Are sustainable shops helping or hindering the climate emergency?
As this year has made apparent, the climate emergency is worsening rapidly. In response, much of the fashion industry is switching to a greener alternative - but how sustainable is it really?
Source: Extinction Rebellion
Sustainability. A word of ever-increasing prominence, particularly since the United Nations set their sustainable development goals in 2015, and the climate emergency has picked up pace. Now, in light of the pandemic, it has become even more relevant. During the time of Covid-19, people have been faced with the question of sustainably in relation to food, clothing and even the economy itself. After facing the possibility of shortages in medicine, and seeing how unethical brands treated their workers during the pandemic, consumers became angry and many began to question their spending habits. Questions remain however as to whether this anger has really led to a shift in mindset, if these sustainable shops and platforms which people are now turning to, help or hinder the climate emergency, and what exactly are the ethical implications of our shopping during the Black Friday, Cyber Week and the Christmas sales.
Lately, people have been shopping sustainably more and more, trying to recycle and repurpose goods instead of buying first hand. Depop, a platform for selling used-clothes, has grown year on year in popularity, now according to TechCrunch, producing a revenue of 100 per cent every single year. In addition, people have been looking into sustainable alternatives from mainstream, fast fashion brands which have seen the growth in popularity for conscious brands such as Tala, Lucy and Yak and Girlfriend Collective. But are these more ethical brands really helping with the problem of sustainability or just adding more clothes and packaging to waste sights?
Depop is a place for second hand goods, but as people have seen just how much profit can be made, the platform's sustainability appeal has decreased. Many students and young adults are running depop shops but buying from others on Depop only to resell, buying limited edition clothing or shoes to hold on to then resell for a much higher price than the originals, and even bulk buying from charity shops and then whacking on a 40-pound price tag to an apparently “vintage” tee. For those that are using depop simply to pass on pre-loved or unloved goods, it definitely seems more helpful than simply buying new from fast fashion shops. But for the others, the packaging, repacking plus the carbon emissions used to transport these goods, can increase significantly what they would need to be were people simply buying first hand. Although a seemingly sustainable way to shop, it is important to understand why people are able to sell clothes at such a rapid rate, in some cases making up to four thousand pounds a month, according to Depop themselves.
In addition, more ethical brands such as Tala have also been under the sustainable knife for whether they are actually a conscious brand. In response, the founder Grace Beverly stated that they bring out collections mindfully, so that they are not overproducing clothes, they also have plantable tags which you can watch grow, avoiding use of any plastic or paper which could go unrecycled. She also defended their lack of a Black Friday sale, stating that “if a company can discount 30 per cent upwards ... someone somewhere is sacrificing their quality of life.” Beverly’s point was strongly highlighted as brands such as Pretty Little Thing and Boohoo were selling clothes for mere pennies and, according to the Sunday Times, workers coming forward from Leicester stated that they were only being paid £3.50 per hour despite minimum wage for those aged over 25 being £8.72.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the on-coming Christmas sales are needed for many people and businesses after a financially difficult year. David Attenborough showed that in England consumes four times as much as India, and America consumes seven times this amount. It is this overconsumption that has great ethical implications. This is the reason why discussions about sustainable spending and production, raised by people like Grace Beverly and other advocates, are so crucial. They demonstrate that it is not only the buyer’s responsibility to reduce consumption, but also the responsibility of the companies themselves to produce ethically.
For most, the purchase of sustainable goods is difficult as the prices can be so high, which is why it is even more important for the larger companies, for example Primark or Amazon to make sure they are paying their workers the minimum wage, and doing their bit in terms of sustainable packaging and shipping. During the Christmas sales it is the big companies who thrive, with Amazon, Ebay, Apple and Sony benefiting the most whilst other smaller independent brands drown unable to compete with these prices. Should these smaller brands be punished for ethical behaviour? Over the last year, more of a light has been shun on this important topic and this year's Black Friday statistics will tell whether there really has been a shift in mindset from a consumerist perspective, but in the meantime shop sustainably.