Reducing Energy and Carbon Impact

Minimizing Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Reducing Energy and Carbon Impact

By: Ashley Mosley

We are aware of the fact that greenhouse gas emissions are fatal to the environment. We see that in the climate change issue we are currently facing. Now as for solutions, that is the next step. Stella  McCartney mentions how she saw a need for change in the fashion industry. She specifically choose to work with the determination of not using animal products. This was the first major solution to how we can create products, like leather, without such a carbon impact. A report by Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri stated that  "found that the livestock industry accounted for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions." Thus leading to Stella's commitment to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. In the article Stella McCartney: Change Agent, she mentions that this is so important because "the consumption of animals — whether you’re wearing them or eating them — is extraordinarily damaging to the planet." McCartney continues to point out that over 50 million animals are killed for fashion. If that does not shake you up a bit, she also states that humanity is using up the resources of five planets when we only have one. 

Now that we fully understand the problem and what this is so important, now we can incorporate this into the fashion industry as a whole. Stella's commitment above will reverse the way people shop. The brand Stella McCartney does this very well but she can only accomplish so much on her own. Collaboration is the best way to make a huge impact. Fashion is the second largest polluting industry in the world. Therefore, our goal should be to make all of fashion sustainable and ethically responsible.

There is an innovative company showing us one way we can help do this. The company, Solar Fiber,  is working towards reducing energy by using renewable energy in your clothes to charge your phone. The article explains "the idea behind Solar Fiber is a flexible photovoltaic fiber that converts sunlight energy into electrical energy via a yarn that can be worked into all sorts of fabrics." The potential behind this innovation is amazing. The amount of energy we could reduce by using solar technology in our houses as well as in our clothing is huge. Solar Fiber clarifies how this will work by giving an example of two of their products."The coat incorporates 48 rigid solar cells and the dress has 72 flexible solar cells. When worn in full sun for two hours, both garments can generate enough energy to allow a typical smartphone to be 100% charged."

Another company that is helping the industry through working to eliminate textile waste is FabScrap. The company provides a way to reuse and recycle textiles. One way they do this is allowing volunteers, students, and artists to get any material FabScrap collects that is not proprietary at extremely low prices to use for their own projects.

Lastly, Patagonia is another great example in the fashion industry. Patagonia uses 95% recycled cashmere and 5% wool made from pre-consumer cashmere waste. They do this by mechanically breaking the material down and spinning it into new yarn. For example, they have produced an exclusive cardigan that is up on their website now.

All in all, there are people doing this already but we are still far behind. If we can help shine light on these new technologies and innovations maybe we can get more of the fashion industry to help Stella work towards minimizing greenhouse emissions. With spreading sustainability throughout the fashion industry, we'll even be able to inspire other industries to follow our lead.