Up The Chain.

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?!