Ginger Leaf Living

Heard all about the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and all the other problems the planet is facing, and now feel pretty low and helpless? Time to plan what you’re going to do about it my friend! Grab a pen and let’s get to it…

The news can feel pretty overwhelming at times, especially at the moment, and you may feel like you don’t know how to help or where to start making a difference. Understandable, since this is saving the world we’re talking about. This is where making goals comes in! You’ve probably made goals for different things in your life, or just been forced to make them at school, but now is a great time to create some targets you can work towards to make creating sustainable change a bit more realistic. You may want to generate your goals for you as an individual, or maybe you’d like to make change as a family, either way this will guide you as you make your goals. Here are some hints for getting started:

• Get organised! Whether its a physical journal, a note on your phone or a large piece of paper stuck to the kitchen wall, pick somewhere to make your goals that everyone will see and check regularly. For me, I like to write my goals in an artistic way (as in by using pretty highlighters) in a physical diary such as a bullet journal, because I know I’m more likely to follow these goals if they are written down and want to be ticked off ( I do love ticking things off lists!).
• Making sustainable and lasting change will not happen overnight, so your goals are likely to be a mix of short-term and longer-term targets, which is good for motivation. For instance, short-term goals might be:

1. Purchase a solid shampoo bar the next time I need to stock up on haircare
2. Repair those trousers with the hole in, instead of throwing them away
3. Educate myself on eco-friendly changes I can make with my lifestyle by researching websites, books and documentaries

Short-term goals are great for getting the ball rolling – once you tick off a few you’ll feel a real sense of achievement which should motivate you to tackle some of your larger goals, for example:

1. Commit to one ‘meat-free’ day a week (this goal could then be furthered to two days etc…)
2. Cut down on the amount of fast fashion I consume
3. Cycle to work/ school for three days a week

These longer-term goals may take more time and effort as it will require you and your family to change your lifestyle and habits, for instance reducing your meat intake or mode of transport, but done gradually should allow you to make a big change in smaller, less intimidating steps.

• If you are setting goals as a family, try to include every family member in the process, so that once you embark on your steps to sustainability, everyone is aware of what they can do.
• Check in with your goals every once in a while and congratulate yourself when you achieve them!
• Have fun! These goals aren’t restrictions on your life, so they should be things you want to achieve. Enjoy the process, perhaps by documenting what you’ve done or just talking about your goals with friends and family so more people can be inspired to join you on this journey.

Hopefully, with a bit of planning and the use of some aesthetic stationery, your goals will help you to feel less overwhelmed by the situation, so that the next time the news is looking anything but positive, you can remind yourself that you are doing something to help and your actions are meaningful.

So you love buying clothes, going shopping and keeping up with the latest trends? Yeah me too. But were you aware of the fashion industry’s impact on our planet? And if so, what can you do about it whilst still enjoying fashion and not having so wear your pyjamas for the rest of your life (as cosy as that would be)?

What do we mean by sustainability?

In recent years, sustainability has become a bit of a trendy buzzword, but what do we actually mean when we call industries or products sustainable? The Cambridge dictionary defines sustainable as ‘able to continue over a period of time’ and ‘causing little or no damage to the environment and therefore able to continue for a long time’. Here I will be considering environmental sustainability, but also touching on social sustainability, which is worth keeping in mind. Therefore, with relation to sustainable fashion, we are defining it as clothing that has a minimal impact on the environment and which can be sustained for future generation due to its lasting production model and lifespan.

How damaging is the fashion industry?

Like any industry built on consumerism, the fashion industry is very demanding on our environment. Here are some facts to help you visualise:

• It takes 700 gallons of water to make one cotton t-shirt – that is roughly equivalent to 40 showers worth.
• Cotton is ranked in class E – least sustainable
• The fashion industry is the fourth worst polluting industry by CO₂ emissions
• In 2015, the fashion industry consumed 79 billion cubic metres of water (enough to fill 32 million Olympic sized swimming pools), 92 million tons of waste and 1,715 million tons of CO₂ (equivalent to 230 million passenger cars driving around for a year)

All this and we already have enough clothes on the planet for the next six generations.

One especially damaging part of the fashion industry is ‘fast fashion’. This is the model you are probably most likely to see on the high street and is used by fashion e-tailors, where brands produce as many clothes as possible with many collections a year at considerably low prices. These clothes are designed to be worn while the trend is around, but then are either worn out or discarded when a new trend comes around. This overwhelming production and churn-out of clothes is unnecessary in many high-income societies where buying clothes is more for pleasure than for necessity, and is therefore very wasteful in terms of water consumption (e.g. for cotton production), chemical usage (e.g. dyes), fossil fuel usage (e.g. transporting clothes from factories such as in Asia to the UK, for instance), plastic pollution (e.g. fibres that come out in the washing machine) as well as demanding on many other resources, not to mention socially in terms of the people working in fast fashion factories around the world, not always in safe working conditions.

So what can I do?

