Sustainability
Sustainability - Principles
- The 1987 Brundtland Report contained within it two key concepts:
All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system - a system that connects space , and a system that connects time.
When you think of the world as a system over space, you grow to understand that air pollution from North America affects air quality in Asia, and that pesticides sprayed in Argentina could harm fish stocks off the coast of Australia.
And when you think of the world as a system over time, you start to realize that the decisions our grandparents made about how to farm the land continue to affect agricultural practice today, and the economic policies we endorse today will have an impact on urban poverty when our children are adults.
Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
---------------------United Nations 1987
Brundtland Commission Report
- The Three Pillars of Sustainability
Society - People
Economy - Profit
Environment - Planet
'For the fashion industry to be sustainable economically, it must be sustainable socially and environmentally too, These provocative scenarios challenge all of us to look beyond the short term and use our collective power to work to create the kind of positive world we'd like to see in 2025'.
--------------John Anderson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Levi Strauss & Co.
Consideration of the entire life cycle of fashion products.
The customization of the products to the consideration of the end user.
The efficient use of materials by minimizing waste.
The reduction of labour costs for assembly.
Localized 'on demand' production and fewer travel miles.
Greater longevity of products by meeting user needs.
TED Principles
1. Design to Minimize Waste
2. Design for recycling/Upcycling
3. Design to Reduce Chemical Impacts
4. Design to Reduce energy & Water Use
5. Design that Explores Clean/Better Technologies
6. Design that looks at Models from History & Nature
7. Design for Ethical Production
8. Design to Replace the Need to Consume
9. Design to Dematerialize & Develop Systems & Services
10. Design Activism
The Current Environment
- Where retailers are putting increasing pressure on manufacturers and suppliers to reduce costs, and consumers demand cheaper prices.
- Where the existing WTO situation has changes and we are seeing a shift in trade patterns
- Where manufacturers face the problems of producing a greater number of style variations in smaller quantities.
- Where speed to market, efficiency and flexibility are high on the list of criteria for success.
- Where sustainable environmental performance and CSR (corporate social responsibility are being added to the factors by which a company is judged
- Where product styles are becoming increasingly obsolete, in the disposable throw-away society we all inhabit.
- Where manufacturing is moving away from the EU and jobs are being lost.
- Where profit margins are being reduced, and in a difficult economic climate it is harder to find budget for R + D.
Up to 90% of a product's environmental impact is decided at the design stage.
---------------Design Council
Raw Materials
There can be positive and negative issues with all sources of raw material for textiles.
Natural fibers are from a regenerable resources; they will biodegrade and can be recycled. Conventional production can use toxic elements in processing that can be damaging to the environment, to animals and to operatives.
Synthetic fibers are produced from oil which is a finite resource, but they are recyclable and can be engineered for specific functions and purposes, avoiding the need for additional treatments and processes.
Processing
Industrial processes using toxic chemicals in fiber, fabric manufacturing & finishing can be harmful, both to operatives and final users of the product.
Eu legislation has improved the local situation, but less stringent rules apply in low cost manufacturing areas.
Monitoring of the supply chain by brands is improving but transparency is difficult in some countries where outsourcing is prevalent.
Energy & Effluent
Energy & water are used extensively throughout a textile product's lifecycle. Intensive cotton agriculture, polyester processing and garment aftercare uses are all high.
Untreated water effluent contaminates & releases toxic pollution. Stringent legislation in EU areas has improves the situation.
Minimizing water use & introducing waterless treatments is important, eg digital printing uses water more efficiently than other methods.
High energy use is expensive & polluting. Local waste & resources, such as coconut shells can be used.
Water Pollution
A 2011 investigative report from Greenpeace, 'Dirty Laundry', profiles the problem of toxic water pollution resulting from the release of hazardous chemicals by the textile industry in China.
It focuses on two facilities that were found to be dis charging a range of hazardous and persistent chemicals with hormone-disrupting properties. These results are indicative of a much wider problem that is posing serious and immediate threats to both our precious ecosystems and to human health.
Ethical Production
What's good for the planet is also good for its people. By linking textile production with social factors, both areas benefit. Fair Trade is one avenue, but there are many other local co-operatives and social programmes that are supported by textile manufacturing.
While these issues are easier to regulate closer to home, it is more difficult in low cost production areas. Simply banning certain practices, such as child labour, is not the solution. Improvements must take account of local customs & traditions.
Production
Innovative methods of fabric & product manufacturing can address sustainability issues by reducing the number of processes & localizing manufacture. For example:
- Seamless products, knitwear and accessories
- Laser cutting and bonding
- Enzyme use in fabric dyeing and garment wet treatments
New Raw Materials
Ingeo is the first melt processable naturally based polymer.
