There has been much talk about the water pollution violations
that have been occurring by the textile factories in China. The violations
included serious threats such as illegally dumping untreated toxic wastewater
into rivers and streams. So when we pull out that favorite shirt of ours that
smells like lavender from the dryer, we need to start asking ourselves exactly
how clean is it?
The groups of individuals I would target for this article are
the multi-national companies, who would be considered “over consumers.” In the
article Design Activism by Alastair
Faud-Luke, over consumers are quoted to be “the rich 20 percent of the global
population whose total mass and flow of consumption is causing most of the
problems.” I am considering these multinational companies as over consumers
because of their need to go overseas to buy a mass production of materials and
textiles simply because it is quicker and cheaper.
It is common for companies to have a business relationship only
with factories at the “end” of the chain, that is, the ones actually stitching
together the clothes. They often have little to no contact with factories
further “up” the supply chain, that is, the ones who spin, knit, dye and finish
the fabric before it becomes a
garment. Unfortunately, these factories “up the chain” are where the most
serious pollution problems occur, because of their intensive use of water,
energy and toxic chemicals. That’s where the action is, so that’s where any
multi-national apparel corporate responsibility program needs to focus.
This
is also where their business decision’s needs to focus. Sourcing
departments within these companies need to start including environmental
requests as one of the factors considered when deciding where to place orders.
Without these real business consequences of poor environmental performance, all
the sustainability reports in the world will not make a difference. As brand owners, they are
in the best position to influence the environmental impacts of production and
to work together with their suppliers to eliminate the releases of all
hazardous chemicals from the production process and their products.
The
most important thing that I have learned this year from our sustainability
class is that I need to be more aware of the issues surrounding me, such as the
topic discussed above and also how I could change my everyday routine to better
our environment. There are so many things that I am still interested in
learning more about, such as how to exactly implement huge changes that need to
be made by the large corporations. How could just one consumer like me make
changes so big? I might have just answered my own question, it will most likely
take hundreds maybe thousands of consumers like me to make the change. Who’s
in?!
