Various forms of plastics are widely used in the apparel industry, for example for affordable’s jeans stretch feel, for a dress’s shimmering effect or for a vest’s waterproofness… This has major consequences from the big carbon footprint in the production chain to an even bigger environmental impact when clothes are disposed, wasted in landfills if they contained plastic, at the end of their lifecycle.
Using recycled plastics as an input to produce apparels is a way to improve the footprint of the industry and, at the same time, will contribute to reaching the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
– (12) Responsible consumption and production: the textiles industry used 98 million tonnes of oil (for production and transport) in 2015 and is expected to increase its consumption to 300 million tonnes in 2050. The use of recycled plastic will help to reduce this amount of oil consumed.
– (13) Climate action: Current share of the textiles industry in the carbon budget was 2% in 2015 but expected to increase to 26% in 2050. Part of this carbon emission is related to the oil consumption, thus plastic in clothing.
– (14) Life below water: Current plastic production emits microfibres that are mostly rejected in waters, among which the oceans. It is expected that an additional 22 million tonnes of microfibres would be added to the oceans between 2015 and 2050.
Therefore, to increase the use of recycled plastic would reduce the consumption of produced plastic but also help to increase the circular aspect of the textile supply chain and reduce the disposal of plastic in the environment.
How do these goals compare to the industry’s current sustainability goals?
The overall fashion industry does not yet have clear sustainability goals. It realized that as
world consumption keeps increasing there is a problem to address. As outlined below, the
energy and natural resources consumption combined with the waste creation would cause
the apparel industry to not only continue being the second most polluting sector but also to
end itself as it won’t have enough resources to sustain.
The sustainable initiative is this in its first stage “awareness”: companies are currently
gathering under the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and attempting to follow supply chain best
practices outlined by the Higgs Index. However, as the industry is divided into three types of
players, from low end to high end, they each have a different issues and desires for actions.
This diversity of sustainable concerns hinders the industry from moving forward as an allied
group and limits the influence of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. Customers and players still need to be educated; however, high end players would rather not communicate along the same lines, or be included in communications with fast fashion players, to protect their image. Fast fashion players are the most vocal for a sustainable future (they created the Higgs Index and often communicate on green initiative such as organic cotton or recycled fibers) ; however, they are still the most polluting players of the industry, using PVC and nylon in their products and enforcing a very fast product cycle. More precisely, the Higgs Index addresses the goal of responsible production and climate action but does not link it to the life below water initiative and fails to enforce responsible consumption standards.
Is anyone in the world implementing this?
Several initiatives in the apparel, accessories and footwear industry have been implemented and commercialized over the last years. The scale of these are variable, but each shows a possibility of developing commercial products based on recycled plastic products.
(1) Ecoalf
Ecoalf was founded in 2009 by Javier Goyeneche, a Spanish fashion entrepreneur. Ecoalf is committed to design and produce fashionable clothes and accessories that are fully produced using recycled plastic, recycled fishing nets, and to a smaller extent: coffee, wool, and tires. Plastic and fishing nets are sourced through collection programs that have been set up in Spain and in Thailand (so far). Besides the advantage of producing clothes through upcycled raw materials, Ecoalf reports as well as decreased water consumption, energy use, and air pollution. Just for using recycled plastic bottles, the water consumption decreases by 20%, the en ergy use by 50% and the air pollution by 60%.
(2) See2See
See2See was founded by François van den Abeele, a Belgian entrepreneur. It is a strong commitment within the eyewear market, that is nearly using exclusively plastic. See2see is using upcycled fishnets to produce its glasses. The fishnets are collected along the Spanish coasts
by fishermen that collect them accidentally during their fishing. Besides the environmental commitment of doing so, See2See is convinced that commercializing such eyewear will also help to spread the consciousness of the main public about the issue of plastics in the ocean.
(3) Adidas x Parley
Parley for the Oceans is a partnership between experts from various fields that aims to address the major threats towards the oceans. There are several initiatives such as Talks, Collaborative Sessions, and Collaborative Projects. One of them is Adidas x Parley, which the Parley Plastic Ocean™ helps Adidas to design, produce from upcycled plastic and commercialize sneakers and running shoes. This is a particularly interesting project, as it includes a major actor in the apparel industry, Adidas. Thanks to that, it has been used in areas with high visibility, such as producing jerseys for Real Madrid and Bayern Munich with the Parley Plastic Ocean™.
Are the current initiatives in this industry contributing towards achieving your sustainability goals?