INGEO fibre is produced from a regenerable resource and is biodegradable, offering a sustainable life-cycle.
It has excellent UV protection, high tenacity and elastic recovery.
Cerepiast is a bioplastics company producing compostable plastic-type resins from corn, potatoes and algae amongst others.
Radici use beans of the castor oil plant to manufacture an alternative raw material for nylon materials.
Bio processing
Speculative research that investigates the intersection of synthetic biology and textile design to propose future manufacturing processes for textiles, using living technology.
The Bio Lace project is designed to probe the potential of a biological manufacturing future by exploring the cellular DNA programming of plant systems. Carole Collete imagines the creation of reprogrammed plants such as a hybrid strawberry plant which would produce at the same time both strawberry fruits and lace samples from its roots.
The future biological control of DNA implies that we could design plants to perform specific functions.
Processing
In many products such as clothing, carpets, paint and cosmetics, chemical-based or synthetic-based coloring agents are used. It is possible to change these into natural coloring agents in many cases.
An ancient & traditional way to color cloth that is now receiving more focus through research & innovation.
Vegetable coloring agents are used in powder form. Good affinity to fabrics, threads and other products such as wool and leather can be achieved. Cultivation and production in the Netherlands allowing for quick transport and low use of energy and raw materials; Consistency of shade can be ensured, colors have good light fastness and good washability.
Another answer to reducing the toxic impact of dyeing is to use fibers in their undyed naturally colored form, such as from Fox Fiber cotton, Different wool fleece colors and golden silk. However, this does not always answer the demands of seasonal color flexibility or price and is only possible in the area of natural fibers.
Inbuilt color - negating the need to dye, can also be achieved by introducing colored feedstock into mulberry powder used to feed silkworms.
The resulting silk cocoons produce inherent color that can be luminescent. A factor useful in medical areas.
Similar work is being investigated via altering the DNA of cotton plants to 'build in' a color.
This concept could be suitable for large scale manufacturing, where large quantities of a standardized shade is required - or in high cost areas.
It is a controversial process.
Biomimicry Function
"If nature had to create a system that performed the services and functions that we as humans demand, how would she do it?"
The characteristics displayed by natural systems - evolving, adaptive, and sustainable with zero waste - are the exact same characteristics that we strive for in our textile systems today.
Waste Reduction
Direct Panel on Loom (DPOL) is a waste saving process which utilizes a loom, attached to a computer, that weaves made-to-fit garment sections, which are then sewn together by hand.
No fabric waste is created because no fabric is cut in the process. It also saves yarn, dyes and chemicals, reduces lead time by almost 50%, and can handle small orders.
The final product has no shade variation and is difficult to copy. It also conserve natural resources, saving and estimated 70-80% of water compared to standard methods of garment manufacturing.
Siddhartha Upadhyaya, August Fashion
Waste Reduction
Minimizing waste fabric left over from the garment lay offers huge financial and landfill savings, and is being actively investigated via a specific course at Parsons University in New York.
This jacket, produced with no waste at all, is the result of a collaboration between the university and the US brand Loom-state, who have put this garment into production.
Issey Miyaki APOC - A Piece of Cloth 1998
Extending product life
Extending a product's life by introducing flexibility is another way to reduce and slow consumption.
- A good example of this is with Loomstate's 321 dress, made from two reversible & contrasting layers of knitted Tencel, with inner & outer front & back panels in different colors.
- Multi functionality in a product also has the potential to increase use and decrease the need to own more products & more "stuff".
- A Dutch designer has developed a set of textile inks that can be stripped from a garment before it's sent for reprinting. "We stop wearing our clothes when we are tired of them, while prints are permanent," she says, "what would happen if we have the possibility to replace prints on textiles? In other words, to remove prints and add new ones to make fabrics last."
Neither the inks nor the special process used to remove them contain harmful substances, according to van Balgooi, The prints are machine washable, meaning they can be worn more than once, but they can also be replaced by a different design so fewer resources are required for new items of clothing.
Prints can also be removed before a textile is recycled, creating a fabric that can be shredded and re-spun into a high-quality, solid-colored thread.\
The Uniform Project
Uniform Project started in 2009 to wear the same dress for an entire year-but make it look unique every single day. Sheena Matheiken launched the Uniform Project & succeeded in only wearing one little black dress for 365 days as an exercise in sustainability.
Garment Care
- After care of a product also has a negative impact. For natural fibers, particularly cotton, which washes well & can take high temperatures, laundry can account for 70% of a product's environmental performance.
- Less frequent laundry, hand washing, cold water use & line drying are recommended where possible.
- 'No wash' blogs detail the experience of users with jeans, without washing for up to 15 months. This creates highly personal marks & creases into an individual piece.
