Socialand Environmental effects of the Fashion Industry

Film Reflection Paper
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Film Reflection Paper
Social and Environmental Effects of the Fashion Industry
The fashion industry is criticized for its adverse social ramifications against the 2030 agenda on sustainable development goals (SDGs), including gender equality and lower inequalities, economic growth, and decent work. For example, retailers and brands such as GAP and H&M are criticized for encouraging an environment where workers are poorly remunerated. The working conditions could also be detrimental to human wellness and health. There have also been cases of gender violence in the fashion industry. For example, a female worker at the H&M described the violence she encountered at the workplace for failure to meet her target production. She was physically assaulted and harassed by the manager, and no severe intervention was taken after she reported the incident (Yousefi, 2020).
The fashion industry poses a significant risk to environmental sustainability. The fashion industry constitutes the world’s second-biggest consumer of global water supply since it depends heavily on water for its strategic survival within the supply chain. Cotton is also a crucial natural fiber within the textile and fashion industry. In that way, the fashion industry stress is a thirsty endeavor that stresses the local water resources, thus damaging ecosystems. The sector involves applying agrochemicals in the cotton irrigation schemes and thus pollutes rivers and contaminates water. In addition, the fashion industry creates waste in discarded clothes and other products that mess with the environment (Yousefi, 2020).
Solutions to Mitigate Negative Effects and How they Connect to SDGs
I propose the circular economy model to minimize the negative impacts of fashion industry operations as supported in Accenture’s (2014) report. In order to meet 100 percent Circular & Renewable ambition, I suggest the industry incorporates circularity into each phase of its value chain – from products’ make and designs to packaging, processes, and materials they utilize, to how customers use and dispose of the products. The fashion industry’s circular model can only be feasible when anchored on renewable electricity across operations. In this way, the fashion industry would attain a climate-positive value chain centered on creating a new beneficial ramificatio...