As part of The Talks series at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week (AAFW) our Founder Pete Smit, along with industry experts, panel moderator Lucianne Tonti, Dr Lisa Lake, and Dale McCarthy were invited to be part of a panel to discuss to important issues of Sustainability and Industry 4.0 within the fashion industry. The discussion, which you can view in full above, commenced with the following sobering set up by Lucianne;
"Globally fashion is responsible for between 2–4% GHG, one garbage truck of textiles landfilled or burned every second, polyester a plastic derived from fossil fuels makes up 54% of all fibres and in Australia the figures are more startling. On average Australians buy 56 new items of clothing each, at an average cost of $6.50 and we send two thirds of this to landfill. Currently, 97% of all garments sold here are imported and our capacity for local manufacturing is in decline.
We know that if we don’t reduce the amount of clothes we produce and consume and decrease our reliance on virgin resources by embracing a truly circular industry we have no hope of curbing fashion’s carbon footprint.
Today we’re here to talk about what the future of the industry looks like in the midst of the climate crisis."