What is the Impact of Sustainable Fashion?

Sustainable fashion is the design, production, distribution, and consumption of clothing that balances the need for affordable, accessible, and trendy style with the imperative to minimise environmental harm and damages and promote social responsibility, ensuring long-term sustainability. Use of eco-friendly materials, textiles, and practices reduces waste in production and distribution, promotes fair labour practices and worker well-being, and promotes timeless designs, transparency, and accountability through supply chain loop production without compromising recycling.  

Significance of Sustainability in the Fashion Industry

Sustainability is crucial for reducing its environmental, social, and economic impacts by implementing a few factors such as: 

1. Reducing waste by promoting recycling programs, upcycling, and repurposing materials and textiles that conserve water consumption and energy-efficient practices. 

1. Minimising transportation emissions and investing in renewable energy sources and sustainable supply chains. 

1. Promoting fair wages and safe working conditions for the employees and practicing diversity and inclusion. 

1. Empowering local artisans, promoting cultural heritage, and contributing to community development. 

1. Encouraging body positivity and marketing and branding diversity. 

1. Adopting product-as-a-service, clothing swaps, rentals, and thrifting products to educate on using eco-friendly consumer behaviour. 

Benefits of Sustainability in Fashion

It enhances brand reputations and improves image and customer loyalty; sustainable practices can reduce production costs, waste, and energy consumption; and educating customers about sustainable fashion practices fosters brand loyalty and advocacy. Meeting sustainability standards and regulations can help fashion brands avoid legal and financial risks. 

Challenges and Opportunities: Higher production costs can be more expensive than traditional methods, facing challenges in the supply chain. Educating the consumers by raising awareness and leveraging technology and innovation can help overcome sustainability challenges and create new opportunities. Key initiatives such as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), and fashion movements promoting transparency and Patagonia, a pioneering outdoor apparel brand committed to environmental responsibility and sustainability. For broder understanding on sustainable initiatives by the UN 17 sustainable development goals kindly browse through the website for a safer environment. 

JD Institute of Fashion Technology focuses on curating a curriculum to promote sustainable designs, materials, textiles, and technologies, considering the environmental and social impact on the fashion industry. Events and workshops on sustainable designs, green fashion shows, collaboration with fashion brands, zero-waste fashion designs, business models, joint research projects with universities and organisations, partnerships with eco-textile suppliers, and sustainable marketing and branding are the top priorities the scholars are emphasising during the course duration.

Sustainable fashion demand is booming among the millennials and Gen Z consumers, where independence and freedom are what they live by, breaking the class barriers, the generation that is loud about their wants and needs. Brands such as Zara, H&M, and ASOS are the targeted brands that have captured the fast fashion industry without burning a hole in their pockets.

The art of facility campus at JD Institute facilitates scholars with sustainable fashion libraries, eco-textile labs, circular resource centres, sustainable seminars, workshops are organised by our team 3Cs’ Conversation, Community and Conference which is an outreach program to promote a learning platform for intellectual, creative and educational discourse program to guide a holistic approach to education beyond the classroom, and a green fashion blog.  

Initiatives taken by our 3c’s team beyond fashion industry focusing on sustainable architecture are IGBC- Indian Green Building Council Hide event, a student chapter launch, Green Building Congress visit happened at BIEC, Ar Neha Vyas, Ms Laura Vicaria CSR manager - MUD Jeans, Nirmal Harindran from The Indian express newspaper etc. 

Expecting a rise in the use of eco-friendly materials, such as recycled polyester and organic cotton, consumers will increasingly expect brands to adopt circular business models and innovative manufacturing technologies enabling a more efficient and sustainable production process. Brands will be held accountable for their sustainability claims, and transparency will become a key differentiating factor. 

Conclusion: Sustainable fashion is effectively growing in the industry as consumers shopping patterns affect its making and production, which retailers and fashion brands can take with regards to fashion management in controlling its impact. Consumers have the power to drastically change and reduce demand.  

Note: The views expressed in this article are that of JD School of Design (Powered by JD Institute) and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha