Livia Giujoli-Faas’s environmental work is multifaceted.
She started the Green Carpet Challenge. Sustainable and ethical creations on the red carpet; He has also produced a documentary about the secretive workings of sweatshops in the fashion industry.
She is also the co-founder of EcoAge, a company that helps companies adopt regenerative models and avoid greenwashing. Sadly, EcoAge was forced to close earlier this year, as Jujoori Fahs explained in an emotional interview. Instagram PostsWhen they were targeted by criminals and were unable to recover financially.
She is also a member of the UN Women’s Regional Civil Society Advisory Group for Europe and Central Asia. But despite this long list of achievements, “I’ve always considered myself an activist,” she said. Independent.
The businesswoman has been working on sustainability for decades, but the moment that “changed everything” was her first visit to Bangladesh in 2008 with journalist and environmental activist Lucy Siegel. circle, She co-founded the charity with singer and activist Annie Lennox and other women.
“We were smuggled into a factory producing clothes for French supermarket brands and were completely shocked by what we saw there. We were in a room, scared, sewing 100 clothes an hour, getting paid nothing, there were prison bars on the windows and guards with guns at the entrance. We saw the women we were exploiting to make our clothes,” she said.
“And from that moment on, once you see it, you can never look away.”
This experience has driven her work to focus on the social impact of fast fashion and, perhaps more deeply, its environmental impact: at the heart of the issue is how fast fashion has exploded on a global scale.
“It used to be just fashion, then we had fast fashion and now we have super fast fashion,” she says, describing it as “totally out of control.”
This model teaches us that “it is our democratic right to buy cheap,” says Giuggioli Fahs. Workers’ rights are not taken into account and are barely mentioned. We are constantly told that we need newer things to look good and feel happy. “And unfortunately, social media is a big part of this problem,” she adds.
Fast fashion relies on two key factors, says Giuggioli Fahs, and these issues were at the heart of her 2015 documentary, “Fast Fashion.” The true cost, It was a look at the sacrifices hidden behind piles of cheap clothing.
The film was made after the tragic Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, which killed 1,138 people. But 10 years on, Judge Fahs says there has been little improvement in the industry.
“The first problem we need to solve is paying all garment workers,” she says.[But if] If we enacted laws to do so, it would be a problem for the fast fashion industry.”
The fashion industry is a huge contributor to the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, producing 10% of all carbon emissions – more than international air and shipping combined. According to the World Bank.
And this pollution juggernaut is only getting bigger – a recent report by a nonprofit organization Fashion Revolution They predict that in 10 years, 73% of fashion will be produced using fossil fuels.
At present, the estimate 69% of clothing is made from synthetic fibers These cannot be recycled and break down in the environment, becoming microplastics that end up on land, in rivers and in the oceans.
“We’ve been told that everything will be OK because the circular economy will save us, and that recycling will get us out of this mess,” says Giuggioli-Faas.
“That’s not true, because given the fact that the majority of clothing today is produced using synthetic fibers, which are fossil fuel fibers, recycling is basically impossible.”
What this fast fashion is actually being “donated” to African countries, or thrown away — at the Kantamanto market in Accra, Ghana, “something like 2.3 million pieces of clothing end up there per week,” explains Giugjoli Fahs — and much of it is incinerated.
“Unless we invest in truly recyclable fibres that aren’t dependent on fossil fuels, the circular economy is a myth,” she added.
Despite the dire situation, Jujoori Fahs remains hopeful. Several European countries are considering regulating fast fashion and imposing taxes on production and waste. But there’s also the question of what individuals can do.
“I’m a big believer in citizen activism and taking responsibility – being able to say, ‘I don’t want to consume like that anymore’. We don’t need enough clothes to feed two planets anymore and we can make a change. Despite the dire situation, I feel very positive,” she said.
The Independent newspaper Climate 100 List We will be holding an online event in New York next week. To register, please click here. click here
