What is Sustainability?
Experts from UCLA define sustainability as :
“The physical development and institutional operating practices that meet the needs of present users without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, particularly with regard to use and waste of natural resources. Sustainable practices support ecological, human, and economic health and vitality. Sustainability presumes that resources are finite, and should be used conservatively and wisely with a view to long-term priorities and consequences of the ways in which resources are used.”
To build upon these two important contributions, we emphasize that our conception of sustainability must be rooted in social equity, which means just and fair access, provision, implementation and impact of design, processes, services, programmes and policies. This is important because pollution, rising sea levels, depleted soil and water resources tend to hurt poor and disadvantaged communities the most whilst they have contributed least to these negative impacts.
Understanding Fashion and Sustainability
When we apply these concepts to fashion, in essence we understand ‘sustainable fashion’ as a holistic approach to the design, production, sale, consumption and use of clothing, accessories and footwear that conserves and restores ecosystems whilst respecting and protecting the human rights of people and enabling equitable development of communities.
In practice this means considering the way clothing is designed; what materials are used; how those materials are sourced; how clothing is manufactured; who is involved in these processes and what economic and working conditions they are facing; how products are transported across the world; how quickly we are consuming and discarding our clothes; how we look after our clothes; what happens when we dispose of them and so much more.
Twenty percent of the world's garbage comes from fashion, and in the United States alone, 9.5 billion clothes are thrown away every year. Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is burned or sent to landfills. The average consumer buys 60% more clothes than 15 years ago, but each piece lasts half as long.It's the fast fashion era.
Between 60 and 75 million people work in the apparel industry worldwide. In Cambodia and Bangladesh, the average wage of a worker is only $ 60 per month. On April 24, 2013, a building collapsed in Bangladesh, killing 1,134 local workers making clothing for global fast fashion brands at low wages and unhealthy conditions.
Happee and Sustainability
We launched Happee in 2015 with the purpose to create a better world. In the beginning, we used to sell shoes, bags and scarves made by Indian artisans. But as we worked, we learned about the damaging environmental impact of the fashion industry.
It became evident we needed to think about eco-friendly materials. But making only fashion accessories pose a big challenge in this. And each type of shoe requires different components Sneakers, ballerinas and high heel shoes require different raw materials, and tracing all those different components is a huge challenge.
We understood that in order to create a better and more sustainable impact in the world, we would have to work with sustainable clothing. We started with using surplus fabrics procured from surplus centers ( Surplus fabrics are discarded fabrics produced for mass production for big fashion brands). We also up-cycled several vintage embroidered fabrics and turned them into beautiful dresses.
Currently, our clothes are made in sustainable or natural fabrics, like GOTS certified organic cotton and fabrics from LENZING™ , such as ECOVERO™ We are also working upon using only natural dyes in the near future, although currently we are already working with AZO-free dyes which are less polluting and not harmful for the human skin. By the end of 2019, all of our cotton fabrics will be organic and certified.
Source: Lenzing.com, their closed sustainability cycle.
Zero-Waste Design Process
We at Happee are fully committed towards reducing the waste generated by fashion companies and for this we are also abiding with Zero-waste designing process and pattern making and working hard on better calculations of fabric per piece and utilizing every bit of it.
Zero Design process focuses on creating unique patterns and making designs which utilizes the fabric in much more effective way with less scraps per piece. Also in this process, you focus on smaller batches of production, so that you do not over produce and result in dead stock.
Of course it is almost impossible to have no waste in production, for which we have decided to use this scraps in either making some craft products or using them in making cotton handmade paper which is 100% sustainable and free from harmful chemicals.
Our tags are in handmade paper, made from scraps of cotton fabric and basil seeds. To be planted, not discarded. Our packaging is made in paper or LDPE plastic which is 100% recyclable and under govt. regulations of plastic recycling. You can check out some of our DIY blogs and do this with your old clothes or scraps of fabric.
