The Future of Retail: A Revolutionary Sustainable Fashion Industry for an Eco- Friendly World

The Future of Retail:

A Revolutionary and Sustainable Fashion Industry in an Eco-Friendly World

The past eighteen months showed that we’re all connected — and that we all need to take bigger steps towards a more sustainable way of living, in harmony with every living thing on the planet. To tackle climate change, clean our waterways and landscapes, and avoid the next pandemic, we all need to become more sustainable and work together to cut our collective impact on the planet. To this end, a sustainable lifestyle is one that works towards and makes positive changes to reduce your overall environmental footprint. And the overall goal is to reduce your individual carbon emissions and to live in a way that genuinely cares for the planet, the people on it, and yourself too.

With the new norm post COVID-19, it is becoming all about sustainable development which is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desired result is a state of society where living conditions and resources are used to continue to meet human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system.

Sustainable fashion inspired by natural cycles and processes is a model emphasized by the Power of Nature which is the industry looking into materials that have always been looked at as waste to make new clothing. The materials that will mitigate negative impacts include vegan materials from the earth and recycling old fabric into new clothing.

According to figures from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), it takes 3,781 litres of water to make a pair of jeans, from the production of the cotton to the delivery of the final product to the store. That equates to the emission of around 33.4 kilograms of carbon” 35 kg of CO2 = driving 120 km = the CO2 absorbed by 3 trees / 1 year”. Every year half a million tons of plastic microfibers are dumped into the ocean, equivalent to 50 billion plastic bottles and as mentioned before, 20-35% come from synthetic clothing. These microfibers cannot be easily extracted from the water and can spread throughout the food chain of marine wildlife.

Hany Alkholy

Managing Director - Middle East & Africa Multi Capital

Using organic materials, applying standards and organic methods on production and supply chain, naturally-coloured materials, eco-friendly natural dyes, digital and kornit printing, recycling and upcycling materials, packaging and shopping bags recyclable materials, energy-saving initiatives, managing and treating water waste are the major area of development for fashion sustainability that are considered by most of the topperforming brands shared with customers in a transparency business model. Accordingly, several accreditation and certification were globally recognized to measure safer and more sustainable products made for the circular economy.

In 2020, Fashion Revolution commissioned a survey of 5,000 people aged 16-75 in the five largest European markets namely Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The survey was conducted to learn about their shopping behaviour in the last twelve months and current views on some of fashion’s most pressing social and environmental issues.

The Generation Z and Millennials came out to support and drive the future of sustainable fashion brands and they are willing to pay a price to stay greener. In addition, gen z and millennials are about to become the largest consumer base in the global economy accounting for about 40% of global consumers this year. Gen Z and Millenials have the "spending power of $143 billion." Therefore, the future is looking bright for sustainability if the numbers of youngsters who are passionate about improving the world keep increasing.

Inditex Group has applied the Code of Conduct for Manufacturers and Suppliers. “Right to wear is how we do business at every stage; operating in a way that is right for customers, right for workers, right for communities and right for the environment”. The Executive Chairman announced that by 2025, 100% of the cotton, linen and polyester used by all eight of its brands will be organic, sustainable, or recycled.

Survey says:

69% of people say that they would like to know how their clothes were manufactured Majority of the people think that it is important that fashion brands have ethical (72%) and sustainability (80%) certifications. 49% are from age 18 – 24