Written by: Chemitei Janet, Africa Regional Coordinator @ Threading Change, and Modester Lynn, Environment Resource Management Graduate

2 May 2022

[15-minute read]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established seven years ago (2015) by the United Nations (UN) and were adopted by all UN Member States at the time to act as “a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.”

These SDGs were supposed to be the “urgent call” governments, industries, and citizens needed to commence the long and hard process of creating lasting change and global solidarity in the pursuit of a better tomorrow. Seven years down the line though, and many industries have barely begun implementing sustainable development…

Here at Threading Change, our specialty is fashion and the textile industry; that is what we can speak to, and so we encourage you to follow us along on this ride and learn about the UN SDGs and specifically how they relate to the fashion industry.

SDG 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

SDG 7 highlights the goal of affordable and clean energy and contains three aspects including energy access, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. The increased demand in SDG 7 actions has been due to the huge role our energy usage plays in Climate Change.

The primary source of energy in the global community is still fossil fuels, which includes natural gas, coal, and petroleum; Renewable energy is rising though and becoming another primary energy source!

Globally, the fashion industry accounts for about 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions, and with the rise of fast fashion, the environmental impact of clothing has been increasing since 2000. This industry heavily depends on fossil fuels for its synthetic fibre production, which today is estimated to be 62% of what our clothes are made up of.

The amount of clothes being produced and circulated globally is driven by an insatiable consumerist behaviour. This dependence on fossil fuels is projected to rise to 7.39% by 2025 if we don’t take a step back to reflect, and ultimately, choose better.

The History of Synthetic Fibres

Fibres are raw materials from which yarns are made, which in turn are spun or twisted to make fabrics used to make clothes.

For example, linen is a plant based fibre that comes from a plant and wool is an animal based fibre, as it comes from sheep. These are both natural fibres though, but many synthetics exist as well. These are fibres such as polyester and viscose, that spring from wanting to mimic natural materials, but are produced from scratch.

In the 1800s, Swiss-born chemist George Audemars received the first successful patent for artificial silk which he created from the mulberry tree by chemically modifying its bark. Around the same time, another chemist and inventor from London, Sir Joseph Swan, created rayon. The first commercial rayon manufacturing plant was built in 1894 by French engineer Hilaire de Chardonnet, and he also established the first commercial-scale production of artificial silk.

Silk was a strong and widely used material at the time, but it was also very flammable, hence the need for more stable alternatives to be developed to eventually replace it. Charles Frederick Cross, a British chemist, researched and eventually developed viscose as a viable option.

By 1931, more advances in fibre production had been made and nylon, which was dubbed “the miracle fibre” was discovered by an American chemist at Dupont company, Wallace Carothers. The previous inventions of synthetic fibres had a natural base, but nylon was the first fully synthesized textile from petrochemicals.

By the 1950s, research into synthetic fibres was massive; more fibre inventions were produced and the Dupont company added a wool-like acrylic fabric, expanding its line of fabrics, whereas within that same time, polyester was also becoming more popular. This had been a part of an earlier fibre research of Carothers and a British textile company, Calico Printer’s Association, developed it further.

These plastic-made fibres grew increasingly popular in the 1960s and 70s and were extensively used in every area of fashion. With its use and production gaining momentum, safety standards were enacted as these fibres were still extremely flammable. Fire-retardant sprays and chemical treatments became the norm to deal with the flammable nature of synthetic fibres, adding yet another environmental impact to the long list the fashion industry had created.

In 2000, fast fashion really started to flourish though, and polyester became the number one demanded fibre, especially since it was cheaper compared to natural fibres like cotton. This helped fuel the cycle of more clothing production and then consumption, as the rise of its usage was also coupled with the availability of cheap and low quality clothes that would last only half as many wears, or even less, of the average article of clothing from decades past.

Fashion became addicted to fossil fuels, and this reliance has only grown over time, with clothing overproduction and overconsumption leading to extreme amounts of clothing waste.

Fashion and Energy

Individuals can play a huge role in the energy used by the fashion industry through consumption patterns. A basic day-to-day energy engagement in fashion is in the form of washing (including washing machines) and ironing (electricity use).

In hindsight, this basic use can accumulate to a large energy utilisation, with the factor of ‘the more clothes consumed the more energy used in preparing the clothes for use’. Majority of household use on average 120kwh every month for ironing, and with the growing access to electricity, as well as clothing consumption, this number is set to double.

The glaring issue, therefore, that comes to play under the SDG 7 priority is energy efficiency.

Energy is an integral part of day-to-day human activities, residential electricity being the most basic secondary energy source of it. According to a Statista 2019 publication, the world's electricity consumption was approximately 23,900TW/HR.

