THE POWER OF THE CONSUMER: KNOWING YOUR IMPACT

Cataloging human’s damage to the ecosystem is the easy part. Implementing practical changes that can have a global impact is near impossible. Every change towards sustainability in industries is a positive move, but to generate the changes necessary to really stall the damage there needs to be a stronger public will.

As pointed out in Fashion Sustainability customers are the critical drivers for a change in the clothing industry towards sustainability. Customers need to realize the capability of their role in the process as the consumers that empower the clothing industry. It is too easy for companies to deny their responsibility to the planet at the temptation of profits. Pesticide use in growing materials used in clothing production, synthetic materials that are not easily degradable used in clothing production, unmanaged product waste, and unfit labor conditions are just a few measures many industries employ to keep the cost of their products down and in the competition of the clothing industry. These measures however, are adding to our ecological footprint. The complexity of the supply chain in clothing production masks the reality of how great a footprint we are really leaving. Fashion Sustainability sets out to provide solutions to these issues and explains very adequately the problems caused by these practices.

The fashion industry is enormous, worth over one trillion dollars worldwide and employing approximately twenty-six million people. Making changes towards sustainability within the industry would be huge in terms of affecting the planet, but the possibility of such changes hinges on the consumers. Customers have to compel industries where they care, in their profits, to demonstrate the intensity and immediacy of the ecological issue. Embedding sustainability along the supply chain by compelling brands to only work with companies that employ a certain standard of ecological awareness.

This restructure of the manufacturing process will make global changes. The manufacturing process is very spread out, with each step occurring in different areas around the world. Consumers driving brands to change has a trickle down affect world wide from the nature of the production process alone.

Consumers too share a part in sustainability beyond driving industries to change. The use of energy in clothing care has a significant impact on the ecological footprint of the clothing industry as well, up to eighty percent precisely. It is little things like washing temperatures that make the difference in the aftermath of our habits. These details seem obsolete as causes in the ecological crisis, but that is exactly the why the demand for awareness is so crucial. People need to become more educated how their individual choices have a direct effect on the future of the planet down to something as small as brand of washer one uses. 

BE INFORMED.. BE RESPONSIBLE..

The United Nations called for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2001 to assess the consequences of the changes in ecosystems on human well being. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was charged with finding how ecosystems and their services have changed, what has caused these changes, how these changes affect humans well being, and what options exists for the conservation of the environment. The assessment included developing four global scenarios for the future changes in the environment. 


After collecting data for four years and considering realistic predictions for the future conditions of the environment the main findings were clear in pointing out that the significant changes in policies, institutions and practices that are necessary for reversing the degradation mankind continues to cause on the environment were not and ARE NOT underway. 


We together globally are not meeting our responsibility to the planet. Humans continue to sustain increasing numbers of people and complex societies on limited resources. The neglect of awareness for the affect of humans on earth is shocking in light of the obvious changes around us. Over the past fifty years humans have had a greater effect on the earth than in any comparable time in human history. The impact of such advance has left a diminishing resource base to support our future. Approximately sixty percent of the earth’s ecosystem services, benefits people obtain from ecosystems, are being degraded. Any change in an ecosystem ripples into the complex communities interacting in the environment, together working as a functioning unit. The harmful effects of this degradation are borne by the impoverished disproportionately, creating divergent factions in societies organizations.  The situation of ‘group conflict’ distracts from the reality of the interconnectedness of humans. The earth is being depleted and the availability for resources being exhausted threatens the livelihood of ALL humans.


From the demands for food, water, timber, fiber, and fuel to the indirect impact of the development of cities and the subsequent output of pollutants humans must find the right balance with the environment where sustainability outweighs consumption. There must be a consideration for the environment beyond human well being, there must be a consideration for the value of species diversity and ecosystem diversity in every choice and in every action. Consider your own impact and become active in the pursuit of bettering the world surrounding you.