FUTURE OF SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability Future: The most common definition comes from 1987’s Brundtland
Report: “Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.”
In recent years among the environmental community, a parallel vision of the future
has emerged. Everyone, from CEOs of progressively minded companies to activists
on the street, is talking about “building a more sustainable future.” Often, though, it
feels like we’re closer to the Jetsons’ version of the future than to a sustainable one.
That’s because, unlike dinner in a pill and jet packs, sustainability still often feels like
an amorphous topic discussed mostly in vague declarations. It’s like peace or hope.
Everyone wants it, but no one really knows what it looks like.
But this leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Whose “needs of the present” is this
referring to but no one knows. The needs of a family of four in a United States
suburb are quite different than those of a similar-sized family in Sub-Saharan Africa.
And regarding the needs of future generations, a world with 10.8 billion people in
2100 is drastically different than our current world of 7 billion. Figuring out how to
meet our needs while simultaneously considering the uncharted territory of such a
large future population is a massive undertaking.
Further complicating the topic of sustainability are the myriad aliases it operates
under — sustainable development, resilience, sustainable entrepreneurship, Triple
Bottom Line, corporate social responsibility, etc.
Looking at the dates behind it, sustainability just does not involve in our common lives
but also in Textile Industry.
When life was at stake textile industry took the maximum part in becoming the
most under-polluted in the whole world.
Approximately 3 percent of the world’s scorching pollution itself comes up from The
Textile Industry. Where fashion became a status, the world took its own twist and turns
in the environment. Where fast fashion became a trend, sustainable fashion came to
stability.
There will be clear growth in different types of sustainable fashion consumption. One
is obviously products that are made out of more sustainable materials: it could be
recycled materials or it could be lower carbon dioxide [CO 2) ] impact materials, such
as organic cotton instead of regular cotton. But it could also be what we call circular
business models that are; basically, resale, rental, and to some extent, repair and
refurbishment.

We really need to move the business in a circular mode by the circular business
models and experience.
One word to describe how younger generations will change the fashion business is
“sustainability.” They will have completely new demands as to what it means to be
an end-to-end sustainable brand.
Roughly 55 percent of all levers that are in our hands to reduce emissions are
actually saving money for the industry. They will, over the long term, not always be
negative and only cost money but will save money. Yes, they will still require up-
front investments, but they are positive in terms of payback.
Up to 40 percent of garments are not sold at full price but at some degree of discount
and some garments end up not being sold at all. Cutting overproduction in half from
where it is today would make a huge contribution toward a lower carbon footprint for
the industry.
Eventually, it would be interesting to see whether it will be the established players
that will eventually be the winners of the circular models, or whether we will see
completely new players, “born circular.” But there is not so much time to sit and
watch. Rather, it is getting to be time to take action and think of the future in a sustainable
manner.