Canada's Environmental Voice
While many clothing companies work to lessen the negative social and environmental impacts of their brands, some designers aim higher. These advocates hope to generate a net positive impact through their revolutionary fashion designs and campaigns around the world.
H&M H&M was the first major retailer to establish a garment collection program to reclaim used clothes. Some donated items are currently recycled into yarn for new garments. H&M hopes to soon make clothing with 100-per-cent-recycled yarn.
Jennifer Lynes is associate professor and director of the Environment and Business program at the University of Waterloo.
Think back to the old folk tale “The Little Red Hen.” In the tale, the red hen’s friends sit idly while she grows the wheat to get the grain to make the flour that eventually makes the bread – that, of course, all the animals want to eat. The moral […]
EACH WEEK, A\J staffers share our favourite facts & findings from whatever books, articles, documentaries, podcasts and other media we’ve been consuming. Here’s what we’ve learned this week!
Kelly Drennan is the founder of Fashion Takes Action (FTA), Canada’s only non-profit organization devoted to sustainability in the fashion industry. She has received Treehugger’s Best in Green Award and been called one of the “30 most influential Canadian women to watch” by FLARE magazine.
Raw Cotton Demand: ~26.0 million tonnesWater use: Up to 3860** litres/kgEnergy use: 50 MJ/kg Pesticides or chemicalsHeavy pesticide use leads to reduced soil fertility, loss of biodiversity and water pollution. Effluent/pollution from manufacturingEcosystem contamination from pollutants in runoff. Toxic wastewater from manufacturing process (e.g., cleaning, dyeing).*
When it rains, it pours…but you can be ready.
Despite hoping to present itself as a monolithic entity in order to force change, the environmental movement is nevertheless divided on two key battlegrounds: intensification and nuclear power. These internal debates tend to take place with hushed voices and behind closed doors, as if demonstration of the slightest bit of […]
SWIMBYISM: {swīm-bi: izem} It’s a new word I just learned and it stands for “something wonderful in my backyard.” It also perfectly describes a movement of relocalizing fibres and textiles in regional communities that is gaining interest in North America and Europe – it’s called Fibreshed, and it’s dramatically changing […]
