Sustainable Lifestyle to Make Huge Impact on Environment

 Sustainable things that you can do to make a huge impact on the environment. We're talking climate change guide to sustainable living and zero waste living. First of all, zero-waste living is the term that most people searched for a lot but it's not something to think that in the next two to three months you will be a completely zero-waste expert. So first to keep in mind that being zero waste is not the most important thing but tackling your personal waste footprint is the most tangible thing you can do when you want to live more sustainably, reducing your packaging, reducing the amount of stuff you're sending to landfill is the best place to start but to get a real handle on what you're wasting the first thing to do is a trash audit. This is basically where you take a day worth of trash or however long it takes you to fill up your trash bin and at the end of that period of time you go through it and see what you're throwing away. So, for example, maybe you're throwing coffee grounds in your trash and you realize that you could start some form of compost. So, a trash audit is the most tangible visible thing that you can do. Over to an eco-friendly lifestyle, it was about less packaging and more about consumerism because every single thing we buy has a footprint on the environment something's made of cotton a lot of resources go into growing that cotton. The greenhouse gas emissions it takes to manufacture or process all things that we buy have a massive footprint on the environment.  Also, educate yourself by staying informed in politics and in the news and watching documentaries that can help you on your sustainability journey. Try to spend plastic-free life, one thing to keep in mind we as a beginner is not to throw away any of the stuff that we already have.  Our toothpaste, our deodorant, our shampoo, conditioner, body wash all have plastic in them. plastic is everywhere which is true and it can be really tempting to just throw all those things out to get your reusable version for those things or your plastic-free version and move on with your life but it's not the sustainable thing to do. If you already have a product and you're not going to be repurchasing it, therefore, creating the demand for more of those items to be made there's no use in throwing it away. In our food intake, we should start thinking about and incorporating more plant-based proteins into our life and less animal-based proteins for the planet's sake.

We've talked a lot about reducing right those three r's principles: reduce, reuse and recycle. Pretty much what we've gone over so far is to reduce then let's talk about reusing not throwing things away and instead of finding a creative and useful way to reuse things is really good to do and this can become overwhelming in the beginning. There are different ways to reuse things in your home if you just stop and think about it pencil holders’, used food can all sorts of things we're using toilet paper rolls to sprout seeds. There are so many ways you can implement reuse and it's a kind of easier. The next step is obviously recycling and the most sustainable option always relying on recycling to be a solution is not an indefinitely sustainable process obviously, recycling is more sustainable than sending something straight to the landfill because we are recovering those materials through recycling but especially when we talk about plastic can only be recycled a few times before it loses its integrity and cannot be remade into something. Reduce, reuse and recycle are in that order for a reason because recycling is sustainable but not the most sustainable option if you do have recycling. It is important to know what is and is not recyclable in your particular area if the processing plant that you are sending that material to is unable to process it's going to end up in a landfill anyway and that may seem like not a big deal. When plants receive big groups of recycling and a lot of it is unrecyclable unable to be recovered, they often times send that entire batch to the landfill so you putting things in your recycling that is not recyclable could be resulting in things that are recyclable going to landfill. Once you figure out what isn’t recyclable in your city then you can also figure out if there are drop-off locations for the things that are not recyclable in your takeout service and your curbside doesn't accept thin plastic recycling. Check your local grocery stores sometimes they have drop-offs at the front where you can recycle thin plastics. A huge portion of food is thrown out before it even makes it to us to be exact and just think about how many times you've bought something from the grocery store and it went bad so you threw it out. it's also really bad that we're throwing food scraps in landfills for several reasons number one because if we're putting a usable food scrap into the landfill, we can't then recover it to make really important soil. After all, our soil is losing a lot of biodiversities a lot of nutrients and landfills things do not compost to something you need sunlight water and air three things that food scraps do not get in a landfill. When food breaks down improperly the way it does in the landfill, methane gas is released, which is a much more powerful gas than carbon dioxide awful thing for the planet and the ecology overall. Bought a composting bin, specially design for your home and throw your food waste in it. These are the simplest things we can do for the betterment of our planet. So, don’t waste your energy and time and do something good for this plant. We cannot do all the good that the world needs but the world needs all the good that we can do.

Why is IKEA so cheap? Are they actually environmentally sustainable?