The three listed initiatives completely contribute towards achieving the sustainability goals:
– (12) Responsible Consumption and production: Each of the initiatives has both an educational and a responsible production goal. To help consumers think more responsibly about their consumption, Ecoalf develops flagship stores in which you can buy the clothes and accessories but also check books and designed spaces that raise the awareness around plastic and ocean pollution. See2See also educates and advertises that their products are produced by using upcycled plastic and fishnets. Finally, Adidas x Parley uses the Adidas brand to organize events and commercial campaigns that reach a large scale. While Ecoalf and See2See aim at selling recycled products, Adidas is more focused on raising awareness through its Parley initiative than actually selling products from recycled materials and transforming their entire product portfolio. Overall, each of these initiatives helps to move towards more responsible production as they source their raw material in waste discarded in nature.
– (13) Climate action: the used of upcycled and recycled materials as the main row material for their products directly decreases the carbon footprint of the industry, or at least of these players, thus contributing to a better action towards climate change.
– (14) Life below water: the initiatives identified source their upcycled materials partly from plastic found in the coastal areas or in the see which in turns helps to protect the fauna from the oceans. For example, in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre area, 62.5% of the elements found in a sea turtle’s stomach are plastic, with the rest being food. In addition, 84% of the plastic samples from the same area contains at least one chemical pollutant. Plastic in the ocean not only increases pollution, but also directly harm the marine life and its food chain by spreading toxins.
How do financial growth and social/environmental impact form a feedback loop (i.e. the faster the growth, the larger the impact and vice-versa)?
We can identify two types of feedback loops:
– The one where the financial growth is directly linked to the environmental impact: this is particularly the case for Ecoalf and See2See. Both core businesses are based on the use of upcycled and recycled plastics, so the environmental impact, which is the increased upcycling of discarded plastics, is directly correlated with business performance, level of sales. Additionally, both businesses advertise their products as coming from upcycled plastic, which if targeted to an an environment councious audience should positively influence their financial growth. They both target their products for eco-conscious consumers who want to consume eco-consciously, so the more they increase their environmental impact, the biggest traction they will have for this consumer segment, thus the biggest financial growth they will have.
– The one for which the financial growth is indirectly linked to the environmental impact. The commercial success of the Adidas x Parley products will support the development of the Parley initiatives but not Adidas’s overall bottom line, except in its fight against Nike for being the greenest sportswear company. Given Adidas
business’ large scale, the environmental impact of the Adidas x Parley initiatives depends more on the awareness, thus the visibility, that this initiative manages to reach. The more visible the Adidas x Parley initiative gets, the more consumers will get aware of the ocean plastic pollution, and thus the more they will adapt their behaviors. If the Adidas x Parley turns out to be successful and profitable, it will also incentivize other large-scale apparel brands to adapt their product lines, and to increase their (positive) environmental impact.
Why could this innovation be game-changing (demand and/or supply point of view)?
Implementing these type of innovations bring different types of advantages to the companies.
Firstly, on the demand side, it can support them in two different aspects:
– Consumer awareness: promoting products that are mindful of the environment will raise environmental awareness, and increase the attractiveness of green products. In other words, the market’s awareness directly positively affects the market size. It also addresses the integrity of our eco-system and the impact of each product’s life entire lifecycle on the planet. Finally, it introduces the concept of a second usage for products and materials that is not “cheap” but rather creative, upscale and qualitative. It sheds a positive light on recycling which was so far presented as a “cheap” concept, something now can be new and recycled, can be technically advanced and recycled.
– Competitive advantage: by adding new dimensions to products, these initiatives gain a competitive advantage by getting into a nearly Blue Ocean Strategy. In other words, by adding value to the environment, they also increase their competitive value. It is also keeping the market relevant versus other types of markets. It can be argued that people from developed economies now eat green, drive green and live in green spaces…soon enough they will start to wear green. Indeed, 66% of millennials globally are willing to spend more on brands that are sustainable and most specifically, 92% of Chinese millennials demand business involvement in addressing social issues.
Secondly, on the supply side, there two different aspects on which it can help as well:
– Supply chain structure: shifting towards new raw materials, in this case upcycled raw materials, will require to redesign the supply chain processes. Starting from scratch, before competitors and setting up the standards will enable these compagnies to develop an expertise and competitive advtange that competitors will catch up to with difficulty. Finally, it presents an interesting non-integrated closed-loop supply chain model to an industry that is famousely not vertically integrated. A cradle-to-cradle version tailored to the apparel industry and its difficulty to control its entire supply chain.
