每人每年约有20件衣服。数十亿美元的服装行业的增长已被“快速时尚”提供给，它以低价标签的价格便宜，迅速地制造服装。这些视觉效果说明了为什么服装行业必须采用一种新的方法来可持续地满足需求明天的市场.

增加产量和消费

Fast fashion uses innovative production and distribution models to dramatically shorten fashion cycles, sometimes getting a garment from the designer to the customer in a matter of a weeks instead of months. The number of fashion seasons has increased from two a year – spring/summer and fall/winter – to as many as50-100个微季节.

快速变化的趋势和低廉的价格使人们能够消费更多。平均消费者现在是purchasing 60 percent more items of clothing compared to 2000，但是每件衣服都保持一半。

Water Stress and Pollution

棉花是最常见的天然纤维，用于制造衣服，考虑到about 33 percentof all fibers found in textiles. Cotton is also a very thirsty crop, requiring2,700 liters of water- 一个人喝什么两年半- 制作一件棉衬衫。在已经面临水压力的地区，棉花生产可能会特别有害。例如，在中亚，阿拉尔海有nearly disappeared因为棉花农民从Amu Darya和Syr Darya河中过度绘制。（查看WRI的渡槽工具to see where cotton production and water risks intersect.) Cotton farming isalso responsiblefor 24 percent of insecticides and 11 percent of pesticides despite using about 3 percent of the world’s arable land.

还用水和污染take placeduring clothing production. About 20 percent of industrial water pollution isdue to garment manufacturing, while the world用途5 trillion liters (1.3 trillion gallons) of water each year for fabric dyeing alone, enough to fill 2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

必威官网是真的吗气候变化

服装的碳足迹很大程度上取决于材料。虽然像聚酯这样的合成纤维对水和土地的影响比棉花（如棉花）较少，但它们每公斤发射更多的温室气体。一件聚酯衬衫的碳足迹比棉衬衫（5.5 kg vs. 4.3 kg或12.1磅，磅9.5磅）。纺织品生产released2015年，温室气体约有70060亿公斤（1.5万亿磅），相当于185个燃煤电厂的年度排放。

服装的未来是什么？

Apparel spending is projected to grow tremendously. This is particularly true in Asia, as hundreds of millions of people in China and India enter the global middle class.

By 2030, there will be 5.4 billion people in theglobal middle class，从2015年的30亿美元到30亿。我们可以预期对衣服和其他定义中等收入生活方式的商品的需求增加。如果以目前的速度继续消费，到2050年，我们将需要三倍的自然资源，而不是我们在2000年使用的自然资源。

Assuming infinite resources in a finite world is not a sustainable business model. Beyond environmental concerns, unchecked consumption will undermine the world’s economic and social goals. Some apparel companies will ignore those signals and continue with traditional take-make-waste business models. Others will embrace innovative new models that work within planetary boundaries and are a better fit for tomorrow’s markets.

What to do?

Apparel is just one sector competing for natural resources, but it’s important that clothing makers start transforming their business models now given the industry’s strong growth trajectory. Many companies are aware of the environmental risks and are ready to act.

第一步是使公司衡量其环境影响并了解可以改善的领域。可持续服装联盟的HIGG指数使公司能够衡量其产品和服务的环境，社会和劳动力的影响，并正在完成工作Science Based Targets guidance for the apparel industry.

一些公司正在努力提高其资源效率。H＆M和Zara都是Fast Fashion的供应商，都加入了其他33家时装公司a pledge到2020年，他们的衣服回收利用，并在许多商店收集和回收二手衣服。改革是一个较小的洛杉矶服装品牌，越来越受欢迎，他声称它与far less water and emissions比典型的服装公司，甚至在每个产品网页上发布了不幸的水和排放量。

The next step is to recognize that companies must do more than improve efficiency to sustainably meet demand in the years ahead. They must produce less stuff. Some companies have already acknowledged this and are testing new models, though these examples are still the exception rather than the rule. Patagonia’s Worn Wear program offers a service to fix old clothes rather than only sell new ones. Companies like Mud Jeans, Rent the Runway and Gwynnie Bee are experimenting with rental models. Some companies, such as Zady’s, are calling for a return to “slow fashion,” promoting it as a key component to their business model.

To keep the apparel industry viable in tomorrow’s markets, the issue of consumption must be brought to the forefront—and it must begin now.

Editor's note 1/16/2019: The sentence "A polyester shirt has more than double the carbon footprint of a cotton shirt (5.5 kg vs. 2.1 kg, or 12.1 pounds vs 4.6 pounds)” has been changed to “A polyester shirt has more carbon footprint than a cotton shirt (5.5 kg vs. 4.3 kg, or 12.1 pounds vs. 9.5 pounds).”