What Is Sustainable Fashion? How To Implement It

Sustainable fashion (or eco-fashion) does not have a single destination. It is a journey that a fashion brand or business needs to constantly learn and change to minimize negative impacts on the environment, the earth and all citizens. It’s kind of similar to Eco fashion but they’re not the same, I will compare it in a later post.

Every brand, every fashion designer can choose a unique sustainable formula that best suits his/her values, beliefs, people and financial resources. Every small change is important.

Here are a few suggestions:

Material / Fabric

• Natural fabric: material made from natural fibers and biodegradable
• Organic fabrics: materials made from natural fibers that do not use pesticides, herbicides, artificial fertilizers or other hazardous chemicals.
• Recycled fabric: The fabric is made up of fabrics that have been renovated after they have been used, recycled leftover or discarded products into new products.
• Ecological printing and dyeing: using natural, non-toxic dyes; dyeing with pigment dye; use water-based color ink to print; laser print fabric
• Craft materials: hand-made materials, techniques such as knitting, felting, embroidery, dyeing or hand-printing
• Vegan materials (entirely from plants): artificial materials instead of using animal skin or products using animal tissue
• Second-hand materials: used materials, fabrics
• Vintage materials: materials, fabrics, or classic concepts from earlier ages

Production process:

• Ethical production: products and collections are produced with respect for people and the environment. This means that you are committed to fair process workers with fair wages and reasonable working hours.
• Domestic production: production sites are less than 400 km away from the retail locations, helping to create jobs and boost the region’s economy; minimize pollution due to the process of transporting products
• Domestic production: all finished products are produced in the same territory as retail locations, creating jobs and contributing to the country’s economy.
• Minimize waste: minimize the use of raw materials to minimize waste; for example, as few sample samples as possible, reuse or restrict the publication, manage and inventory goods effectively …
• Use of low-impact technology: for example, using renewable energy, reducing the amount of electricity, dyeing or sizing natural fabrics …
• Reduce the amount of water used: Do not use water or use the minimum amount of water, reuse the water source for cleaning; or using ozone technology
• Production by order: only produce according to specific orders to ensure quality and avoid mass production, thus reducing the total amount of finished products and consumers can use in time. long
• Hand-made products: Manual production processes and minimized automation; focus on a group of highly skilled craftsmen instead of employing large numbers of workers with low skills. The artisans can own or hire for a small business, as opposed to the industrial production process

Distribution process

• How to pack when delivery: reuse cartons, minimize plastic bags, cartons and wrapping paper
• Transportation: Minimize the number of shipments per week, per month, and each year to minimize environmental pollution from transportation
• Means of transportation: delivery or transportation by electric, hybrid or diesel vehicles. If the product is produced domestically near a retail location, it is possible to use public transportation or a motor vehicle to reduce pollution.
• Online sales and cuts of middlemen: Contact directly with the buyer or the user to reduce the amount of energy used in transportation or materials. Cut down on middlemen to ensure business transparency
• Minimize and replace the amount of GHG emissions due to transportation

Marketing

• Environmentally friendly packaging: Using packaging methods, bags can be used many times, with materials that can be used for many purposes, recycled materials, biodegradable …
• Advertising: restricting or completely not using paper to print flyers or catalogs
• Brand labels: use recycled paper or cloth to print labels, price lists, and limit quantities as little as possible.
• Presentation and introduction of brand image: using recycled decorative items, recycling clothes hooks, …
• Apply a clothing exchange or recycling program for items that customers no longer use

Finished products

• Sustainable products: products that can be used for as long as possible, without needing to be constantly replaced with high quality
• Inter-season use: the product can be used in all seasons of the year, reducing consumption during the year, products that are considered “fashionable” regardless of the time of year.
• The product can be used or worn in different ways, with different features
• Recycled products

Article retrieved from BizzVN- A Digital Marketing Agency in Vietnam