Blogmas Countdown #11 - A sustainable resolution
Can we all make a sustainable new year resolution and buy a bit more consciously during 2024?
Just a few days back, my better half showed me a fascinating reel. It was a snippet from a French show discussing Inditex's latest shift in transporting their fashion goods from China to Europe. Traditionally, this journey was made by sea, averaging around 35 days to reach European shores. However, in a bid to redefine 'fast fashion', Inditex has upped the ante. They're now aiming for same-day delivery from production to the European store racks, switching to air transport. And yes, you read that right – what used to travel in large batches via sea, already contributing significantly to CO2 emissions, is now set to skyrocket the emission levels by a staggering 50 times. More info here.
Now, let me break down the numbers for you.
Consider this: moving a 10,000-ton cargo by boat results in 800 metric tons of CO2 emissions. Switch to air transport for that same cargo, and we're talking about 40,000 metric tons of CO2 – a jaw-dropping increase, indeed 50 times more. But hold on, you might be thinking, "Elisavet, 10,000 tons is a massive amount. Surely a brand doesn't handle that much monthly, right?" Well, I've crunched those numbers too, so you don't have to.
The Inditex group spans 8 brands with a whopping 7,000 stores worldwide. And as for their garment types, they average out as follows:
T-Shirts and Tops: 225 grams (average of 150 to 300 grams)
Jeans and Trousers: 750 grams (average of 500 grams to 1 kg)
Dresses and Skirts: 450 grams (average of 200 to 700 grams)
Outerwear: 1 kg (as an average for heavier clothing items)
Lightweight and Synthetic Fabrics: Let's assume an average of 200 grams for these items.
Split these garment types evenly to fill a 10,000-ton cargo, and you end up with:
T-Shirts and Tops: About 8,888,889 items
Jeans and Trousers: About 2,666,667 items
Dresses and Skirts: About 4,444,444 items
Outerwear: About 2,000,000 items
Lightweight and Synthetic Fabrics: About 10,000,000 items
Sounds like a lot, right? Enough to stock a store for an entire year, perhaps. But when you distribute this across Inditex's 7,000 stores, it barely scratches the surface for a single restock. This boils down to approximately:
T-Shirts and Tops: About 159 items
Jeans and Trousers: About 48 items
Dresses and Skirts: About 79 items
Outerwear: About 36 items
Lightweight and Synthetic Fabrics: About 179 items
per store….
But here's the sobering part. Imagine the frequency of such shipments in the fast fashion world, with new collections rolling out every fortnight, each carrying more items per store per shipment. Now, ponder over how often these garments are actually worn. And the crucial question – does the environmental cost justify the brief lifespan of these fashion items?
As we step into the new year, perhaps it's time for some mindful resolutions. Let's think sustainability, not just fast.