This is the most important question of all – now we are aware of the problem, how do we find a solution? Well the good news is, as with many problems we are facing right now, there are many actions you can take as an individual as well as wider society changes that we need to see. So here is a handy list to get you started, drawing from some of the changes I thought of and starting implementing after researching fashion’s impact on the planet…

• THINK                                                                                                                                                         When you next go shopping, an easy way to begin your sustainability journey and my top tip is to become a conscious consumer. For instance, when you visit a shop, online or in store, and see an item you like, ask yourself these questions: Will I wear this? Does it fit me properly? Do I have other items it can be worn with? Do I already have something similar? Can I imagine myself wearing it with 2-3 other combinations of clothes I already own and at a range or events? Do I really like it or is it to please someone/something else? Am I sure about buying it? Now that’s a lot of questions, so if you can answer them all and still feel confident, maybe this is a purchase you want to go through with. If you’re not sure, sometimes it is helpful to take a screenshot/ add it to a Wishlist if online, or take a picture of it in the shop, and leave it for two weeks. If you have spent the last two weeks dreaming of this item and can now answer some of the questions you were unsure of, maybe you could treat yourself. If you have forgotten it and moved on, then you saved yourself the expense and all the resources that went into that item. I have found this two week rule helpful in a multitude of ways, not just cutting down on my consuming habits, but saving me money and preventing me from accumulating lots of ‘stuff’ in my life and so helping me live more simply.

• Choose where you shop – This may be specific brands or shops but do your research. Some shops and brands have created a focus on sustainability within their company and are very transparent on their website about their clothes, while others may focus on producing a large volume of clothing at low prices for economic growth. If you are serious about wanting to make a change, you will want to/ will be able to see hints about a company’s focus when shopping there. For example, if a banner on their website says “BUY IT NOW” or “SEE IT, BUY IT, GOT TO HAVE IT” it suggests that this is a fast fashion model. One important thing I want to say is that you absolutely do not need to shop in expensive places and buy eye-wateringly expensive organic clothes to make a change, some high street brands are very good at being transparent with their prices and practices, allowing you as the consumer to make your own choice. Always remember that as the consumer, you have the power (cue music), so if you stop buying and creating demand, producers will stop making and wasting as much. It’s in your hands!!!

• Buy second hand – this may be through charity shops, vintage stores or sites such as Depop where you can give preloved garments a new home!

• Pay attention to materials used – In simplified terms, there are two main camps: natural fabrics (e.g. cotton and linen) and synthetic fabrics (e.g. polyester.) Natural materials grown in sustainable ways, e.g. labelled as organic or accredited by organisations like the Better Cotton Initiative are good choices, but for the most part high street clothes will not be accredited. Therefore it is important to know your material so that you can use it well and minimize its impact when in use. This may be by using products like a GUPPYFRIEND washing bag to help catch the plastic microfibres that come out when washing artificial materials or just by caring for the garment in the intended ways to prolong its lifespan.

• Make your own clothes and upcycle – I know this sounds scary! If you are looking for a new hobby, dressmaking is a really great and satisfying pastime, and allows you to make unique garments for your style and shape, especially satisfying when someone asks where you got that piece from……However, if that all seems like too much, what about upcycling existing pieces in your wardrobe? Don’t like the sleeves? Cut ‘em off. A bit plain? Jazz it up with some iron on motifs, buttons, pom poms, you name it. Wrong size? Change it, might as well give it a go, it’s already uncomfortable and you can always unpick any mistakes. This approach is also really creative and might just spark some fashion designer inspiration inside of you that you didn’t know you had!

• Recycling – Sometimes, a garment really has come to the end of its natural lifespan. If it something like a hole, you could try fixing it. If it cant be fixed, you could use the fabric for something else, like making a scrunchie (great fun….!) or doing something crafty. Despite all this, sometimes its just not meant to be. If the clothes are still usable, you might consider donating them to a charity shop or a clothing bank. Organisations like TRAID prevent clothes from being thrown away by providing 1,500 charity clothes banks in the UK with home collections and charity shops which reduce waste in landfill. And finally, textiles recycling is an option if the item no longer works as a piece of clothing, but has the chance to be turned into something else. Never say die!

• New ways to wear clothes – bored of your current options? Perhaps you and friends and family could organise a ‘swapping party’ where you can trade items in each other’s wardrobes that you no longer use but someone else finds attractive. Or maybe you could rent an outfit for a certain occasion through apps or pop-up shops if you fancy a change but know you won’t wear it again.

• At home – Wash clothes less frequently, at lower temperatures and line dry where possible to take the pressure off your water and energy intensive household appliances.

I know this was a lengthy post, but as someone interested in fashion and wanting to live more sustainably, I find this topic really interesting and exciting as it evolves and will change in the future. Sustainable and ‘slow’ fashion is seen in the news a lot recently, so I think its important we all educate ourselves on the issues, raise awareness and then use the momentum to create real, lasting changes. I hope some of these starting tips have given you inspiration to begin making some changes in your own lives and wish you luck with your exciting sustainable fashion journey!