Why be an earth systems thinker? by Giuliana Braide


Why be an earth systems thinker? by Giuliana Braide

When thinking about the future of fashion one need to understand about energy, matter and cycles because they are all connected into systems. Businesses must understand how systems function so they can propose positive solutions that work. There are businesses that consider themselves sustainable just because they decided to use organic cotton or only use faux fur. However, being sustainable and a “system thinker” is not about making one or another sustainable decision into your business. First, businesses must understand why they are making that decision and what it is going to be positive for the environment. Second, only one decision is not going to be enough, they must think as a system like everything is connect and integrated.
This is basically how it works: Energy (the ability to do work; it can appear as mechanical, chemical, nuclear, electrical, light or heat energy) drives the movement of matter (name of all physical substances, it can be stored, transferred, and moved around systems) allowing systems to change constantly and to interact with other systems.
Nothing about the physical world is static. The world is constantly moving and changing reusing and recycling dying and regenerating in all places.
For example, when Burberry decided do burn their extra inventory instead of reusing or recycling the items, the company was not “system thinking”. The impact of burning merchandising that contains a significant amount of chemicals can be tremendous, because when burning the products, the smoke that contains all of the toxics is going to pollute the air, that will go to the clouds and eventually result into an acid rain that will pollute the water and the sole.
The fashion industry is not giving the enough attention to the matter. They are only focusing on the profit and how quick they can make a product. However, as it was explained before, everything is connected we live in systems, so one bad decision can cause a lot of harm to the planet. In order to be a “systems thinker” one must understand how the environment works.

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