Are we Doing What it Takes for Real Sustainability?

It is very important that sustainability can be applied at every stage of life in order to leave a livable world to generations to meet their own needs [1]. This fundamental definition of sustainable development offers a descriptor, which clearly is indicative of the perceptions of cause and effect, signifying that today’s needs should not be fulfilled at the sacrifice of tomorrow’s generations. Therefore, it is not possible to achieve sustainability if what needs to be done today is not actually done.

Some basic requirements for true sustainability

Today, consumers still prefer to buy only the product they like, but consumption responsibility should be created with sustainability awareness. In a study on German women’s, a consumer map about sustainable fashion was created and the main elements are environment, recyclable material, suitability of children’s clothing, good working conditions and wages, responsible production, use of natural fibers, quality, re-use. In addition, women stated that transparency is very important and that the consumer expects the whole story of the garment to be told on the label [2]. Fashion designers must have approaches that will contribute positively to ethical materials, labour and the environment [3]. It is necessary for all these to be disseminated around the world, and companies need to change their consumption patterns in a way that interferes with customers’ purchasing preferences [4]. Thus, it may be possible to raise awareness of consumers about sustainability in the process of purchasing clothes. Additionally, when designing, they should consider the environmental effects of water and energy use in washing and care of clothing [5].

The increase in second-hand use, shopping in smaller and virtual markets, the use of materials from renewable sources and clothing rentals, self-generating clothing production are common suggestions of many countries to ensure sustainability [3]. The most important ones are basic and simple concepts and the first of these is education in the family. Others can be listed as non-governmental organizations and municipalities working on waste [6], teaching and applying ethical [4] and slow fashion concept [2], giving more government support to local manufacturers and increasing tailor-made model sewing [7,8], making sustainability more attractive and cheap [9].

Researchers was stressed, that the problem areas in globalized textile and clothing production are highly complex. Technological fixes aside, they claimed that modifying behaviour and practice often requires the more complicated task of working with changing the values associated with production and consumption and doing so in away sensitive to different cultural, geographic, and political contexts [10].

It is a fact that the role of the state and industry is very important for the realization of sustainability. Nevertheless, the important question is whether, how, and to what degree they can take on new responsibility for ensuring that textile and clothing production becomes more sustainable. In this study, basic responsibilities and consumer expectations are discussed in order to ensure sustainability.

This study was presented as a poster at the ITAAS 2021 symposium.

1. United Nations (1987) Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future.
2. Wiering M (2015) Creating the slow fashion consumer, “How powerful do you feel?”.
3. (2025) Fashion Futures
4. Annapoorani SG (2016) Social sustainability in textile industry. Sustainability in the Textile Industry, pp. 57-78.
5. BSR Corporation (2012) Sustainable fashion design: Oxymoron no more?
6. Koca E, Cantürk ÖZ, Yıldırım Artaç B (2016) Evaluation of sustainability in the ready-to-wear sector in terms of managers. Tekstil ve Mühendis 23(103): 220-230.
7. Jung S, Jin B (2015) Creating customer values for the economic sustainability of slow fashion brand. International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) Annual Conference Proceedings, p. 123.
8. Karaosman H, Morales Alonso G, Brun A (2014) How can local manufacturing improve economic sustainability? Saint Brissant: a case study of local manufacturing in Spain. 8^th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management XX International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Malaga, Spain.
9. https://goodonyou.eco/ethical-clothing-expensive/
10. Boström M, Micheletti M (2016) Introducing the sustainability challenge of textiles and clothing. J Consum Policy 39: 367 - 375.