Manifesto Research- in relation to sustainability and the circular economy
What is fast fashion?
A long time ago “fashion” was only for the wealthy, monarchs had tailored made ball gowns while the commoners had their parents’ hand-me-downs. With the industrial revolution came machinery that could produce clothing far more rapidly and cheaper way than before. With people’s wealth increasing, more disposable income (and some very aggressive marketing campaigns); welcome to the world of fast fashion!
Fast Fashion- inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends.
During the beginnings of fast fashion, we were unaware of our effects on the environment, but boy were we exploiting workers from the get-go. Children were cheap and easy labour and with safety laws being non-existent, a whole lot of fingers got lost to heavy machinery. Sadly, history repeats itself; today we’re seeing the exploitation of Uyghur Muslims by companies such as H&M and Nike.
However, one thing has changed… the internet. Information about the injustices of the fast fashion industry can be shared with the tap of a finger. Companies are now held to account for their actions, and with 80% of the British public being at least fairly concerned about climate change, environmentalism is bigger than ever.
What is a circular economy?
Before we attempt to understand what it is we must understand its bitter rival… linear economy!
Linear Economy- the production of goods in which raw material and transformed into products, once those products end their life span, they are thrown away.
Got it. Well, we know the linear economy is bad because once we’re out of raw materials we’re screwed. Plus, those products getting thrown away really messes with our ecosystem, think of the linear economy as the Lorax’s worst nightmare. A circular economy takes a rather different approach at the end of a product's lifecycle.
Circular economy- products at the end of their life span are re-used/re-purposed so they don’t go to waste.
How do we design a circular economy?
So circular economy seems quite appealing, but how on earth do we do it? It’s not like someone’s been using circular economy for 3.8 billion years…
Oh, wait… Mother Nature!
She’s been doing it long before humans were running about and messing everything up. In the natural world, there’s no such thing as a byproduct, nothing is wasted.
Hold on, let me get Mufasa to explain it to you:
Mufasa- “When we die, we become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. So, we are all connected in the great circle of life.”
There’s a word for when we take inspiration from mother nature.
Biomimicry- the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modelled on biological entities and processes.
How we can take inspiration from nature to produce a circular economy:
#1
Using her materials rather than synthetic ones.
Why- producing synthetic materials creates a lot of bi-products that can harm the environment.
#2
Harvesting her materials at a rate that gives her time to replenish them.
Why- over-harvesting raw materials leads to the risk of running out.
#3
She never wastes materials, like her, create products that can be easily upcycled.
Why- less waste and, again, so we don’t run out of raw materials.
#4
Using her design techniques to create better products, intern will last longer.
Why- less of a need to create new products which would use up more raw materials again.
#5
Using the same energy (sunlight) that she uses to produce her products.
Why- less pollutants
Conclusion
I know, a lot of these concepts aren’t new. But by re-contextualising them as a direct inspiration from mother nature, it creates a greater sense of trust as we all are aware of her work and that her solutions are effective.
This “call to action” to design like mother nature creates a sense of trust, as her methods have been tried and tested over billions of years, and we know they work.
The way to radically change our impact on the environment isn’t an idea made from scratch by a guy named Dave, the solutions are found in the environment itself.
Mother nature has been around for a long time. By her constant evolution, she’s been able to create the ultimate circular economy and it’s called the ecosystem.
Phrases to use:
Mother nature is our muse.
So, you want to save mother nature, ever asked her if she has any ideas?
Mother nature made it, we broke it, she knows how to fix it.
Mother nature has been around for 3.8 billion years, we’ve been around for 300,000.
Mother nature KNOWS sustainability, let’s steal her ideas!
Saving mother nature requires solutions she’s already made.
In order to protect the environment, we must have nature-centred design.