97% less water compared to traditional leather production. The production process involves: • Extracting fibers from pineapple leaves. • Felting them with corn-based polylactic acid (PLA). • Finishing the material with colors and coatings. Major companies like Hugo Boss, Nike, H&M, and Chanel have adopted Piñatex for footwear, clothing, and accessories, but so far only for special limited editions or experimental designs rather than full-scale adoption across their product lines. But this tech is not yet perfect • Not fully biodegradable (95% biodegradable!) due to PLA and polyurethane coatings. • Limited lifespan compared to traditional leather. Ongoing research aims to address these issues and improve sustainability. Step by Step. Changing what we wear has a huge impact: 1. The fashion industry is the second largest consumer of water globally, using about 79 trillion liters of water per year. This massive water usage depletes freshwater and groundwater resources, especially in water-scarce regions. 2. Textile production is responsible for approximately 20% of global industrial water pollution. The wet processing stage, which includes dyeing and finishing fabrics, releases toxic chemicals, heavy metals, and dyes into waterways. 3. This also affects our health! Contaminated water sources can lead to various health issues in local communities, including skin and stomach infections, cancer, and reproductive problems. As we are changing what we wear when using more sustainable materials, we can play a crucial role in reducing environmental impact and promoting circular economy principles in fashion. ♻️ Repost this if you want your network to learn more about sustainable clothes for every day use and how we can create a better planet for all of us! Follow Dr. Martha Boeckenfeld to Unlock Your Future.

Patagonia has finally admitted they do greenwhashing. Yesterday, Patagonia published its first-ever environmental report — and it starts with a disarming sentence: “Nothing we do is sustainable.” As The Business of Fashion notes, the report is both a scorecard and a confession. Despite its decades of activism, Patagonia admits it cannot fully control its factories, supply chains, or the lifetime of its products. It has fought oil pipelines, yet a lot of its garments still rely on fossil-based materials. It promotes repair and resale, yet less than 1% of its products ever return for recycling. Why is Patagonia not sustainable? Because it: 1) does not own its factories and cannot control energy sources or working methods, 2) cannot fully oversee global supply chains, 3) has historically used harmful chemicals, 4) despite powerful ads "Don't buy this jacket", it cannot control consumer behaviour, including demand for merchandise that often becomes waste - and that they've produced historically. These structural limits mirror the findings of our study: even well-intentioned brands face systemic barriers — and often fall silent about the most difficult issues, especially overproduction. This paradox is precisely what we examined in our recent paper: Hejlová, D., Ariestya, A., Koudelková, P., & Schneiderová, S. (2025). Strategic silence in corporate communication concerning deadstock and overstock in the fashion industry. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 30(2), 294–312. https://lnkd.in/eXN489ya https://lnkd.in/eAi43tvH Patagonia’s statement is not simply an honest admission — it is an overdue acknowledgment that the brand has long presented a more sustainable image than its operations could truly support, a pattern our research identifies across the industry.

The impact of global warming is so severe that fashion shows are now being held on landfills in Chile and it's turning heads for all the right reasons. The sad truth about fashion industry is that we're overwhelmed with discarded clothing. Globally, we produce 100 billion garments every year but recycle only 1% into new clothes. The rest end up in landfills, incinerators, or illegally dumped in natural environments. Chile's Atacama Desert has become a showcase of this problem. Each year, 60,000 tons of used clothing arrive in Chile, with 39,000 tons finding their way to this desert wasteland. It's a stark reminder of our throwaway culture. But amidst this sea of waste, creativity bloomed. Recently, models strutted down a "runway" of discarded clothing, wearing outfits crafted from the waste beneath their feet. The good news is that change is on the horizon. The circular economy is gaining momentum, with the secondhand apparel market growing 18% in 2023 - that's 15 times faster than the broader retail clothing sector! As business leaders, we have the power to accelerate this shift. Here's how we can start- 1️⃣ Circular design- Build products for easy repair, recycling, and modularity, with take-back programs to extend life. 2️⃣ Recycling tech- Invest in advanced recycling and closed-loop systems to reuse materials. 3️⃣ Consumer education- Offer clear labels and interactive tools to teach about product lifecycles. 4️⃣ Secondhand partnerships- Create resale platforms and incentivize returns for refurbishment or recycling. 5️⃣ Support circular policies- Advocate for laws that promote circular practices and standardized recycling. Are you ready to make a difference in fashion? Share how you're doing it below! #circulareconomy #sustainability #environment #fashion

This lady raised $15Mn to stop our jeans polluting water (Levi's are on board) Sarah Bellos had a revelation while working with farmers in Tennessee. Synthetic dyes in fashion are a big problem: ↳ 20% of global water pollution comes from textile dyeing ↳ 90% of clothing dyes contain petrochemicals ↳ One pair of jeans can contaminate multiple gallons of water Instead of accepting this... She founded Stony Creek Colors to create a 'natural' dye Her idea: a) Partner with tobacco farmers facing declining markets b) Help them transition to growing high-yield indigo crops c) Own the whole supply chain to ensure best practices (from seed to dye) d) Develop a novel extraction process without harmful chemicals The impact is significant: ↳ Created IndiGold - world's first natural liquid indigo ↳ Eliminated 2,000+ restricted substances from the dyeing process ↳ Reduced carbon footprint by 20% compared to synthetic indigo The fashion industry took notice: ↳ $4.8 million investment led by Levi Strauss & Co. ↳ J.Crew, Patagonia, and Lucky Brand adopted their dyes ↳ 30+ farmers transitioned from tobacco to regenerative indigo farming From a vision to transform toxic dye practices... ...to revolutionising how our clothes get their color. Are you a fan?