On a larger scale, energy in the form of natural gas is largely used in industry and manufacturing industries.

The industrial sector accounts for approximately 54% of energy consumption out of the approximate 617 EJ global energy produced. The fashion industry is one of the largest among these energy consuming industries in the face of fast fashion. Everyday, we put on clothes that mostly undergo, on the most basic energy level, washing, drying, and ironing.

Energy is an integral part of the fashion industry, from the manufacturing stage to the day-to-day wear, however majority of discussions on the fashion industry fail to highlight energy concerns that arise from fast fashion.

The largest energy requirement is seen in the manufacturing stage of clothes; a metre of cloth in the processing stage uses approximately 5,500 Kcal of thermal energy and 0.55kwH of electrical energy. On average, in China alone, 5.7 billion metres of clothing fibre were produced in early 2022, as per Statita findings. This is one manufacturing company, in a period of only two months. This shows just how much energy is consumed in manufacturing and ultimately, how much fossil fuel is utilised in this process.

The growing fashion industry further worsens this case with the growing demand for more clothes leading to a growing demand for more energy (i.e fossil fuels), translating to worsening GHG emissions and ultimately worse Climate Change effects.

What can be done?

The question in this is how do we make fashion a more energy efficient sector?

Energy transition to more renewable forms is a key way of creating a more energy efficient fashion industry. A large number of the fashion industry depends on fossil fuels, especially for manufacturing; transitioning to other renewable energy sources, including solar as seen used in some factories, could also help reduce the carbon footprint in the energy intensive processes of manufacturing.

This would also bring the fashion industry closer to achieving all three aspects of the SDG 7 including not only energy efficiency, but also renewable energy.

Policy intervention on energy resource use is needed, especially in the large scale utilisation of the fashion manufacturing industry. This could include policies that limit the percentage of fossil fuel used vis-à-vis renewable energy sources during manufacturing and processing of clothes. This will aid in incentives to facilitate, including tax incentives on renewable energy technologies to promote the uptake of renewable energy.

Consumer awareness and habit shift are another means of approaching this. The largest consumer demographic in the fast fashion industry are young people with Vogue’s 2020 survey issue pinpointing Gen Z as the largest groups of buyers of fast fashion, but also the most aware about sustainability and the impacts on the environment.

Individuals play a great role in influencing how much is produced based on how much they consume as the fashion industry is heavily influenced by the market. Repurposing outfits, buying second-hand clothes, handing down clothes and sustainable shopping are a few practices that, on an individual level, reduce energy both on a household level (less clothes to iron/wash) and larger scale in regards to production pressure. It might not seem as much, but choosing to buy what you only need and from brands and services that have committed to a transparency model in their supply chain, while also showing a clear intention to move away from fossil-fuel dependent fibres, can create a change in the fashion industry.

An Energy efficient fashion industry is an integral part of ultimately a sustainable environment and Climate friendly system. Individual-based decisions create a large ripple effect and these decisions affect more than one sector or aspect of the environment. Focusing on a climate friendly industry also includes an integrated approach to actions in the fashion industry. SDG 7 plays a key role in these actions, as said by Joe Kaessar, “an increased push for energy efficiency, renewable energy technology, electric mobility - along with the growing digitalization movement and a universal carbon pricing structure - would speed up the carbon-free future... We can and must all do our part.”

The fashion industry is reluctant to reduce its over reliance on fossil fuels, and employs greenwashing tactics to cover up its habits. How can fashion dissociate from fossil fuels? It’s critical to involve governments to develop legislations that commit to reduction and shift to a circular economy, while also being energy efficient. There have been alliances focused on such progress, including the United Nations Alliance on Sustainable Fashion, a partnership between UN Environment and other UN agencies, which launched in March 2019.

All of us, even through collaborations and partnerships, and non-governmental organisations, as they can’t change the system alone, or by themselves, have an opportunity to be vocal in raising awareness about unsustainable consumption, unethical and exploitative practices and how they impact people and the planet.

So what does this goal mean for the fashion industry?

Brands need to act now to create an industry that is circular and that means focusing on these three principles (Ellen Macarthur Foundation): Eliminate waste and pollution by using safe and renewable materials that don't release microfibers to our oceans, keep products and materials in use through business models that keeps clothing in use for longer through incorporating repairing, renting etc., and regenerative natural systems by designing clothes in a way that materials can be used more than once and thus eliminating a waste system at a products possible end of life.

If you missed our previous educational works on SDGs 1-6, check out our Instagram! Try searching the hashtag #ThreadingChangexSDGs to see all of our informative posts in one spot.