Don’t Confuse ‘Sustainability’ With ‘Sustainable’

'The ideology of ‘sustainability’ has been donned many a times by clothing labels recently, But what has gone unspoken of is just how sustainable is they’re definition of sustainability?'

It really comes down to how responsible the consumer is, for example; you buy a piece of clothing that consumed 10,000 litres of water in its production & 10 litres of fuel in its transportation, you then discard off the garment after 5 years of continual wear. Now consider you buy a piece of ‘sustainable’ clothing that consumes only half as much water in its production & only half as much fuel in its transportation, only to be discarded after 1 year of continual wear. Sure, these words are figurative, however you can surely see what we’re getting at.

Its great that there is a newly profound emphasis being put on the ‘sustainability’ of clothing. But don’t feel to good just because you purchase clothing due to its ‘sustainability’ donned by the producer. Unless change is made in regard to how long we continually wear each item of clothing that we purchase before it joins the 80% of clothing in our wardrobes that goes unworn for years only to eventually be thrown out, that proclaim of ‘sustainability’ isn’t exactly sustainable. we are taught from a very young age that we are responsible for our actions. Many labels have & will continue to claim to be ‘sustainable’, however sustainability is very different to sustainable. Both words infer the idea of being sustainable, but only one is actually sustainable in the big picture of things & a big part of that comes down to the consumer. 

As much as everyone wants to blame fast fashion producers for the damage on environment being caused, they aren’t completely to blame. The demand for cheap clothing garments has lead to the manufacturing of cheap clothing garments, the desire for fast fashion is why fast fashion is even an industry. Fast fashion came about due to the desire for cheap clothing that costs so little that the consumer can justify the money they’ve spent on each piece of clothing in only 6 or 7 wears. Fast fashion will be a thing of the past when there is no demand for fast fashion & there is nothing stopping the well informed consumers of today from no longer purchasing fast fashion. Unless change is made, the negative impacts caused by the fashion industry could be immensely large by 2050, resource consumption is estimated to reach 300 million tons and use more than 26 percent of the world’s carbon budget.

If you are going to purchase clothing, make sure you purchase wisely & purchase goods that will last a long time, it goes back to that age old saying “Quality not Quantity” which for a brief moment, seemed to be forgotten.

Purchase Responsibly.