Today was the last day of the module. On the day, I and the rest of the Red Team put some finishing touches to our slideshow and decided to present the slides that we made ourselves. Just before class, I added my slides into my inventory as textures. I was a bit nervous at first because I wasn't expecting the sudden change to present through the Google Slides document itself, but I quickly calmed down. In retrospect, I realise that I didn't have a reason to be nervous since it was a minor change. That being said, I'm happy that I experienced this because sometimes changes like this happen suddenly so you have to slightly adjust yourself to gain your composure back. I was originally going to do 4 slides to match the others, but upon doing my research I felt that this wasn't enough slides to convey all this information, so I decided to do 7 slides instead. Our full presentation can be seen in the video below.
I did slides 6 to 12 of the presentation. Here's a full transcript of my part of the project. -
Slide 6 -
Emissions caused by the Industry - Statistics
The fast fashion industry greatly contributes to creating emissions that harm the planet. According to a 2018 UN Economic Commission for Europe report...
- 10% of global carbon emissions are caused by this industry. This is more emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.
- In 2018, the average consumer was purchasing 60% more clothing compared to 2000, but each garment is kept only half as long. In addition to this, 40% of clothes that we own is never worn.
- Around 20% of wastewater is caused by fabric dyeing and treatment while another 85% of textiles are sent to landfills which is roughly equivalent to 21 billion tons a year.
Slide 7 -
According to the UN Environment Programme, every second, an equivalent of one garbage truck filled with textiles is sent is to a landfill or burned in an incinerator. This releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, produces dangerous environments for people and wildlife, and more.
Slide 8 -
Emissions caused by the Industry - Fabric
At the current rate of production and consumption, greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise by more than 50% by 2030 which will harm everyone as temperatures and sea levels continue to rise worldwide.
Slide 9 -
Quality and Sustainability
Due to the rapid production cycle of these garments, they are typically produced in a cost-effective manner that capitalize on popular trends. Combine this with the fact that they are often made of primarily synthetic materials means that these clothes don’t typically last for long term wear. However, there are several ways that sustainability can be improved such as….
- Utilising new technologies to reduce the number of resources being used such as fabric, seams or dyes.
- Using cleaner modes of transportation such as electric trucks, LNG fuel for ships or biofuel for aircraft.
- Increasing the amount of recycling and relying less on landfills/incinerators.
Slide 10 -
This is an example of using new technology to increase sustainability. 3D sampling and 3D prototyping which can help cut waste by cutting accurate sizes of fabrics in the initial design stage before the fabric goes unused and thrown away in the later stages. More accurate clothing sizes being produced also lowers returns which means that they don’t have to be transported back to the producer.
Slide 11 -
As previously mentioned, ships are the most popular form of transportation for fast fashion. There are several alternative greener fuels that are currently being developed that could be utilized in the future. One of these is Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which has low sulphur and nitrous emissions, which means that it produces fewer greenhouse gases than the traditionally used marine diesel oil.
Another contender is Dimethyl Ether (DME) which is a renewable, non-toxic fuel. In addition to this, it is easy to ignite in diesel engines which are typically used in large container ships. This means that the engines are easy to modify and can adapt to this type of fuel.
Other proposals include solar, battery technologies and hydrogen fuel cells which are in their infancy, but could potentially produce even less harmful emissions.
Slide 12 -
Green Fuels for Aircraft
Air transport is another popular method of transporting fast fashion products. Thankfully, just like ships there are several cleaner fuel sources being developed. Some of these biofuels include energy cane which is a type of genetically modified sugarcane. It produces 12% less greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels. According to a study done by the Brazilian Bioethanol Science and Technology Laboratory, energy cane could yield more than 2,500 litres of bio-jet fuel per acre of land.
Other examples of biofuels include using lumber/logging waste that’s typically used to produce paper and palm oil, but these alternatives are in the early stages of development. It would be optimal if this industry and others would look into using these cleaner energy sources in the future.
Overall, I'm very proud of the Red Team because everyone presented their work well and put in a good amount of effort. There were some struggles when doing the project entirely online, but I think that all team projects naturally have some problems every now and again in general. I'm grateful to experience this and learn from my mistakes, I feel that this is an extremely valuable skill to have for the future as the world continues to digitise. I'm excited to take the lessons I've learned throughout this module into my future work. I was also proud to see everyone else's work coming into fruition today and learn some interesting facts about the environment. It's been a pleasure to participate in this unique module, many thanks to John and everyone involved!
