The fashion industry is the third most polluting industry in the world after oil and agriculture. Did you know that at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, dozens of global fashion brands refused to pay for an estimated $40 billion worth of finished goods, leaving millions of garment workers and their families without payment, savings or support of any kind? Did you know it can take 2,700 litres of water to make a T-shirt? And that in the UK an estimated £140m worth of clothes is sent to landfill each year? It's an industry that encourages consumers to buy poor-quality clothes, worn an average of seven times before being discarded. Find out why the current business model is broken and what each of us can do about it. Aja Barber is the author of Consumed: The Need for Collective Change – Colonialism, Climate Change and Consumerism, Sara Vaughan is an Innovator and Global Chief Purpose & Sustainability Advisor to Marie Claire and Dilys Williams is Founder and Director at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion.
