James, Alana (2023 September 18) EXPERT COMMENT: Fashion industry’s environmental impact is largely unknown – here’s why. Northumbria University
This article discusses the issues with collecting data on fashion’s environmental impact. The article states that various metrics, labels, and certification schemes are inaccurate about fashion’s environmental impact. This is due to greenwashing, inconsistent data, and a lack of standards seen in these assessments. The article points towards examples like the Higg Materials Sustainability index, which the article mentions recently faced criticism for having a limited assessment scope and oversight of pollutants like microfibers. The article also mentions that consumers hold many misconceptions, like that cotton is more environmentally friendly than synthetics since it is more “natural,” which is helping harm the push for environmentally friendly clothing.
This article is another interesting perspective on fashion’s environmental impact. I never really thought to look at the sources of the data (not to say that any of the data is natively false). I don’t think that this article should focus so much on fashion’s environmental impact, but rather environmental impact in general, as these standards issues also apply to other industrial emitters. It’s obviously impossible to have perfect environmental assessments, but I think we should at least hold the studies to as high a bar as we do other companies for being honest with their emissions. But I guess we don’t hold a very high bar for these companies either, at least in reality, so I guess that explains the lack of standards for these measurements.
This is really interesting, and I think it does deserve more research. We definitely need to hold more companies to higher standards, especially with the rise of more fast-fashion companies. What are your thoughts on it, and what would you suggest as ways people could hold these companies to higher standards?
This is a very interesting article since current methods like labels and certifications are often inaccurate due to greenwashing and inconsistent data. This affects consumer choices. Similar problems exist in other industries. How can we make these assessments more accurate and reliable?
I agree that the article points out the difficulties in accurately measuring fashion’s environmental impact, highlighting issues like greenwashing and the lack of knowledge from the general public. How can we set stricter standards for environmental assessments across clother industries to promote sustainability during produciton?