production

Non-polluting
Conserving of energy and natural resources
Economically viable
Safe and healthful for workers, communities, and consumers
Socially and creatively rewarding for all working people

Sustainable Production Includes:

Benefits of Being Sustainable:

In the long-run it will reduce costs because you will stop needing to continuously get rid of expensive waste and you will stop needing to keep buying expensive resources for the production of a product

Natural fabrics like organic cotton and linen (made from plants) and Tencel (made from sustainable wood pulp) are more sustainable than man-made fabrics like Polyester and Nylon (which are petroleum-based and take thousands of years to biodegrade)

The main problem, but not exclusively, is not what materials we use but how we acquire, produce and dispose of these materials. Some materials however, like Tencel, are sustainable in itself because of where it comes from and in addition it provides long-term durability, which reduces the frequency of buying new clothes and throwing out older ones

Properties that Clothes/Accessories Possess:

1. Warmth
2. Breathability
3. Strength
4. Dying Properties
5. Softness/Scratchiness
6. Properties when Wet
7. Luster (Shininess)
8. Elasticity

Natural Material:

1. Wool
2. Cotton > most widely used
3. Linen > most widely used
4. Jute > can be used for cloth
5. Tapa
6. Hemp

Synthetic Material Derived From:

1. Through dissolving cellulose found in the cell wall of plants and then transforming it into thread

2. Synthesizing cellulose-like molecules from oil

3. Usually combined with cotton so as to allow more breathability

Workers in Indonesia who make Nike shoes in sweatshops earn 0.50 dollars an hour while those who work in sweatshops in Bangladesh earn 2 dollars an hour. However, without this income, the sweatshop workers would earn far less due to the conditions of their country.

If sweatshops would cease to exist, then the entire economy of the countries that those sweatshops operate in would essentially go into a recession. In addition, the the clothing companies that utilize these shops would also begin to lose clothing that they could sell. This would in turn create immense loss of jobs in those countries, diminish the GDP of those countries, and lead to other companies simply taking over those operations and restarting the cycle. When firms leave a market due to a loss in profits they leave an empty space that will be filled by another firm. For the fashion industry this is most certain since fashion is a necessity good to most individuals.

Chain Effect of the Fashion Industry

Currently the fashion industry is a 1.2 trillion dollar industry providing 250 billion dollars annually to US GDP, which in turn contributes to other countries beyond the US. In addition, the fashion industry provides 1.9 million jobs to people in the US.

https://maloney.house.gov/sites/maloney.house.gov/files/documents/The%20Economic%20Impact%20of%20the%20Fashion%20Industry%20--%20JEC%20report%20FINAL.pdf