The Earthlings| Sustaining Our Planet for Future Generations
Sustaining Our Planet for Future Generations
The Effects of Fast Fashion on the Environment
Summary
Fast fashion is the inexpensive and mass production of clothing at a rapid pace. The unethical ways the clothing is produced has had a detrimental effect on the environment, as well as the future impacts coming from the non-biodegradable material. On our website, one can view interactive data and statistics, take part in a simulation, and understand ways to combat fast fashion.
How We Addressed This Challenge
INTRODUCTION
Our project addresses the negative effects of the copious amounts of waste, carbon emissions and water usage has on the environment . 10% of those carbon emissions come from disregarded clothing due to the prevalence of fast fashion. Most materials that make up clothing are not biodegradable, and people do not realize that their newest cotton shirt took approximately 700 gallons of water to create from its conception. The consumerist approach to fashion and clothing is having a detrimental effect on the environment and is playing a substantial role in worsening climate change. This issue is becoming more and more important to address as wastelands continue to fill up with old clothing that cannot be salvaged. As most people do not think about each garment they purchase and choose to keep, they do not know how much of an impact it has on the Earth.
APPROACH
The dangerous habits of consumers made us realize we wanted to create a tool used by consumers to allow them to realize the effects each article of clothing they potentially will buy (or already have) has on the environment. This serves as a solution to the fast-moving world of “buying and throwing out” shirts, pants, and other articles of clothing, all of which have a detrimental effect on the environment by increasing carbon emissions and water consumption. Our website is focused on making people conscious about the effect their potential purchases of clothes has on the environment. We achieved this through interactive data and a simulation for real-world implementation on a website. Infographics created by us are utilized to convey raw and clear statistics to consumers. The interactive game takes advantage of USER INTERFACE by keeping users engaged in making active decisions and viewing the real-life impact of them. For example, if someone is out shopping and they are deciding whether to buy a new jacket or not, they can quickly go onto our website and tap/click on the material of the piece. One they make that decision, the pros and cons of the material are listed in an easy-to-view way. From this page, the person will choose if they want to go through with their purchase or not, and that brings them to the following page on whether we believe that would be a good choice for the environment. On this final page, we list tips and advice for whichever decision they choose, and this helps give the viewer clarity on the impact they can decide to have on global warming, carbon emissions, and water usage - good or bad. Alternatively, a person at home can check to see their own clothing’s impact on the environment and ways to combat it (as shown in our infographics). We hope to affect people’s decisions regarding their clothing consumer habits and help the environment through this. Both of us have taken a hard look at the clothing we each own, used the simulation to check the impacts on the environment each piece had in its making process and future, and realize we need to change our consumerist habits as well. We both won’t be buying any (unnecessary) new clothing for a few years to come!
How We Developed This Project
The purpose of this challenge is to communicate the importance of sustaining our planet to all generations. From there, we decided to choose an extremely common issue that many overlook: fast fashion. Though we were previously complicit in this problem, we realized how harmful it was to the Earth. Our team thought that this issue would help explain sustainability to all generations best because of how attainable the solution is. First, we gathered statistics and facts about different clothing materials and organized the data together. We correlated that data to NASA data on Ocean and Carbon Emissions
(https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification), to show the increasing amounts of carbon emission, and how 10% of that is from the fast fashion industry. In essence, we wanted to convey how large of an effect fast fashion has on the Earth. We created a master map to layout the blueprint of our website. Then, we created a rough draft of what each page on the website would look like, adding in infographics, images, and text. Finally, we began the coding process. One of the biggest issues for us was coding, as we had limited knowledge. But through Youtube and other sources, we were able to semi-finish the website. Therefore, that was also one of our achievements. Another one of our issues was creating the format of the interactive simulation because we weren’t exactly sure how we could portray; however, we solved that issue.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
We utilized a substantial amount of data from NASA at mainly https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ to show the detrimental effects of increased carbon emissions and climate change. Our project is based on the information displayed on the “Climate Change: How do we Know?” page and the subarticles within it. It influenced the interactive infographics on the website along with the simulation, mainly for the outcomes of climate change and the impact all of the waste from clothing factories and individual articles of clothing has on the environment. We utilized information and statistics from other sources as well, mostly for the intricate details of different types of fabrics and their impact on the Earth.
Project Demo
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TZYx5j3sMvI_7Ykqsw4AeA_mNJdcwIkr-Qy7_TaztR8/edit?usp=sharing
Project Code
Data & Resources
“Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?” NASA, NASA, 2 Oct. 2020, climate.nasa.gov/evidence/.
“Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” NASA, NASA, climate.nasa.gov/.
“Material Guide: How Ethical Is Modal?” Good On You, 27 June 2020, goodonyou.eco/material-guide-ethical-modal/.
McFall-Johnsen, Morgan. “The Fashion Industry Emits More Carbon than International Flights and Maritime Shipping Combined. Here Are the Biggest Ways It Impacts the Planet.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 21 Oct. 2019, www.businessinsider.com/fast-fashion-environmental-impact-pollution-emissions-waste-water-2019-10.
Ocean Acidification: The Other Carbon Dioxide Problem. www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification.
“The Problem with Fast Fashion.” BWSS, 27 Aug. 2019, www.bwss.org/fastfashion/.
Revolution, Fashion, and Fashionrevolution. “Fashion Transparency Index 2020.” Issuu, issuu.com/fashionrevolution/docs/fr_fashiontransparencyindex2020.
“A Simple Guide To Eco-Friendly Fabrics And Where To Shop Them.” VETTA, www.vettacapsule.com/blogs/blog/your-guide-to-eco-friendly-fabrics.
“UN Alliance For Sustainable Fashion Addresses Damage of 'Fast Fashion'.” UNEP - UN Environment Programme, www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-alliance-sustainable-fashion-addresses-damage-fast-fashion.
Written by Morgan McFall-Johnsen, Junior Reporter. “These Facts Show How Unsustainable the Fashion Industry Is.” World Economic Forum, www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/fashion-industry-carbon-unsustainable-environment-pollution.