Sustainable materials
Revolutionising our current farming system, means
revolutionising our fashion supply chains.
While it’s easy to downplay the impact of the clothing, shoes and accessories that we wear and buy, what we welcome into our wardrobes influences the world around us. Take knitwear, for example: synthetic knitwear can shed microplastics that harm oceanic life, and meanwhile, wool knitwear production is land inefficient and climate impactful, impacting biodiversity. Some knitwear is made with exploitative labour, just as alpacas and goats are exploited for wool and cashmere sweaters. So how can we get dressed without harming the planet, and those living on it?
The most important things we can all do are:
Care for the clothes we already have. Wash them only as needed and directed. Repair them when they’re worn down or damaged.
See if you can buy pre-loved clothes before finding something new.
When buying new, ask if it’s something you’ll love and wear for years to come, and if it’s made by a brand that values slow, sustainable fashion. It’s estimated that over 100 billion garments are made each year, with a truck full of clothing headed to landfill each second, so opting out of this mindless fast fashion cycle is the simplest way to have a greener wardrobe.
This begs the question though, if we’re looking to buy from ‘slow, sustainable fashion’ brands, what makes a brand, a jacket or a shoe sustainable? For now, let’s talk about materials.
For anything to be sustainable simply means for us to be able to sustain producing it. For example, leather is not a sustainable material because we cannot sustain releasing as many emissions as cattle ranching produces. We cannot sustain the amount of deforestation caused by cattle ranching, the amount of water required for leather production, or the biodiversity loss cattle ranching causes. Leather is a valuable co-product of the meat and dairy industries, and so buying leather funds this destruction.
Sustainability is a spectrum, and some materials are more sustainable than others, while not being genuinely sustainable. For example, when we consider the land, climate, water, eutrophication, fossil fuel use and chemical impact of material production, even synthetic polyurethane (PU) leather has a far reduced environmental impact than cow skin leather. Yet, this material is still made from fossil fuels and like animal leather, will not biodegrade. Sometimes, your only option may be between these two options, in which case the ‘lesser evil’ is the better choice. But as more alternative materials become available, neither should be accepted.
Materials that are inherently unsustainable or which have a significant and harmful impact on the planet, and are worth avoiding include:
All animal-derived materials
This includes leather made from any species of animal’s skin, wool, cashmere, silk, fur, duck and goose down, and other feathers.As much as is possible, virgin synthetic materials
These include nylon, polyester, acrylic, polyurethane and PVCCellulosic materials made in non-certified supply chains
These materials, like rayon and viscose, are made from wood. Sometimes this wood comes from old-growth forests which are destroyed for the material
Then, there are plenty of materials that are – while not as disastrous as others – still aren’t quite ‘sustainable’. But if you’re looking for the best of the bunch, here are some sustainable materials worth keeping your eye out for, should you really need something new:
Leather alternatives made from recycled synthetics, biodegradable cork, from partly bio-based materials making use of fruit agricultural waste, and increasingly in the future, mycelium ‘leather’
Tencel and bamboo lyocell – a cellulosic material that has similar thermo-regulating properties to wool, made in a closed loop with sustainably sourced wood and shoots
Hemp, organic cotton, recycled cotton, linen and other sustainably sourced plant-based materials
Post-consumer recycled materials which help to create a circular fashion system (making clothes out of old clothes)