SUSTAINABILITY, GREENWASHING AND GLOBALISATION_

SUSTAINABILITY, GREENWASHING AND GLOBALISATION_

Sustainability: Sustainability could be defined as an ability or capacity of something to be maintained or to sustain itself

Greenwashing: Greenwashing is the practice of making an unsubstantiated or misleading claim about the environmental benefits of a product, service, technology or company practice. Greenwashing can make a company appear to be more environmentally friendly than it really is.

Globalisation: Globalisation describes a process by which national and regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through the global network of trade, communication, immigration and transportation

We live in a society lead by consumerism. Our lives have become a constant cycle, the want and need to keep buying. But do we as consumers care about the effect that this mass buying and fast fashion is having on the environment? Or is it worth the quick fix of happiness we get from buying a new pair of shoes. 

Its clear we are running out of resources, and as futures designers and artists, we must consider new ways to care for the environment, and introduce more ethically friendly ways of production.

It is clear that time, money and making life easier far outweigh the need to be eco friendly and ethical. There needs to be desire for sustainable design to be successful. People need to want to make change for it to happen. There are solutions available, however these are expensive, and us as consumers are not willing today for this. So to me it seems important as the future to make sustainable and ethical products more accessible and affordable.

Fashion is not designed to last, and therefore is not sustainable. This means the consumer buys more and more, purely because we want to be ‘in’ fashion. Perhaps we need to make eco fashion more desirable. But fast fashion is a quick fix and make you feel good, encouraging the need to buy and buy. So its up to the designers and brand to create less desire for fast fashion and put more emphasis on sustainable design.

Greenwashing. It exists within fashion, charities, and businesses. Its where a brand uses sustainability to help with their brand pitch and advertising. This makes the buyer feel better about purchasing the item. Environmental issues are relevant within the fashion industry. Pollution comes from production of the garment to the transportation- it all has to be factored in. The fashion industry uses a huge amount of water, and produces a huge amount of waste.