Research & Brand Policy Design | Fashion Sustainability . 2023
Overview
This study examines the cause of fashion overproduction, its detrimental impact on the environment and proposes a multi-stakeholder strategy to drive collective action from brands, consumers and regulators to address the mounting issue of overproduction waste.
My Role
Researcher
Author Policy Proposal
Project Scope
Environmental Research
Policy Design
Methods
Secondary Research
Literature Review
Synthesis & Insights
Policy Proposal
Duration
8 Weeks
Research Mentor
Konstantine J. Rountos, PhD
Team of 1
Independent Research project
Between 2000 and 2015, clothing sales doubled from 50 billion units to 100 billion units annually, while the number of wears of a garment halved (Payne and Mellick, 2022).
The increasing overproduction and overconsumption have become one of the growing global environmental challenges posed by the fashion industry owing to its fast-fashion and linear take-make-waste business model.
(Ellen McArthur Foundation)
To tackle the challenges of overproduction and overconsumption, the concept of endless growth itself needs to be explicitly addressed (Hirji, 2022).
Brands will reconsider their production practices only when it makes a business case for them to increase profitability alongside reducing production volume.
A creative exploration of policies is needed to find ways of achieving this.