The Hidden Carbon Footprint of the Fashion Industry

Paris Fall/Winter Couture Week kicks off today. The industry as a whole has come under scrutiny in recent years for its huge environmental footprint, be it through resource use, pollution or unsustainable materials. But one element that is somewhat overlooked is the impact of the many shows themselves. And there are many - while London, Milan, Paris, New York make up the ‘big four’, there are many more in other cities, including major trade shows in Copenhagen, Tokyo and Seoul. Not to mention that womenswear and menswear often have different collections for both the Spring/Summer season and another for Fall/Winter, as well as Pre-Fall and Resort lines.

Carbon Trust & ORDRE collected data on the emissions generated from the business travel of designers and buyers attending fashion weeks and collections in a year. The researchers found that in the 12 months starting from the Spring/Summer 2018 season, a total of 241,000 tonnes of carbon emissions were created from air travel, accommodation, intercity travel and the transportation of collections by roughly 11,000 individual retail buyers and 5,000 designers. That’s more than the 2017 greenhouse gas emissions of Saint Kitts and Nevis (238,000 tCO2e), and would be enough to light up Times Square, New York City for 58 years.

The following chart shows that New York was the city whose fashion weeks had the worst environmental impact worldwide, responsible for 60,000 tCO2e that year alone, followed by Paris with 45,000 tCO2e and London with 28,000 tCO2e. The average carbon footprint for a buyer is 12.1 tCO2e while the average footprint for a designer employee is 7.6 tCO2e.

According to the report, these are even likely conservative estimates, considering the fact the research only focused on the travel emissions associated with the commercial aspects of fashion weeks and collections, i.e. the movements of designers and buyers, rather than all other groups such as the media and influencers.

This report has fuelled already mounting global pressure to improve the sustainability of the fashion industry. While there’s still some way to go, the calls have been heeded by many companies. For example, London Fashion Week June 9-12 is a hybrid of both online and real life, while Copenhagen Fashion Week introduced a number of requirements around the business practices and materials designers must abide by in order to be included in the show.

The writers of the report recommend several steps to improve the emissions generated in future years, including avoiding flying business class which has a higher carbon footprint per passenger than economy class, seeking to combine long distance trips, choosing to travel by train rather than flying where possible and combining seasons and collections.

The scope of the research included travel to and from fashion weeks, travel within cities during fashion weeks, staff accommodation, and the transportation of collections, including at collections in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Auckland, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Florence, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Madrid, Munich, Naples, Seoul, Shanghai, Stockholm, Tokyo and Zurich.