Over 50 per cent of the UKs clothing market has achieved a 10 per cent reduction in carbon emissions following a collaborative agreement with Waste & Resources Action Programme’s (WRAP), Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP), a new report reveals. As of today 20 per cent more cotton is now sustainably sourced by signatories. With high-street brands like M&S, Tesco and Sainsbury’s setting ambitious sustainable cotton targets, this will help ease the pressure on some of the world’s most water-sensitive countries.
The update lists a number of priority garments for brands and retailers to target, as they have the highest environmental costs to manufacture. Women’s dresses, jumpers and jeans were at the top of the list, followed by men’s T-shirts and jumpers. Water used to make cotton is 60 per cent of the total water footprint of fabric processing, outweighing cotton’s 43 per cent. Companies are taking steps to promote sustainable cotton sourcing and WRAP is calling on organisations to set a 70 per cent target for sustainable cotton sourcing by 2020.
Primark has helped rural female farmers in India increase average profits by 247 per cent through the third year of its Sustainable Cotton Programme. WRAP is targeting 60 per cent household washes to run at a lower 30C setting by 2020, a habit which has become more prominent since 2012. Elsewhere, a decline in the use of tumble dryers and ironing has reduced emissions of clothes in circulation by 700,000 tonnes annually. SCAP is plying a major role in helping to make sustainable fashion much more mainstream.
