WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY - PRECIOUS RESOURCES AND TEXTILE MANUFACTURING
“We are at a unique stage in our history. Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet, and never before have we had the power to do something about that” - Sir David Attenborough
Precious Resources and Textile Manufacturing....
The Textile Industry is enormous, and so is its negative impact on our environment.
Ranked second only to Oil, the global Textile industry (across all sectors) is responsible for 1.3 Billion tons of carbon emissions per year. The textile printing industry is valued at $266 billion dollars, and as our global population increases, alongside our affluence, the print industry is forcasted to continue its growth at 8.9% CAGR to 2025. That’s good news for the print industry (currently 94% analogue) and bad news for the planet!!
"We are at a unique stage in our history. Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet, and never before have we had the power to do something about that” - Sir David Attenborough
The protection of the Earths elements must now be fundamental to our industries growth and the adoption of clean, sustainable technology is critical if we are to reverse climate change.
It’s Friday, and today the UN (United Nations) bring together the global community to raise awareness, with “World Environment Day”. Founded in 1974 , WED stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action!! The day delivers a timely reminder, jogging us all back to reality post covid, that we all need to embrace the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The Textile supply chain is complex, each and every sector and its output requires radical change if we are to manufacture responsibly.
Recently the Fashion Industry has been in the firing line for controversy - over consumption. The fashion industry is broken for sure, but isn’t the ugly truth also that the components that form the bulk of the products are the real source of harm. If we move to a circular economy, designing and manufacturing using eco-conscious technology and raw components, we can scale our textile industry whilst reducing its environmental impact.
The adoption of digital technologies will be accelerated by Covid-19
…Partly because we need to manufacture at speed to control the value of goods held in unwanted inventory and also to react to our consumers buying behaviour, and a requirement for instantaneous trends with equally instant stock. To do so we need to shorten the supply chains, and that requires technology, innovation, transparency and data. We have the technology, theres no shortage of innovation, and currently we don’t utilise data efficiently and yet data offers us the AI for sustainable production.
The Industry is making progress, but, change takes time, and that’s running out for our planets precious resources.
Nothing speeds up change like demand! (Or a global crisis?) Zalando, Europes leading online retailer for fashion serving 130 countries announced this week that it will only stock sustainably sourced products on its commerce platform by 2023. As a huge titan of the online fashion world this marks a pivotal moment. 2000 stockists will be vetted and certified as sustainable, thats good news and progress at last! Who will follow their lead?
Sustainability can’t be a luxury item, it has to be an essential element, built into the manufacturing DNA of the Textile Industry if we are to thrive.
As an industry we have made many technical advances towards a sustainable future, and whilst adoption has been painfully slow, the quickening digital heartbeat of change can now be heard across the globe.
Manufacturers have to be in tune with their stakeholders, and those clients now require transparency and eco-conscious production.
So as we all emerge from this unprecedented global crisis, let’s make sure that we take action, accelerate industry 4.0 and reject the unsustainable production processes of the past, move to adopt the UN’s SDG’s and change…collaborate and thrive!!
