Fast fashion goes green

Global Business

Fast fashion goes green1

Fast fashion has come under increasing criticism for producing low-quality goods, wasting resources and even creating pollution. But companies in the industry are now starting to respond.

CCTV’s Mi Jiayi reported.

The apparel business has turned into one of the world’s most polluting industries. That’s especially true of fast fashion, where design updates can happen monthly.

The production of 1,000 grams of cotton cloth alone requires 20,000 liters of water and some 8,000 different chemicals to make clothing dyes and ornaments.

Many fast fashion brands are now trying very hard to change that — C&A is one of them. It has been cooperating with the National Geographic Channel and hopes it will result in greater use of organically grown cotton. It is also working with an environmental NGO to help farmers grow organic cotton in China.

C&A claims to be the biggest organic cotton buyer in the world. It hopes to enlarge its use of naturally sustainable cotton to 100 percent by the end of 2020.

“Organic cotton farming is still in its early phase in China,” Li Shiyang, director of Rare China, said. “The world’s largest producer is India. China only produces one tenth the organic cotton that India does.”

For several years, trends show that consumers have started to favor more environmentally friendly products, such as organic food or fair trade coffee.


Julie Zerbo on fast fashion goes green

Julie Zerbo is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Fashion Law, one of the leading authoritative sources dedicated to the fashion and business law. She tells us why fast fashion is going green.