Editor’s Note: This post was originally written by Daniel Andrew at http://longbottomline.com/ and has been reprinted with the permission of the author. 

In many ways, the idea of sustainable fashion is a bit of an oxymoron – fashion is largely trend-based and seasonal, and increasingly, being made as cheaply as possible to promote frequent or volume purchases, and to allow consumers to stay on trend and season. As a result, our purchasing decisions can influence a number of detrimental impacts, both environmentally and socially, as we vote with our wallets. However, there are a growing number of companies out there who are challenging the status quo. In this post, I hope to provide you with some ideas on how you can consider sustainability in your clothing purchase decisions. But first, the issues:

Working standards

You have probably heard at one point or another, stories about various manufactures using sweat shop and/or child labour in the production of their products. These issues are brought to light when journalists investigate practices of large multi-nationals that have thousands of shareholders and employees, significant market share and a massive environmental and social footprint as a byproduct. However, these same factories and same conditions are used by countless other manufacturers of clothing and other goods. The devastating recent news of the factory collapse in Bangladesh, for example, sheds light on some of the other companies that are supporting poor working standards by not taking a more active role in understanding the end-to-end impact of their supply chains.

Environmental degradation

A post about sustainable fashion would not be complete without a look at the environmental impact of the fashion industry:

• Factory emissions – manufacturing facilities operate on electricity, and depending on what is used to power these facilities, manufacturing in different parts of the world will result in worse air pollution levels and contribution to global warming. For example, the energy mix used in generating electricity in China is contributes approximately 7.5 times more carbon into the atmosphere than Ontario, Canada does, for every kilowatt hour of electricity used. Why? Because coal plants are prevalent in China and Ontario uses a large amount of hydro-electricity.
• Growing cotton – cotton is a resource-intensive crop both in terms of water required to cultivate it, as well as the degradation of the land and soil it sits on through the use of pesticides and over farming.
• Amount of waste – according to Eco Fashion Week, North Americans throw away more than 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per person every year! After the degradation of points 1 and 2 above, these materials often end up in a landfill to make room for more disposable fashion.

These are only some of the environmental and social issues faced by the fashion industry.

What can I do?

While the picture above seems fairly bleak, there are a number of steps you can take to consider the impacts of your purchase decisions.

1. Read the label. Where was this garment made? Keep in mind that the rules around labeling clothing are somewhat grey, and even something labeled as Made in the USA or Made in Canada might just mean that the garment was assembled in North America.
2. Visit the company’s website. At the bare minimum, do they have a sustainability policy or strategy? Companies that care about this stuff will communicate this.
3. Consider the materials. Some materials have inherently preferable environmental properties than others. Organic materials don’t use pesticides in their cultivation. Others are made from rapidly renewable resources or do not require intensive irrigation – bamboo, tencel and lyocell fall under this category.
4. Shop ethical. There are a number of online marketplaces and retailers that serve the North American market to promote sustainable and ethical brands. I have included a short list below!

Where to buy sustainable clothing

Modavanti.com

With it’s fashion-first approach, Modavanti.com is the premier online destination for sustainable fashion. All of its brand partners must comply with a sustainability threshold that outlines appropriate ethical labour and environmental preservation practices. Modavanti.com also donates 2% of every sale to impact partners who are helping to change the worst practices within the fashion industry. 

Two Birds Apparel

Two Birds Apparel is a new Canadian online retailer of bamboo/cotton blend basics aimed at bridging the gap between fashion and sustainable business practices like local manufacturing, bike courier deliveries, an end-of-life product recycling initiative and charitable donations to the David Suzuki Foundation. The company is also working with LA-based Sires Crown to sell handcrafted wooden eyewear. Sires Crown plants trees with Trees for the Future for every pair of glasses sold. 

Editor’s Note: This post was originally written by Daniel Andrew at http://longbottomline.com/ and has been reprinted with the permission of the author.