As the second most polluting industry after the petrochemical industry, green production in the fashion industry is urgent. During the National Two Sessions in 2021, “carbon peak” and “carbon neutrality” mentioned in the government work report became hot words, clearly proposing to promote green development and promote the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. At the 75th United Nations General Assembly in 2020, China solemnly promised the world to strive to achieve carbon peak before 2030 and strive to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
With the proposal of this goal, the environmental awareness of clothing companies is also gradually strengthening, taking advantage of the “national trend” to focus on Local clothing companies that shape brand vitality are also taking action. Clothing companies such as Xtep, Peacebird, and Pathfinder are exploring more environmentally friendly products, and upstream fabric manufacturers are also accelerating the development of degradable and recyclable fabrics.
“The development of enterprises must go through economies of scale to economies of value. Economies of scale pay more attention to the scale of production and profits, while in value economies, enterprises need to pay more attention to the social value they bear. and responsibility. Sustainable fashion has been mentioned in recent years. Environmental protection and green production are part of sustainable fashion. For the clothing industry, every link in its complex production chain may cause pollution. Green, Environmentally friendly production is of great significance to enterprises.” Yang Dayun, a fashion industry investor and CEO of Youyi International, told a reporter from New Consumption Daily.
Clothing brands accelerate “carbon neutrality”
In fact, The pollution problem in the textile and clothing industry has been around for a long time. United Nations data shows that the total carbon emissions of the apparel industry exceed the combined emissions of all international flights and shipping, accounting for 10% of global carbon emissions and making it the second most polluting industry after the oil industry.
The environmental protection issues of the textile and apparel industry have also attracted policy-level attention. The new “Environmental Protection Law” has continuously increased the environmental protection requirements for the textile and apparel industry. The new “Environmental Protection Law” stipulates that “direct emissions of chemical oxygen demand (COD) from textile enterprises must be controlled at 80 mg per liter.” This is the emission threshold for the textile and apparel industry since the COD direct emission standard was raised to 100 mg per liter in 2013. Boost again.
With the increasing awareness of environmental protection, the clothing industry has also become a trend of sustainable fashion in recent years. With the proposals of “carbon neutrality” and “carbon peak” , clothing brands are also accelerating the creation of a green industrial chain.
Recently, the domestic sports brand Xtep released a polylactic acid T-shirt. It is understood that polylactic acid is mainly fermented and extracted from starch-containing crops such as corn and straw, and then turned into polylactic acid fiber through spinning. Clothes made of polylactic acid fiber can naturally degrade within one year when buried in the soil under certain conditions.
“Last year Xtep launched the polylactic acid windbreaker. At that time, the proportion of polylactic acid in the entire windbreaker fabric was 19%. The polylactic acid content of the newly released T-shirt today is 60%, and 100% pure polylactic acid products will be available in the future.” Ding Shuibo, president of Xtep Group, told a reporter from New Consumer Daily.
Not long ago, Peacebird also launched a carbon neutrality campaign on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, and pledged to strive to achieve net-zero emissions across the entire value chain by 2046 and by 2035. The scope of PEACEBIRD brand operations is carbon neutral, and the carbon footprint information of 100% of PEACEBIRD products will be identified before 2030.
In addition, domestic brands such as Pathfinder and Li Ning are developing sustainable and environmentally friendly products, and international brands such as ZARA, H&M, and LVMH are also emphasizing environmental protection concepts in production and packaging. , recycling and other aspects of the focus.
“The textile and apparel industry is the industry with the longest industrial chain. To achieve complete green production, it requires a very complicated process. First of all, the upstream of the textile and apparel industry must be agriculture. , for example, growing organic cotton must meet certain standards and cannot use chemical fertilizers, etc. Next is the design process. The designer must consider the product use cycle, fabric selection and subsequent recycling. This all needs to be done in the design process. And In the subsequent spinning and manufacturing process, we must pay attention to low energy consumption, use solar lights as clean energy, and use less coal. In the printing and dyeing process, we must also reduce water pollution. When it comes to transportation, we must also pay attention to carbon emissions during transportation. “Yang Dayun said.
Textile companies deploy environmentally friendly fabrics
In addition to downstream clothing brands In addition, in recent years, environmentally friendly fabrics have become the focus of the upstream textile industry. Upstream fabric manufacturers such as Xintianyuan Textile and Suzhou Cocoon are exploring zero-pollution and sustainable development methods. It is understood that Xintianyuan Textile is currently implementing the four major stages of fashion sustainable strategy, creating the concepts of “zero dyeing” and “regeneration” to save resources while reducing the generation of pollution.
Liu Houyong, general manager of Suzhou Cocoon, told the New Consumer Daily that the fabrics produced by the company are all recycled and environmentally friendly fabrics, and the yarns are extracted from discarded Coke bottles and mineral water bottles. . Now the company is the designated supplier of ZARA and H&M.
“Thecostofrecycledenvironmentallyfriendlyfabricsis50%to60%higherthantraditionalfabrics,sothesellingpriceisalsohigher,andprofitswillalsoincrease.Inrecentyears,thedemandforenvironmentallyfriendlyfabricshascontinuedtoincrease,andthecompany’sordervolumeItisalsoincreasing.Duringthesevereepidemiclastyear,thecompany’sordersdidnotdecrease,”LiuHouyongsaid.
Inaddition,environmentallyfriendlyfabricsarenotonlyappliedtotheclothingindustry.AccordingtoLiuHouyong,thecompanycurrentlyalsoprovidespackagingservicesforStarbucksinChina.Thesilkscarvesandotherdecorationsonthepackagingboxesareallmadeofenvironmentallyfriendlyfabrics.Next,thecompanywillalsocooperatewithSnowBeerandMengniu.Thefabricswillbemainlyusedinpackagingandrelatedgifts.
However,achievingcomprehensivegreenproductionstillrequiresaprocess.”Currently,productionisonlylimitedtothereuseoffabrics,andtherearenomoreenergy-savingandconsumption-reducingmeasuresintheproductionprocess.” Liu Houyong said frankly, “With the proposal of carbon neutrality, environmentally friendly fabrics will definitely have broad market prospects. However, currently domestic Environmental awareness has not yet been thoroughly rooted in the hearts of the people, and achieving sustainable green production still requires a process.”
“The biggest obstacle to promoting sustainable fashion is the need for corporate performance growth and sustainability. The contradiction between the durability of clothes advocated in the concept of sustainable fashion. The core of sustainable fashion is to encourage consumers to buy less clothes and wear them longer, which is contradictory to the pursuit of performance growth by enterprises, so sustainable fashion promotes It has been many years, but many companies are still hesitant to move forward.” Yang Dayun said frankly. </p
