
This report measured fashion week carbon emissions
Last season, Extinction Rebellion called for the cancellation of fashion weeks around the world. While that didn’t happen, and the Big Four weeks carry on for the current season, there was a substantial amount of awareness raised. Sweden cancelled their fashion week, and Copenhagen’s fashion week put strict standards in place for all brands showing in the city. An ongoing challenge, however, has been actually measuring the carbon emissions of a fashion week. Until now, fashion tech company Ordre.com partnered with climate change consultancy the Carbon Trust to capture carbon emissions from the busiest four weeks on the fashion calendar. The report, called Zero to Market, measures emissions from a part of the fashion industry’s flock to New York, London, Milan and Paris. Over the course of 12 months, the emissions from buyers at almost three thousand retailers and five thousand designers all participating in fashion month were measured. The results are staggering. The report concluded that the industry emits 241,000 tons of CO2 per year from the travel taken for wholesale buying, which is the equivalent to the annual emissions of a small country. “For decades the industry has been addicted to the travel associated with participating in the international fashion week circuit,” said Simon P. Lock, Founder and...