– Cost of production: currently the cost of upcycled plastic is equal to the cost of its collection. It is a completely new method of using plastic, and discarded plastic is abundant in certain places. Although the recycling of it can be less efficient than its production, there are opportunities to develop economies of scale in the long run, especially as price of other raw material will increase with scarcity of water and reputation will only lower.
Where do these initiatives fall short?
These initiatives represent great starts to educate the customer and raise awareness amongst industry leaders. However, they do not address some of the main reasons why the apparel sector is the second dirtiest sector after oil and gaz:
– ENERGY: The energy use comes from plastic within the products but also, and mostly, from transports (materials are sourced in one place, goods are produced in another and sold in a third one). The increase speed at which people consume, at which fast fashion sells with new products hitting the sales floor on a monthly, if not by-weekly basis, causes enormous stress on the production cycle. This results in an increasing use of air transport and thus of energy. The discussed initiatives do not attempt to slow the cycle down and do not address the carbon emissions linked to the commercialization of goods.
– WASTE: While these initiatives address waste, as they propose a second life to discarded products, they do not educate customers on preventing waste, if not on collecting it efficently. They offer a solution, responsible production, but do not fix the problem’s rootcause, the lack of responsible consumption and sustainable waste management (it should never arrive in the oceans in the first place). Additionally, they also do not educate brands on slowing down the cycle so as to better align supply with demand. Indeed, one of the reason for the sector to be so dirty is the desire for brands to always be on trend. As those evolve as rapidely as the fashion calendar turns, brands have to forecast production ahead of time, causing mismatch of supply and demand. Brands do not hesitate to remove unsuccessful products away from the shop floor very quickly so as to push the more successful ones. This create unsold inventory which is sold under markdown, devaluing the product’s value, the respect for its materials, and the brands’ image, pushing cheap consumption. As people get used to more affordable products, it puts stress on the brands which have to produce goods for less and less, needing then to use “cheap” (plasticy materials -containing PVC and nylon), or to produce for “cheap” (in low developed economies) which in turns increase the need for transports for commercialization. Finally, if those products are not sold, they end up in landfills, liberating toxins into the oceans…
– INTEGRITY OF OFFER: While See2See and Ecoalf are consistently using recycled plastic for their entire product portfolio, it is worth noting that the Parley line is just one line among many at Adidas. This initiative is very efficient and benefic to educate customers on the importance of clean oceans; however, it is shifting the customer’s attention away from their other non green lines and lifecycles, Adidas’ constant introduction of newness to compete. Adidas & Parley is a great first step to internally develop sustainable sourcing and externally promote green education but to truly impact the industry, it should be produced at a bigger scale (the entire Adidas’ product portfolio) and introduced as a different product with a different lifecycle and usage.
Conclusion
Overall, these initiatives are great first responses to the apparel industry’s need to become more sustainable. They help to educate customers and push brands to research for green, recycled materials. Technologically savy, trendy designed and affordable products can now come from recycled products. They are creating a blue ocean market within a sector that is very red, not only because competition is high and market is saturated but also because it is
currently the second dirtiest sector. They also introduced the industry to a successful, yet not vertically integrated, circular economy. Finally, the success of these initiatives should feed into itself and create a virtuous cycle: the more educated customors are, the more they will want to wear green, the larger the market will become and the more brands will follow these initiatives’ lead. Most of the current green initiatives in the apparel industry, currently lead by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, have failed to be driven by successful sales. Rather they are mainly focused on managing reputation, more specifically avoiding crisis through a set of supply chain best practices. While this is a great first step, it is not strong enough to instigate an industry move towards putting in place standards, numerical concrete goals and large scale green sources of materials. If these initiatives become successful, yield concrete sales, they may help to motivate the market to evolve towards its sustainable future. This sustainable future requires the responsabile sourcing and the educated customer that these initiatives defend; but, it also needs for some deeper changes that are not addressed by any of these projects. The fashion calendar need to evolve so as to educate customers on responsible consumption, to educate all stakehoders on waste and to reduce the use of transport.
Sources :
– https://theoceancleanup.com
– https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs
– https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org
– https://ecoalf.com
– https://sea2see.org
– http://parley.tv/#fortheoceans
– http://globalfashionagenda.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Pulse-of-the-Fashion-Industry_2017.pdf
– https://www.ey.com/gl/en/issues/ey-beacon-institute-shopping-with-a-purpose
– https://cdn.businessoffashion.com/reports/The_State_of_Fashion_2018_v2.pdf
– https://cfda.com/programs/designers/cfda-lexus-fashion-initiative