5 Things You Can Do to Help the Environment

Photo by Masha Raymers from Pexels

According to Carbon Trust reporting, clothing accounts for 3% of global production of CO2 emissions. Even though sustainability efforts are becoming more and more normalized in all spheres of our life, locally and globally, scientists are still warning governments and the public that without radical global emission reductions, the earth’s temperature will continue to rise. There are many things that can be done individually and collectively to make a difference and even small tweaks to our daily routine and choices can have a big impact on the well-being of our planet. Today we wanted to share 5 things that recently caught our attention and should be relevant to you and your clothing habits:

Choose fabrics wisely: We all know that choosing the fabrics that our clothes are made from is tricky, but researching and asking brands for transparency will make those decisions well-informed and ultimately better for the environment. Recently we learned that cellulose-based materials or Man-Made Cellulosic Fibres (MMCF), such as viscose, rayon, lyocell, modal, and cupro are made from wood pulp that is very often taken from trees of ancient and endangered forests of Amazon, Canada, Indonesia, and Australia. The deforestation and habitat destruction caused by this is not only increasing global carbon emissions but also decreasing biodiversity and endangering unique flora and fauna (and that is only the tip of an iceberg, but we’ll write more about cellulose-based materials in a future post!). When choosing cellulose-based materials, please take time to research or ask the brand where those materials come from. Canopy Style is an organization that did a tremendous amount of work pressuring big brands to pay attention to their viscose and rayon sources. You can learn more here.

Photo by Anna Tarazevich from Pexels

Purchase with thought: There are many, many ways in which you can lower the carbon footprint in your wardrobe. As usual, the most obvious way is to buy less, but we also encourage you to buy from climate-conscious, locally made brands that use organic and natural materials. Buying second-hand is another good option! We wrote about Circular Fashion in NYC and put together a brief Ethical and Sustainable Brand Guide that we think you’ll enjoy as well.

Photo by Sam Lion from Pexels

Use your clothes as long as you can: The way you take care of your clothes matters more than you may think. About half of the massive amount of carbon emissions that come from the clothing industry are emitted during the use of clothing and user care (such as washing, tumble-drying, ironing). Making the decision to hang dry instead of tumble dry and spot clean instead of throwing the garment in the washing machine right away, makes a bigger difference than you might think.

Photo by Olga Lioncat from Pexels

Retire your clothes with care: Please think twice before you throw away any garment or textile, as most of the things you no longer need don't belong in the landfill! For starters, we encourage you to choose quality over quantity and make your closet easier and more valuable to reuse or recycle (we wrote about that more in our Beginner's Guide to a Conscious Closet). In this way, the clothes you no longer wear and want to get rid of have the potential to be made into something useful instead of swelling our landfills (here we write about Clothing Retirement). So hold on to those clothes as long as you can and when it’s time to say goodbye, we will gladly take the clothes you don’t want or need from you. It’s easy, it’s charge- and hassle-free! Click below to

Demand Change! While all of the above things are going to significantly lower your personal carbon footprint, we have to be realistic and acknowledge that it’s not individuals who have the biggest negative impact on the environment, but organizations.
Where to start? As Al Gore said: "Use your voice, use your vote, use your choice", and that is a powerful place to start from. On your ballot, choose the candidates that acknowledge the science of climate change and are addressing it in their program. On your social media, demand transparency from brands, you are buying. In your day-to-day life, talk to friends and family, sign a petition calling for climate action, or write a letter to your elected official (local, state, or national), urging them to take action on climate change. 

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

It is amazing that we as individuals are making changes to our lifestyles in an effort to live a more sustainable life, but imagine what we could do if we put some of that amazing energy into pressuring corporations and governments to do better. Not everyone is an activist, but there are many ways to join the collective voice for change.

Join the movement.