Sustainability, a word that has always been in the dictionary but has been in everyone’s mouth only recently.
From individual people to companies in every industry segment, everyone will surely have used this word at least once in their lifetime but some of them, including me at the beginning, did not understand its meaning.
We can start from the definition that Wikipedia offers us for sustainability:
” In the environmental, economic and social sphere, sustainability is the process of change in which the exploitation of resources.
The investment plan, the orientation of technological development and changes institutional are all in tune and enhance the current and future potential in order to meet human needs and aspirations.”
By analyzing this definition that Wikipedia gives us, we can say that if we manage to use all the environmental resources in an ethical manner and proportionate to our basic needs, we can deliver to future generations a better ecosystem.
For several years we have all noticed that something in the world is changing, just think of all the various environmental catastrophes that are happening on our planet, and make us understand that either we change something in our way of living, producing and buying or these catastrophes environmental issues will be increasingly frequent and impossible to stop.
A sad moment happened
A factor that triggered the spring in the heads of the sector employees, and the need for a change, occurred in April 2013 with the disaster of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh where, due to a failure of a building used for the production of clothing for the big names in fashion, more than a thousand people died.
From this tragedy emerged from the testimonies that could be avoided but, in the face of the continuous and incessant demand for clothes in the fashion market, more thought was given to the production of the clothes themselves than to the safety of people.
In this building, garments were produced for various fashion brands.
Since these fashion brands at that time did not have adequate control over their supply chain, they did not have transparency of information about their products and adequate traceability of their materials, they themselves learned only later that in that building they came also produce their clothes.
Just after this disaster one of the various movements born is the FASHION REVOLUTION which has as its objectives:
The end of human and environmental exploitation in the global fashion industry
Safe, dignified working conditions and subsistence wages for all people in the supply chain
Redistributed and a fairer balance of power in the global fashion industry
A bigger and stronger work movement in the global fashion sector
A global fashion industry that works to conserve precious resources and regenerate ecosystems
A culture of transparency and accountability across the board value chain
The end of disposable culture and the transition to a system in which materials are used for much longer and nothing is wasted
Heritage, craftsmanship and local wisdom are recognized and appreciated
This movement wants us to understand that each of us has the power to bring about positive changes in our society and at the same time Fashion revolution movement encourages those who have taken a path to create a more ethical, sustainable, and transparent future for fashion.
Sustainability, ethics, and transparency are just some of the values that the entire fashion industry must ” dress up ” to be able to counter the environmental problem and therefore, over the years, have managed to be at the service of the environment and not the environment at service of us, as is happening now.
Sustainable development objective
Faced with these environmental problems, the various states of the world have together embarked on a path of environmental sustainability and have established guidelines that each state must follow with common and well-defined objectives over time.
In September 2015, for example, more than 150 international leaders met at the United Nations to contribute to global development, promote human well-being, and protect the environment.
In this meeting was approved the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, key elements of which are the 17 goals (we’re going to explore in a future article on our blog)sustainable development (SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals), which they aim to end poverty, fight against inequality and social and economic development.
They also resume aspects of fundamental importance for sustainable development such as tackling climate change and building peaceful societies by the year 2030.
Sustainable Development Goals have universal validity, i.e. that all countries must make a contribution to achieving their objectives based on their abilities. Each goal has specific goals to be achieved over the next few years.
The 17 points that the SDGs are simplified in the scheme below:
Every year each country publishes the SDGs report. Statistical information for the 2030 Agenda, which aims to guide users within the complex system of product indicators.
In addition to the positioning of each state along the path of sustainable development, the Report offers some thematic insights and analyzes both at a territorial level and with respect to the different socio-demographic characteristics of people.
Fashion Pact
Another concrete example of the path that various Nations are facing for ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY took place in the G7 held in France on 24-26 August 2019 and where there was signed, FASHION PACT which we talked about in the previous articles on our blog.
Thanks to these guidelines, various fashion and non-fashion companies have established a process of change for many years and for some months, using all the energy necessary to ensure that this sustainable development is the basis of their mindset.
Conclusion
To achieve the concept of sustainability, therefore, each of us must implement actions that in the short and long term can provide improvement to the surrounding environment, must look with an eye projected to the future even if THE FUTURE is NO.
This will only happen if the concept of improving the environment starting from improving ourselves and the actions we perform, will become one of our personal values and we will be able to adopt it and carry it forward in everyday life.
How did you see the fashion industry is starting to do it, why don’t we all try?