It's very simple: Today’s fashion system is oversized and only a really ambitious policy mix is going to change that. That's the basic premise behind the recent work of the Hot or Cool Institute, a project that has culminated in a series of policy briefs presenting interventions that address the structural lock-ins driving overproduction and overconsumption in the fashion sector. "Oversized" - what a brilliant way of putting it. Policy for fashion to date, Hot or Cool argues, has been focused on efficiency measures and product-level improvements, which will likely fail to deliver reduced environmental impacts, due to the presence of rebound effects in which growth in overall consumption and production volumes negates such efficiency gains. Examples include measures such as encouraging better product design, regulating waste, improving recycling and collection systems, or banning the destruction of unsold goods. While important, these interventions treat symptoms rather than addressing root causes, it explains. Instead, in “Resizing the Fashion System”, the non-profit organisation calls for transformative policies that fundamentally redesign and disrupt the logic (incentives, norms and assumptions) of the system. It promotes a push towards sufficiency strategies instead - that being “a set of measures and daily practices that avoid the demand for resources (energy, materials, land and water) while delivering human wellbeing for all within planetary boundaries. In the context of fashion this means targeting absolute reductions in end textile volumes.” The four policy areas it outlines include: ✅ Reshaping the global fibre market: addressing the market incentives driving the growth in synthetic production and end fossil fuel dependency  ✅ Building fair and equitable value chains: incentivising business models based on fair labour conditions, addressing power dynamics in supply chains and redistribute value  ✅ Reimagining fashion culture: disrupting the advertising business model and fostering non consumerist aspirations  ✅ Designing sustainable e-commerce: regulating the design and shifting the goal of e-commerce platforms from increasing basket size and frequency of purchases to fostering intentional purchasing practices I highly recommend reading all of the papers, link in comments. It was a pleasure to be involved in the development and workshopping of them over the past year. Congratulations to Hedda Roberts, Aimée Aguilar Jaber, Luca Coscieme, Lewis Akenji. Pictured is the systems map developed by Hot or Cool to show the systemic lock-ins driving overproduction and overconsumption in fashion. #fashion #sustainablefashion #ResizingFashion #sufficiency #policy 

Sometimes being proven right is really depressing 🗿 🧵 Back when we started our fossil fashion campaign looking into the rise of synthetic fibres and the links to rising emissions and overproduction/consumption, I was told time and again that all fibres were the problem, and that singling out fibres like polyester was naive. 👚 Fast foward to today, and new research from Apparel Impact Institute reveals that "in 2023, apparel sector emissions increased 7.5 percent from the previous year, to 944 million tonnes (roughly 1.78 percent of global GHG emissions)" and ⚠️ "The primary reason for the increase in emissions is a growth in polyester fiber usage (and ultimately garment production)." ⚠️ 🪡 The report goes on to say that methodological considerations notwithstanding "we assume that the rise of ultra-fast fashion brands is a key contributor to this increase." So while we must work to ensure natural fibres are reduced in impact, plastic fashion is still the engine of emissions, growth and a big cause of fashion's awful consumption and waste problem. 🏭 For our ongoing fashion work at Action Speaks Louder with Ruth MacGilp pushing the industry on clean heat and RE procurment, here's the proof point of why that matters: Tier 2 - textile processing - remains the largest source of emissions (55 percent). This is where fashion's decarbonisation game needs to accelerate. Full report from Aii here: https://lnkd.in/epwmK4A8

Chanel gets into the recycling business with launch of new company.. ♻️ In a surprising move, the French luxury brand launched NEVOLD. The new company will focus on turning leftover fabrics, unsold clothes & old leather into new materials. 🚚 Fashion waste is a HUGE (!) issue. The industry generates around 92 mio tonnes of textile waste annually and luxury brands contribute significantly with billions of dollars in unsold inventory. Nevold, meaning "never old", will be Chanel's B2B play to future-proof their supply chain & promote circularity. It now unites 3 specialist firms that the mega brand has been acquiring since 2019: 1) L'Atelier des Matières: offers recycling & upcycling services for luxury & premium brands 2) FILATURES DU PARC: a spinning mill specialized in recycled yarns 3) Authentic Material: a leather recycling company who breaks down leather into pellets for reuse 🚀 The long-term goal is to produce & sell premium recycled input, not only to Chanel's own studios, but also to external (luxury) brands and sectors like hospitality & sportswear. And the timing is right! 🇪🇺 From 1st of Jan 2025 on, every EU member state must collect textiles separately, a first step towards "Extended Producer Responsibility" fees that will shift disposal costs onto the brands. Imho, companies with in-house recycling capabilities will gain an edge.. 📈 Other luxury groups are pursuing similar strategies: > LVMH launched "LVMH Circularity", which to focus on recycling & managing unsold inventory/production waste. > Kering targets a 40% reduction in environmental footprint by end of this year and aims for half of its materials to align with circular economy principles. ♟ Nevold also fits into Chanel’s practice of buying key suppliers (from embroiderer Lesage to milliner Maison Michel) to lock in scarce skills & materials. ➡️ As regulations tighten & resources become scarcer, the brands that can turn yesterday’s inventory into tomorrow’s fabric will set the pace for the next growth cycle in luxury.