The
event I went to was one hosted by my fellow colleague, Alyson Finnerty. It was
called Retail Revolution: A Sustainable Fashion Show. This event was sponsored
by the Falk School of Sustainability. Here is the event page
for the event.
Alyson
is a sustainability student here at Chatham, and she hosted this event to raise
awareness of the wastefulness of “fast fashion” – when clothes are make quickly
and cheaply with the purpose of falling apart so the consumer is forced to
rebuy the clothing. Often workers for companies who participate in fast fashion
are in terrible conditions, with extremely low pay.
This
is an issue of exploitation and injustice, as well as environmental pollution,
as the dyes and chemicals used to produce clothing, both synthetic and not, are
toxic and will seep into the earth when disposed of in landfills. Alyson
stressed the importance of purchasing power in combatting fast fashion. By choosing
not to buy these cheap clothes, this sends a message to the industry that you
do not support their practices. Fixing up torn clothes that are still wearable
is also important at reducing waste.
Her
event references the concepts of supply and demand. When companies see a fall
in demand for a product, they will produce less of that product, and less will
be supplied. Recently, people all around the world are becoming more and more
concerned with being sustainable. Most of this is seen in people who are trying
to reduce plastic waste and converting to green products and renewable energy,
but clothing is becoming one of the next big issues.
A
recent article I read by Andrew Hoffman from the Stanford Social Innovation Review states that “changing the way we
do business is essential to addressing the challenges of environmental
degradation.” Alyson’s event surely highlights this. If companies want to
survive, they will have to adapt to what the consumers want. Since the
consumers are changing the way they do business with companies that aren’t sustainable,
then it is imperative that they change to meet the needs of their consumers.
References:
Hoffman, Andrew J. (2018). The next phase of business
sustainability. Stanford Social Innovation
Review. Retrieved April 19, 2018, from https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_next_phase_of_business_sustainability
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