In this module, we will talk about three key concepts; the fashion industry, sustainability, and business models. So let's begin with the fashion industry. The fashion industry is an immense industry that includes; garments, footwear, jewelry, and cosmetics. It has been steadily growing for the last 10 years. In 2016, it was estimated to be worth $2.4 trillion, and that's a lot of zeros. If it ranked alongside individual countries GDPs, it will represent the world's seventh largest economy. The fashion industry can be divided into two loving halves that cannot exist without each other. The first half runs based on desire, status, and identity and explains why clothing has historically been a presentation of personal social status. The other half of the fashion industry runs on the more practical concepts of production and natural resources. Every garment or product we buy can be traced back to the origins of the raw material used to produce that garment. Nowadays, most of the garments we buy are made in Southeast Asia, but that was not always the case. Just 30 years ago, garments were still made locally. So how did we end up here? Before the industrial revolution, things were made by artisans who worked with their own hands. The industrial revolution cost a drastic change in the way society functioned. With the invention of steam power, the development of machine tools, and the rise of the factory system, everything could be made faster and in larger quantities. Did you know that the invention of the mechanical loom is considered the start of the Industrial Revolution? Yes. The textile industry was the first industry to use modern production methods. The development of more efficient transportation and the necessary technology to communicate worldwide, has turned the fashion industry and many others into a globalized interconnected network. On the one hand the globalization of the fashion industry has resulted in long and complex supply chains, and on the other hand a worldwide fashion market. These global developments poses many challenges to the fashion industry as it becomes more difficult to control the beginning and end life of products. These challenges can be the origin of raw materials, the chemical used to produce the fabric or the labor conditions in subcontracted factories. Check the following animation to see what we're talking about. We all love jeans. Actually, we loved them so much that in 2014 we bought 1.2 billion jeans worldwide. That's a lot of jeans. But moving on from our disturbing shopping behavior, let's ask ourselves, what did it take to make each of these 1.2 billion jeans? First, there's cotton. What does it take to grow cotton? As a US cotton farmer, we would use 40 percent of our budget in fuel and machinery. This is the first carbon footprint of our jeans, emitting CO2 and other greenhouse gases. We will spend 35 percent on fertilizers and agricultural chemicals. Cotton is considered to be the world's dirtiest craft. It consumes 16 percent of the world's pesticides. Twenty percent of our budget will go in to buy seeds. Sadly, more than 90 percent of the cotton seeds planted in the US every year are genetically modified. Finally, only five percent goes into paying foreign labor. In the US, this labor force mostly consists of undocumented workers. After the cotton is harvested, the crop is cleaned and usually sent to China where most of the world's jeans are made. There the cotton is carded, twisted, spinned, and stretched and finally transformed into yarn. All these processes are mechanical and require electricity and fuel. Yarn is then dyed with petroleum-based indigo and other substances, the dying process uses tons of water. Untreated, the water ends up in nearby rivers affecting food farming, plantations, and the water supply of cities. After that the fiber is woven into fabric and sent to factories where it gets cut and sewed undergoing more than 37 different sewing operations. This can be extremely complicated process. Sadly, workers in garment factories are still among the lowest paid labor forces in the world. After that jeans undergo the process of sand blasting, bleaching, acid, and coding to give a finishing look. Throughout dying and rinsing an extra 5,000 liters of water are used. Once done, the jeans travel all the way to the distribution center by boat and track, probably back to the US. There, jeans are held until transported to stores. So are we sure that a pair of jeans cost $45? Suspicious, isn't it? These challenges get aggravated by the fact that for many fashion brands cutting cost and incrementing profits are their main goal. That means more revenue, profits for shareholders, and economic growth. But economic growth is not everything, our current economic system only measures business success as economic and that makes the fashion industry are very profitable one. However, this way of conducting business neglects environmental and social goals to be seen as value, which explains why fashion can be an extremely profitable industry and also one of the most polluting industries in the world. Our current system celebrates economic growth but does not support environmental and social concerns. As climate change and social well-being are becoming more urgent issues in people's minds, more and more brands are concerned about how to translate environmental and social sustainability into their own business model. But how can that be achieved? Welcome to sustainable business models for the fashion industry.
