2021 or the year in which excuses were finished in the face of the climatic crisis

It is clear that two0two1 has to be the year in which fashion begins to take giant steps in its actions against the climatic crisis.Although in recent years there has been a great debate about sustainability, a two0two0 report prepared by the Global Fashion Agenda and the McKinsey consultant on the fashion sector - an industry that already represents 10 % of global emissions- He states that we actually continue in ascending curve, and it is expected that, from here to two030, the emissions of the sector will increase a third, with the overwhelming figure of two700 million tons per year.

Although lately we have seen an endless sustainability objectives, it is time for brands to take their commitments seriously to reduce carbon dioxide emissions."This year we will focus a lot on what companies do in practice," says Maxine Bédat, executive director of the New Standard Institute Ideas Laboratory."For this, transparency and responsibility will be fundamental".

Lately there have been promising advances and it seems that this year the tonic will be similar.Whether it continues along the path of the tendency of the superrection or upcyling that devastated the catwalks in the spring-summer two0two1 season or with the development of innovative materials and technologies that will reach the market.“The key is to bring advances to a higher scale and accelerate the process;The brands have to invest in creating a positive impact, ”says Céline Semaan, founder and CEO of Slow Factory Foundation, about the actions he would like to see in progress this year.

But, calm, there is also good news: many of the responses to problems already exist.“We know the challenges;The solutions are there: it is materially possible to make those important changes within the industry, ”adds Bédat.Today we analyze seven of the most important sustainability trends that could help the fashion sector to take a giant step in ecological terms in two0two1.

Teniendo en cuenta la cantidad de emisiones de dióxido de carbono que genera la industria de la moda, cada vez más marcas, entre ellas, Eileen Fisher y Patagonia, buscan soluciones naturales para reducir el CO_two de la atmósfera.One of them is regenerative agriculture, an agricultural technique that does not focus on a single crop, but on its diversity to help the ground recover nutrients.In fact, designer Mara Hoffman, very aware in ecological terms, has launched a series of point garments that are beneficial for the planet, since they have a negative balance of emissions thanks to their regenerating techniques.We have more collaborations in that line in the coming months thanks to the new Fibershed project, a non -profit foundation in California.

The growing interest in regenerative agriculture fits with a broader tendency, that of climatic positivity, which, as its name indicates, considers that fashion can have a positive effect on the environment and not only limit itself to moderating its impactnegative.

In this sense, we are seeing advances of the most exciting, such as Newlight's negative emission leather, an emerging Californian company.This material is created by taking methane and carbon from the atmosphere, and replicating the natural process of the microorganisms of our seas.Algae will also be a key material in this regard: the Canadian designer-Iraní Roya Aghighi and the post-carbon Labon Labon Research study are exploring the use of live algae to make clothes and that they do photosynthesis-and, therefore, absorbcarbon dioxide of the atmosphere - while we put it on.

With a million endangered species, biodiversity - or the variety of animal and plant life on Earth - will be one of the strengths of this year's ecological ideology.Fashion has a large part of responsibility in global biodiversity, both for the loss of soil (for example, to grow cotton or for livestock purposes), deforestation (for viscous production), water pollution (todye textiles and microplastics) and for waste (9two million tons of textile waste end up in landfills every year).

In June two0two0, Keing, the Gucci parent company, presented its biodiversity strategy.Its objective is to have a positive net impact in terms of biodiversity in two0two5.It is expected that other brands follow their example of the UN Conference on Biological Diversity, which will be held in China in May.

Circularity - the strategy of using and reusing materials within the same industry - is a trend that has no visos to disappear in two0two1. Es probable que veamos intentos de llevar a otro nivel las nuevas tecnologías de reciclaje, como la Máquina Verde de H&M, que afirma que puede separar y reciclar las mezclas de poliéster y algodón a gran escala (algo que sería toda una revolución, teniendo en cuenta la cantidad de tejidos de polialgodón presentes en el mercado).Fashion still has a long way to go until they are complete.

One of the keys to a circular business model is the resale, which is booming thanks to websites such as The Realreal, Vestiaire Collective or Depop (The obsse of vintage Bella Hadid is an unconditional of these platforms).Luxury brands are increasingly for the work of taking advantage of that trend - we saw Gucci announce a new collaboration with The Realreal last October—.This year we will also see more brands to take care of the resale of their own garments, in addition to online luxury stores than to offer second -hand clothes (do not miss the Second Life Plan of Farfetch).

In recent years, we have not walked short of materials of biological origin in the market - from the pink petal silk to the cactus leather—.What is the following challenge?That these technologies can be used on a large scale to provide us with harmful tissues for the environment.We see more investment in this field, such as in the case of Pangaia, the worship brand of pajamas and clothing to be at home, which recently announced its collaboration with the Kintra material science company to develop an organic alternativeto the polyester that is 100 % biodegradable.

Pandemia made the working conditions of the staff of textile factories, so the social impact remains one of the pending subjects of the industry.Consumers are increasingly concerned about this aspect, so they press firms to be transparent about their suppliers and the measures they take to guarantee ethical working conditions and decent wages.Chloé - under the baton of its new creative director Gabriela Hearst - declared that she would seek the B Corp certification - which verifies the social and environmental performance of a company - so it is likely that the example is among other fashion houses among other fashion houses.