Producing clothes

CO2e. From raw material to disposal, the entire life cycle of our clothing produces climate impacts. It has been estimated that the fashion industry emits around 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2e a year, which equates to approximately 2-3% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. If the fashion industry doesn’t change the way it currently operates, the industry’s CO2e emissions could increase by 60% by 2030. To achieve the SDGs, including keeping below the 2°C global temperature target, the fashion industry needs to take an active role in reducing its energy emissions. It has been estimated that an 80% industry-wide emissions cut by 2050 is needed to align the fashion industry’s emissions to the 2°C warming scenario. There is a lot of work to be done to achieve this, by all of us - citizens, businesses and governments alike.

1.1 billion people currently do not have access to clean water, while industry consumes water for growing fibers, the care manufacturing process and clothing.
It can take 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton T-shirt, which alone can provide up to 3 years of drinking water for one person.

Cotton requires a huge amount of water.

Water usage for growing cotton has led to drastic shrinkage of the Aral sea.

Dyeing and treatment of garments makes up roughly 17-20% of all industrial water pollution.
Another major issue is pollution from the wet processing of the textile industry. Wet processing is the scouring, bleaching, dyeing, printing and finishing of raw textiles. The Citarum River in Indonesia is home to around 2,000 textile factories where the effluent used for dyeing and processing fabric is dumped, with little or no regulation. Attempts to clean up the world’s most polluted river have been pointless as the authorities turn a blind eye to rogue factories. Pollution on this scale is a gross infringement of people’s human rights.

Fashion is directly related to habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity as a result of land use. Areas of forest land have been cleared for cultivation, animal husbandry and the production of cellulose fibers from wood, while mismanaged livestock has also led to the degradation of fertile land.

The search of the global garment and sportswear industries for the lowest production costs comes at a high price: the health and safety of workers. After more than a century of work as CCC, developing national regulations and international conventions, workers continue to lose their health and lives while stitching our clothes.
World-wide attention on worker safety in the garment industry has grown enormously since three devastating accidents that killed thousands of workers and shook the world: the factory fires of Ali Enterprises in Pakistan and Tazreen Fashions in Bangladesh, both 2012, and the Rana Plaza Collapse in 2013, Bangladesh.
But workers are not only threatened by unsafe buildings. Dangerous practices, such as the unprotected use of chemical substances or sandblasting, continue to be common in the industry. And even workers behind the sewing machine are exposed to health hazards, such as noise, high temperatures and repetitive motion. Fainting is common in factories where workers make long hours without proper ventilation or air conditioning and are paid too little to properly feed themselves. Also workers are subjected to verbal and psychological harassment and violence, especially the majority of women in the industry, who additionally potentially face gender based violence and sexual harassment.

The legal minimum wage in most garment-producing countries is rarely enough for a worker to live on. For example, the legal minimum wage for garment workers in Bangladesh is 8,000 taka (equivalent to about £73) per month. However, campaigners say workers need double that amount for a decent standard of living. According to Labour Behind the Label, there is a gap of 2 to 5 times, between minimum or industry-standard wages, and most living wage benchmarks based on a cost of living methodology. Research conducted by Deloitte Access Economics for Oxfam has revealed that just 4% of the price of a piece of clothing is estimated to make it back to the workers. Even if big brands passed the entire cost increase of paying living wages to the workers on to consumers by increasing the price they pay for an item, Deloitte estimates this would increase the price of a piece of clothing sold by just 1%.

The fashion industry is one of the biggest contributors to forced labour, according to the Global Slavery Index produced by the Walk Free Foundation. According to the report produced by the Walk Free Foundation, “our most at-risk garments are imported from China, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Brazil and Argentina.” Forced, bonded and child labour can be found in myriad forms in fashion supply chains. For example, around 170,000 people are forced by the government to pick cotton in Uzbekistan each year — cotton that ends up in the clothes we may purchase from major fashion brands.

An estimated 170 million children are engaged in child labour, or 11% of the global population of children, according to the International Labour Organisation.

In the yarn and spinning mills, child labour is rampant. The SOMO report (pdf) found that 60% of workers at the mills it investigated in India were under-18 when they started working there; the youngest workers were 15 when they joined.
Children also work in the “cut-make-trim” stage, when clothes are put together. SOMO says: “In garment factories, children perform diverse and often arduous tasks such as dyeing, sewing buttons, cutting and trimming threads, folding, moving and packing garments. In small workshops and home sites, children are put to work on intricate tasks such as embroidering, sequinning and smocking (making pleats).” Learn more

More than half of working fashionistas do not receive the minimum wage, and in most manufacturing countries, this is another half of what can be considered a living wage. This is due to the increasing speed fueled by marketing messages that make women and men look, behave and shop the same way.

Approximately between 60 and 75 million people work directly in the fashion and textiles industry and around 70 to 80% are women. Many are subject to exploitation and verbal and physical abuse. They often work in unsafe conditions, without basic healthcare and with very little pay.
Problems:
- gender inequality
A 2019 World Bank report found that just six countries give women and men equal legal rights. This is an improvement from a decade ago, in which the report found that no country guaranteed full legal equality.
Globally, women are estimated to earn 77% of what men earn, although these figures understate the real extent of gender pay gaps, particularly in developing countries where informal self-employment is prevalent, and almost 40% of women in wage employment do not have access to social protection.
- physical abuse, sexual harassment. According to CARE International, nearly one in three women working in garment factories reported experiencing sexually harassing behaviour in the workplace over the last 12 months. Out of 180 workers in Bangladesh, interviewed for the Microfinance Opportunities/Fashion Revolution Garment Worker Diaries project in 2017, 60% reported gender-based discrimination, over 15% reported being threatened and 5% had been hit. More than one-third of countries around the world do not yet have any laws prohibiting sexual harassment at work, leaving nearly 235 million women vulnerable on a daily basis.