- A waterless washing machines -Xeros - uses 90% less water & minute nylon beads to absorb stains.
- Microscopic fragments of acrylic, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyamide, and polyester have been discovered in increasing quantities on beaches.
- Almost no single beach is devoid of the fibers. Each cup of sand can hold at least two fibers and as many as 31.
- A single garment can produce over 1900 near-invisible fibers with each machine wash
- Ingested microplastics can persist in cells for months, moving up the food chain to animals and people who eat fish. More alarmingly, some studies show that microplastics can absorb toxic chemicals such as PCBs, dioxins, and DDT.
Don't waste it
We are all recycling more, yet still creating more waste. The average lifetime of a garment is approx 2yrs.
Innovation in reprocessing textiles, both post consumer & pre consumer waste, is improving, assisted by raw material price rises.
Customers must be encouraged to purchase products with a recycled content, so a high design content is vital.
Some consider recycling as simply delaying the arrival in land fill.
One of the best ways to reduce waste is to use things that already exist instead of creating something new.
Recycling
Discarded polyethylene fishing nets are an obvious hazard to marine life, shipping and the environment. Polyethylene can take hundreds of years to biodegrade.
They are now being collected by plastics recycle Centriforce Products and turned into reusable polymers.
Cotton denim fibers can be shredded & turned into effective insulation materials that have good sound absorption and maximum thermal performance. Replacing traditional material such as fiberglass, the cotton is easier to handle and work with, containing no chemical imitants or toxic substances.
This is a 'downcycling' route, so called as the secondary product is of lower commercial value than the original.
Reuse
The lack of cost effective disassembly techniques has held up development of textile reuse.
This new WEAR-2 system developed in the UK, allows items such as zips, buttons & trims, items that contaminate recycled material, to be removed.
Use of this manufacturing process allows seams and other elements to be dissembled using heat.
Particularly useful in corporate clothing, the technology can also be used to recover pure fiber from the disassembled parts.
Upcycling fabrics can be sourced from old clothing and textiles, but because of the limited quantity and irregular size of these materials, designers who choose to use them are unable to do large runs.
This method, from Bangladesh, dovetails with conventional runs, taking post-production fabric scraps and using them on a large scale to make a repeatable line of clothing styles.
The garments are also manufactured in Bangladesh, since it makes sense for all steps of the process to take place in one location to reduce waste.
Trash to Trend website is both a database for designers to see where textiles waste is available and a resource for upcycling design techniques.
Repurposing
For repurposing, a readily available and reliable source of supply is essential.
Two companies working in this area are Freitag with haulage tarpaulins from trucks, and Hose-wear using upcycled fire hoses and tyres.
A particular selling point is the individuality of each item.
The T-Shirt chair, produced by Green Furniture in Sweden supplies the owner with a steel frame which they them 'upholster' with personal clothes or fabrics.
The chair can evolve & demonstrate a personal individual history.
End of Life
What if you could eat your T-shirt once you had finished with it?
TRANSIENT CONSUMABLES is one of several investigations into this area, using fabric made from gelatin, seaweed and wine. Diana Kovacheva, a CSM graduate imagines a future where clothes have a 'Best Before' date.
Translated into tablecloths & napkins, diners could potentially finish their meal by eating the textiles.
The concept of 'transient' textiles - lasting only a short time is of interest in creating a positive 'end of life' for a textile product.
Some items, such as a T-shirt, do not need to have an extended life.
Textiles & plastics that dissolve, using PVA and alginates
Composting fabric is another alternative for final disposal. To avoid discharge of harmful residues, it is preferable for textiles produced with the use of harmful toxins or chemicals.
Products should contain no non-biodegradable elements, such as metal or synthetic thread.
Breakdown of the material with depend on the heat emitted.
In agriculture, beneficial nutrients could be imparted as the material degrades.
Cradle to Cradle
'Recycling by itself only postpones the arrival of the discarded material to landfill, where it may never degrade, may biodegrade very slowly or may harm the environment as it break down. A genuinely sustainable future depends on creating closed loops or cycles for both natural & synthetic materials. In a closed loop materials would never loose their value & some could recycle indefinitely.'
C2C is a biomimetic approach to the design of systems. It models human industry on nature's processes in which materials are viewed as nutrients circulating in healthy, safe metabolisms with ZERO waste. All materials used in commercial processes, fibers, dyes etc fall into one of two categories. "technical" or "biological" nutrients. Technical nutrients are strictly limited to non toxic, non-harmful synthetic materials that have no negative effects on the natural environment. Biological Nutrients can be disposed of in any natural environment and decompose into the soil, providing food for small life forms without affecting the natural environment.
