Sustainable opportunities in the Fashion industry

Abstract

The fashion industry is one of the most polluting and wasteful industries in the world. This is strictly related to the linearity of its production model, which puts profit and product generation before environmental and social sustainability. Very often this leads to overproduction and huge amounts of waste created. Specifically, the fashion industry that designs clothes made of synthetic fibers faces also the struggle of recycling the material into new clothes, due to technological backwardness and lack of proper systems that could implement it.

Maium is an Amsterdam-based fashion company that produces recycled PET raincoats and that highly values sustainability in its practices, wanting to lead as an example for other fashion brands.
Market and brand analysis (through tools such as 4C analysis and SWOT analysis) are the starting point of this research, which aimed at analysing Maium’s environmental impact through Life Cycle Assessments and finding more sustainable alternatives to their current production model. The design process consisted in applying tools like VentureWell’s Whole System Mapping and Presidio Sustainability Booster to the results of the LCAs. The process has been an iterative one, so as to best define pain points and opportunities, and thoroughly think of the possible solutions that could be implemented.
The design solution has the intent of including the final users in the clothes’ lifetime extension process by teaching them techniques and skills that they can apply to their raincoats and to other pieces of clothing as well. Moreover, the intent has been also to provide them with as much information and transparency as possible for what concerns the production processes, the supply chain and alternative business models to the linear one.