It’s World Environment Day today, and there’s plenty you can do to get involved. Think green today; take the train, ride a bike, avoid buying anything in single-use plastic (always), turn off the lights and power points, tell someone else it’s World Environment Day, hand-wash your dishes instead of using the dishwasher, and if you absolutely have to buy something today - buy something sustainable.
The global economy is built on buying and I’ve come to terms with the fact that as a society, we’re not going to stop buying. What I do hope we all do, is buy better. There are countless passionate labels designing for positive social and environmental change who use fashion as a force for good, and they need support.
If you don’t buy new things, good on you. If you do, at least make them sustainable. We could all fix a tonne (figuratively and literally) of environmental issues if we changed our buying habits overnight; we’re all only individuals but when we pool our buying power, we can have an incredibly positive impact.
Globally, we buy a million plastic bottles a minute. If no one in the world purchased a single-use plastic bottle today, we’d reduce our plastic consumption by 1.4 billion plastic bottles in a single day. If no one in Australia bought a single-use coffee cup today and instead used a reusable cup, we’d save 2.7 million cups today alone. 70 million barrels of non-renewable oil are used every year to make the world’s consumption of polyester fabric, and 60% of all fashion is made from it.
If no-one bought polyester garments today and instead bought natural fabrics, I don’t know the maths and facts on that impact but I know that buying natural fabrics is the better alternative.
We’re all ‘just one person’ and today is ‘just one day’ but together, we can have such an incredible, powerful, positive, environmental impact when we work together. If you do nothing else eco-friendly today other than share this post or tell someone else to stop and think about the environment for 24 hours, thank you. If you can do more, thank you.
Every conversation, every coffee cup, every plastic bottle, every plastic bag, and every garment counts. If you're going to shop today, shop from our range of ethical and sustainable designers and support labels who are designing for positive change. I'm wearing the botanically-dyed Rust Scarf, the handmade silver Juno Drops, the all-natural linen Zoe Shirt, and the ethically made Laos Cotton Pants.
The Fashion Advocate x
