By Achim Berg, Anna Granskog,
Libbi Lee, and Karl-Hendrik Magnus
August 26, 2020
Source: Wallet Genius
Photo Source: Shidonna Raven Fashion. Copyright. All Rights Reserved.
As the need to address climate change becomes more urgent, industry sectors are working to reduce their carbon emissions. Fashion makes a sizeable contribution to climate change. McKinsey research shows that the sector was responsible for some 2.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions in 2018, about 4 percent of the global total. To set that in context, the fashion industry emits about the same quantity of GHGs per year as the entire economies of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined.
Despite efforts to reduce emissions, the industry is on a trajectory that will exceed the 1.5-degree pathway to mitigate climate change set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and ratified in the 2015 Paris agreement. To reach this pathway, fashion would need to cut its GHG emissions to 1.1 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2030. But our growth calculations, adjusted to take into account the likely impact of COVID-19, show that the industry is set to overshoot its target by almost twofold, with emissions of 2.1 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2030, unless it adopts additional abatement actions.
Encouraging sustainable consumer behavior. The adoption of a more conscious approach to fashion consumption, changes in consumer behavior during use and reuse, and the introduction by brands of radically new business models could contribute 347 million metric tons of emission abatement in 2030. The main levers in this effort are an increase in circular business models promoting garment rental, resale, repair, and refurbishment; a reduction in washing and drying; and an increase in recycling and collection to reduce landfill waste and move the industry toward an operating model based on closed-loop recycling.
Policy makers and investors also have important parts to play in these efforts. Governments and regulators should promote sustainable practices and conscious consumption, and provide incentives to support decarbonization measures with high abatement potential. Investors can make their contribution by encouraging decarbonization initiatives, emission transparency, and sustainability-focused innovation among the companies in their portfolios.
Stepping up Accelerating emission abatement through the actions identified in our analysis calls for bold commitments from stakeholders across the value chain. These commitments need to be supported by equally bold actions, greater transparency, increased collaboration, and joint investment.
After 2030, the challenge becomes still greater. To stay on the 1.5-degree pathway, fashion will need to go beyond the accelerated abatement envisaged in our analysis and deploy all its ingenuity and creativity to decouple value creation from volume growth.
How can you shop sustainably for your home? How can this impact the environment positively? Why?
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