Ending Climate Colonialism in Fashion VOICES2023 | The Business of Fashion
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- Опубліковано 25 січ 2024
- BoF chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent sits down with Sammy Oteng, Ayesha Barenblat and Vidhura Ralapanawe at BoF VOICES 2023 to discuss how the fashion industry can responsibly manage the climate crisis.
Background:
The fashion industry is responsible for up to 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But the most profitable fashion companies are often headquartered in the countries that have historically generated more emissions, while the nations with a smaller carbon footprint often find themselves more severely impacted by extreme weather driven by the climate crisis.
“The industry is structured in a way that's very colonial … it's the rich countries that are reaping all the rewards and benefits, and it's the poor countries that have kept this industry profitable,” says Ayesha Barenblat, the founder and CEO of Remake, a non-profit that advocates for sustainable practices in the fashion industry.
Key Insights:
- In fashion, the climate crisis appears in colonial structures that perpetuate unequal distributions of power and profit. According to Barenblat, companies act as “glorified marketeers, telling production nations how to deal with the climate crisis. They're setting science-based targets, but they're not paying for it … let's flip the script and actually have a conversation around the people who create value for this industry and how we centre them in the conversation.”
- Countries in the global South have become dumping grounds for low-quality clothes from the global North. An estimated 40 percent of the textiles that arrive in Ghana are discarded as waste, however the true scale of excess garments is unknown. “We don't even know how much we are producing in terms of fashion. We say 100 billion to 150 billion [garments produced each year], that's a 50 billion gap,” explains Oteng. “Until we understand a problem that we have, we can't move on to having … that one solution.”
- Alongside climate mitigation, it is important to also address climate adaptation. “Every brand and retailer wants to talk about mitigation because they want to make money off the climate crisis, but our communities need climate adaptation resources,” says Barenblat, adding that philanthropic contributions are not enough. “What we want are equitable ways to make these communities whole … we can't just sit around and have conversations anymore.”
- The fashion industry needs to halve its emissions by 2030 to meet global climate goals, a timeline that is already unrealistic. As Ralapanawe says, “We haven't even started. There's no way that any brand or any manufacturer will hit their 2030 targets now.”
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Look out for more VOICES videos coming soon, bringing you the best of our annual global gathering for big thinkers. - Навчання та стиль
Amazing conversation, much needed! Thank you BOF for having this space
You deserve all the awards for this masterpiece!
imagine falling for this, i mean really.
As a Mexican designer and clothing brand owner, I’m very thankful that this is something that is being talked about in a platform like this. I hope designers and brands in Mexico and the other countries mentioned here can soon spread their hard work on a global scale if enough attention is put to this!
this is a brilliant panel and stunning, revealing and inspiring conversation
BOF brings out the best of a perspectives. I laud the democratic approach to it as well.
What can we do to sensibilise, to help...there'S so much infromation but what can we do
South america, peru, mexico... big brands go there and do not pay fairly their workers. Ex with Loropiana...and the use of Vicuña
Amazing conversation 🙏🏼
i wonder why no one from china is there.
The heading to this upload is nonsense of course .
I started watching this video and it became clear that it would be a load of elitist nonsense. In the "good old days", Britain used to be a heavy producer of clothing, but our clothing manufacturing industries have largely shut down, causing the loss of lots of jobs. Rather than being happy that they have caused the loss of British jobs and that they have jobs they wouldn't have if companies could find a way to profitably do the work in Britain, they are drivelling on about "colonialism" and other woke jargon. Woke elitism has absolutely no place in modern society!
I coudn't agree with you more about this so-called climiate change colonialism and woke ideology non-sense that have infiltrated the fashion indusry over the last few years. I dropped out of fashion school in 1997, because my parents could not afford to pay for my tuition fees and all my other expenses related to being a fashion design student. I have since then got accepted to two technical courses in chemical engineering and mechancial engineering, and graduated from university to become a petroleum engineer since 2009. I have been very miserable about my second career option of being an engineer through out my entire adult life, because I could not even secure a long-term career in the energy sector after millions of lay-offs of high-skilled jobs in the oil & gas industry since 2015, because of all this climate change colonialism and woke ideology non-sense trying to destroy investments in projects related to offshore drilling for oil & gas exploration & production. I have finally decided to go back to what I have always wanted to persue since my teenage years, and that is to launch my very own fashion label in the fitness & fashion sectors, because I am also an internationally certified personal trainer & nutritionist with personal experience of my own bodyweight loss transformation and I have a talent for fashion styling and branding related to sportswear and high-end luxury goods..