Fossil Fashion – The Plastic Elephant in the Room

January 31, 2022 A Sustainable Life, Wildlife and the Oceans
Fashion has a dangerous addiction to fossil fuels. 67% of our clothes are made out of plastic, most of which ends up in landfill. Synthetic fibres are energy intensive to produce and, according to a report by Ellen MacArthur Foundation, produce six times more CO2 emissions than cotton, not to mention the threat of microfibre pollution. So why is this such a fast growing industry? In this first podcast we look at how we can tackle the devastating relationship between fossil fuels and fast fashion without making fashion a luxury only accessible to the rich. With George Harding-Rolls, Campaigns Advisor at The Changing Markets Foundation and Amy Nguyen, writer, strategist and founder of Sustainable and Social. Part two will look at the clothes we discard – where do they end up? 
Photo credit – The Changing Markets Foundation.
 

Our guests:

George2

George joined Changing Markets in 2019 and has worked across campaigns on fashion, fisheries, plastics and food fortification. From leveraging social networks around a cause to coming up with creative tactics to drive campaign wins, George’s specialism is in digital campaigning and engagement.

Prior to joining Changing Markets, George worked as a senior strategist at international sustainability non-profit, Forum for the Future, where he led digital communications and ran the Futures Centre, a global platform tracking developments in sustainability, as well as pioneering the organisation’s ‘Future of Sustainability’ publication series.

While living in China, he worked in corporate social responsibility and philanthropy advisory at Charitarian, and helped to set up non-profit educational outreach programme, the China Development Foundation. A UK national, George speaks Mandarin Chinese, French and Spanish, and holds a first class degree in Chinese and French from the University of Edinburgh. Outside Changing Markets, George is a board member of the Conscious Advertising Network, a coalition of over 70 organisations set up to ensure that industry ethics catches up with the technology of modern advertising.

Find the Changing Markets reports on Fossil Fashion here.

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Amy Nguyen is a strategist, researcher and writer focusing on the nexus between sustainable business, fashion, innovation and technology. She works as a consultant for a variety of organisations ranging from environmental NGOs and research advisory firms, through to sustainable tech start-ups in the energy and fashion space.

In addition to being a Forbes contributor, Amy is the founder of Sustainable & Social, a platform dedicated to deconstructing complex climate issues for a millennial audience.

Her mission is to democratise the conversation about sustainable development and to educate and empower citizens in the pursuit of climate action.

In addition to a Master’s in International Business from Universitá Bocconi which focused on sustainability and CSR, she is certified by Cambridge University for Sustainable Supply Chain Management.