Fashion vs. climate: Are luxury brands doing enough?

Models wear creations by designer Burberry at the Autumn/Winter 2020 fashion week runway show in London, February 17, 2020. /AP

Like every year, the fashion world's glitterati have been gathering in London, New York, Paris and Milan over the last few weeks to glimpse the extravagant and glamorous new creations of Chanel, Versace or Alexander McQueen and get a peak at upcoming trends.

But amid growing criticism over the toll the fashion industry is exacting on the environment and with consumers increasingly scrutinizing what they buy, are fashion weeks still justified and are luxury brands doing enough to minimize their footprint?

Worst offender

The fashion industry alone is responsible for up to 10 percent of global carbon emissions – more than all international flights and shipping combined – and produces 20 percent of the world's waste water through textile dyeing and other treatment, according to UN data.

About 7,500 liters of water

– what one person would drink in seven years – are needed to grow the cotton to make a single pair of jeans.

Half a million tons of microfibers –

equivalent to over 50 billion plastic bottles

– end up in the ocean every year just through washing clothes that are increasingly made from nylon, polyester and other synthetic materials.

Meanwhile, about 85 percent of textiles end up in landfills or are incinerated instead of being recycled.

A clothing spill installation by Savers/Value Village at Alki Beach in Seattle, U.S., April 22, 2016. /AP

While much of this has been blamed on "fast fashion" – affordable clothing that is quickly churned out and just as swiftly discarded as new trends come in – luxury brands have also attracted their share of controversy.

Burberry prompted an outcry in 2018 when it announced it had burnt 28.6 million pounds (37 million U.S. dollars) worth of unsold luxury goods, including clothing and accessories, so they would not be stolen or sold off cheaply.

Fashion pacts and upcycling

As protesters have taken to the streets, warning of rising sea levels and natural resources being depleted, the fashion industry has multiplied efforts to show it can be both glamorous and ethically responsible.

Luxury groups like Kering, which owns Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, have hired a chief sustainability officer.

Big names like LVMH (owner of Louis Vuitton, Dior and Fendi), Armani, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, and PVH (owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger) have joined initiatives pushing for better business practices and more sustainable production, such as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the Copenhagen-based Global Fashion Agenda, the UK's Common Objective or French President Emmanuel Macron's G7 Fashion Pact.

Dozens also signed up to the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action in 2018, in which they committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030.

A model wears a creation from the Stella McCartney Ready To Wear Spring-Summer 2020 collection unveiled during Paris fashion week in France, September 30, 2019. /AP

Beyond political statements, designers have taken to recycling and "upcycling," creatively re-using old materials, leftovers and unwanted pieces in their creations.

Stella McCartney uses re-engineered cashmere, while Prada's Re-Nylon bags are made from recycled plastic waste from the ocean. Dutch designers Viktor Rolf made creations for this year's Paris fashion week almost exclusively using swatches sent to them by manufacturers over the years, while Alexander McQueen's Sarah Burton used leftovers and scraps from previous seasons for her designs.

McCartney and Burberry have also promoted the circular economy through partnerships with schemes like TheRealReal, which allows people to resell their fashion items rather than throw them away.

'More can be done'

But for critics, this is too little too late, especially for an industry worth 2.5 trillion U.S. dollars.

"It's really business as usual. We have had these fashion pacts, companies saying they'll go net-zero by 2050 but

it's really too late

," Sara Arnold, coordinator of the environmental group Extinction Rebellion, told Vogue magazine.

Although the fashion industry made progress on environmental issues last year, it did so more slowly than the previous year, according to the

Pulse of the Fashion Industry report

.

Even where companies are implementing sustainable solutions, this is not happening fast enough to keep up with the pace of growth in the industry, the report added. With no change, greenhouse gas emissions from the fashion industry will go up by almost 50 percent by 2030, it predicted.

"Even luxury has been influenced by fast fashion and brands are releasing more frequent collections. We need a step change and scalable new business models which are not predicated on producing and selling more items," according to Patsy Perry, senior lecturer in fashion marketing at the University of Manchester.

Models wear creations as part of the Chanel Ready To Wear Spring-Summer 2020 collection unveiled during Paris fashion week in France, October 1, 2019. /AP

"There's some admirable efforts evident in the luxury sector," she told CGTN. "We should applaud those who are making changes and minimizing their environmental impact by investing in new manufacturing technologies and trialing new materials."

But "of course more could be done." At the moment, efforts are undertaken on a voluntary basis. "Only legislation could result in industry-wide action," she noted.

The end of fashion week?

In the meantime, fashion weeks have come under scrutiny.

Extinction Rebellion has repeatedly called for London Fashion Week to be cancelled. Stockholm scrapped its biannual event last year. And

Copenhagen Fashion Week

announced it will require designers in the future to comply with a list of sustainability standards – including using zero-waste sets in their shows and at least 50 percent organic or recycled materials in their creations – if they want to take part.

In London and Milan, Burberry and Gucci have claimed to put on carbon-neutral shows, and brands like Miu Miu, Dior, Marni and Louis Vuitton have created sets from recycled materials or donated them for further use.

But this is small consolation to those who see the events as an enormous waste of time and resources.

"Fashion weeks, being such high-profile events to showcase new products that are only affordable for the few, are a perfect target for climate activists," noted Perry.

An animal rights activist pours black slime on her body, symbolizing toxic waste from the leather industry, as she stages a demonstration ahead of Milan Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, February 18, 2020. /AP

"It will be increasingly seen as unacceptable to engage in flying models, buyers, editors, guests and collections around the world for the sake of promoting designer clothing, and offsetting the carbon footprint of these activities could be seen as greenwashing, given the pressing need to cut carbon emissions in the face of the climate crisis."

Fashion weeks are already under threat from another source: social media. More and more, shows are being livestreamed to reach a broader audience.

But Perry is optimistic that big-name brands will soon be doing their part to counter climate change and lower their carbon footprint.

The industry was slow to react, but "luxury's commitment to quality sits comfortably with the concept of sustainability, in terms of protecting raw material sources, preservation of traditions and craftsmanship, ensuring transparency of the supply chain and focus on producing investment pieces not disposable fashion, which have a longer useful life-span than fast fashion."

"The very reputation of luxury depends on it moving towards sustainability," she noted.