The fashion industry has considered 'what' it needs to do to become sustainable and it's now time to move towards the 'how' and make it happen, argues Yuly Fuentes-Medel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Program Director for Textiles, Climate Grand Challenges.
What can fashion learn from how the car industry has gone sustainable?
During the Global Fashion Summit session titled 'Ambition to Action' she shares how MIT helped the auto industry disrupt itself with the electric vehicle. She notes the whole system and its infrastructure had to change from the storage of batteries to where cars can be plugged in.
Federica Marchionni, CEO of non-profit Global Fashion Agenda agrees and says she's dreaming about the fashion industry making its sustainability transformation a reality.
However, Fuentes-Medel notes the key question now is how to create action. She talks about the OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act), but admits humans are wired to be scared of taking action. So, she says when you really want to do something, you 'really' need to want it and you also need to be accountable for it. After this, she says you need to want to repeat the action and eventually you won't notice you're doing it.
She states the people in the fashion industry right now are at the point of making that all-important decision to act.
But, Fuentes-Medel is keen to call out the overused phrase "systemic change," which is often quoted alongside fashion sustainability.
She argues nobody knows what it is so suggests considering it in relation to the airline industry. In airports all airlines work together and the airport is an invisible system. Plus, consumers are not expected to pay a premium for air traffic control or safety while travelling - it's all taken as a given.
Making the transformation fair for everyone
Similarly, she says the fashion industry has an opportunity to not make sustainability premium: "Fashion has the opportunity today to really identify the moments of pre-competitive collaboration that will allow it to really be an example."
Fuentes-Medel has dedicated her life to the fashion industry and explains the reason she keeps working in it is because it's fundamentally about building an identity of who we are as human beings.
Plus, she says the fashion industry will change what is going to happen to this planet in the next century.
Marchionni, who is keen to highlight Global Fashion Agenda is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2024, adds: "We will take that opportunity to keep accelerating action and to make sure that it's not a celebration, without a reminder on accountability and action by mobilising, educating and inspiring."
She continues: "We have a choice to make - either we are part of the problem, or we are part of the solution."