Whatever you want, a chair, book, sofa, bed even a pillowcase they probably have it. Although, some assembly is required. Ikea, the yellow and blue furniture mammoth from Sweden has quickly become a mainstay in many households. Through their alternative approach to interior design, which super cheap prices and a do-it-yourself attitude, Ikea made roughly 42.7 billion dollars in revenue during the 2018 economic year. When you walk through one of Ikea’s showrooms, however, it’s hard to understand how they’re able to make that much money. But Ikea’s low-price points and glossy designs are part of the reason why so many customers continue to brood to their big-box collection. So, simple to understand why IKEA is so cheap, and in addition to that, whether their low prices mean a weak commitment to mitigating their environmental impact. The story of IKEA’s cheap prices can be tied back to the mindset of its recently deceased owner: Ingvar Kamprad. Kamprad was a greatly cost-conscious man. According to a research article, he still drove an old Volvo and recycled tea bags despite his huge amount of wealth. He defends the idea of “lista” or “making do,” both in his own life but also in the basic values of the Ikea empire. Essentially, IKEA seeks to produce low-cost, essential and utilitarian solutions for daily life. And it does that in several ways. Similar to stores like Costco, IKEA leverages buying a huge amount of material to drive the price to decline All of those materials are “flat-packed” so that the maximum number of items can be shipped and stored in one place. On top of the list, they shift the assembly part of furniture onto the buyer, which means they avoid a huge amount of cost on the manufacturing end. They push the effort and time needed to construct furniture onto people eager to buy their stuff. So, the key to IKEA’s cheap products is a knowledge of where and how to cut corners, whether that’s in the manufacturing step, shipping step, or up to the point of sale. In the search for better margins and more profits, for example, Ikea has been blamed heavily for avoiding conceivably billions of euros in taxes by funneling cash through a web of subsidiaries and sub-companies. But does Ikea have the same disfavor for their environmental initiatives? In some cases, Ikea’s low prices are thanks to the cost-saving effects of the business's new environmental initiatives, but alongside these highly publicized sustainability efforts lie some questionable practices that leave much to be desired. Let’s start with the good. Ikea has made overwhelming headway on the renewable energy front. According to their 2018 sustainability report, Ikea has installed over 900,000 solar panels across its showrooms and warehouses and owns and operates 441 wind turbines all in the pursuit of becoming energy independent by 2020. This is certainly admirable considering there are 424 Ikea stores worldwide that require a massive amount of fuel and energy to run. Alongside this rapid transition to renewable energy, Ikea committed to slowdown emissions for all home deliveries by 2025, which means a fully electric home transportation fleet within the next five to six years.

At the top of the list, Ikea wants to reach a circular waste model by 2030. With the single-use of plastics elimination in the store combined with the use of recycled materials in their products, like their KUNGSBACKA line which uses recycled wood and plastic to create kitchen cabinets, Ikea has set out to reconsider their relationship with waste. So, in terms of climate change goals and ambitions, Ikea is doing better than most of the other big-named brands in the field. But, there’s always a back to the coin. We shouldn’t just applaud Ikea for doing something everyone else should already be doing. It’s our job as consumers and to consider the consequences of a brand that decides on a shockingly low price for their furniture and then challenges the design team and supplier to meet that price at whatever the amount. In fact, according to Ikea, the carbon footprint of the company grew from 23.3 million tonnes of CO2 in 2016 to 24.6 million tonnes of CO2 in 2018, which is roughly 1.2 million tonnes more CO2 in just 2 years. Even though they installed hundreds of thousands of solar panels on their showroom roofs, they’re still a growing company. And in terms of materials, Ikea consumes 1% of the world's logged wood for their furniture. For just one company that is truly a huge amount. According to the company, they seek to plant more trees than they consume, stating that in the 2018 economic year they logged 700,000 trees and planted 3.6 million trees. But Ikea’s track record when it comes to which trees its forestry subsidiary wood cuts down hasn’t been perfect. In short, Ikea is doing good, but there are also negative ramifications to the growth mindset of this massive fast-furniture company. So, as we look towards Ikea’s lower cost, we can understand a couple of things. Its “cheapness” is the product of streamlined marketing and sales, strong control of their supply chain, some unique approaches like flat-packing and DIY assembling, as well as a little help from cheap renewable energy. That being said, there is also a tension between the cheap first, everything else second mentality that seems to ooze from all things Ikea and their environmental practices. They’ve made an approach to crafting more durable furniture, but Ikea is a business. Mass consumption of their furniture is their reason to exist. The more you buy, the better they do, but at the same time, the better they do, the higher the environmental cost. Ikea is ultimately interested in sustainability because that’s what customers want and it’s good for business. So, the next time you’re consuming on those classic Ikea Swedish meatballs, look around; appreciate the fact that Ikea has made itself into a strong leader in sustainability for big companies, but also understand that buying Ikea will never “save the planet” or help mitigate climate change. Buying that Tarva bed frame is certainly less bad than other options, but searching for a different bed frame in a local antique or second-hand furniture store is the better option for the environment.

Eco-Friendly Makeup Brands

 In the world of makeup, there is so much choice for customers. One thing that you should look for is a brand that is conscious of the environment. Environmental sustainability has been a huge topic and needs to apply in every single industry. Skincare is an industry that creates so much waste specifically because it deals with a lot of little items that are replenishable every three months so the amount of waste that even just one person creates by having a skincare routine is massive which is why we need to start supporting brands that adopt a sustainable philosophy. So that we can reduce our impact on the environment as much as we possibly can. Environmentally friendly and sustainable have become terms that are used quite frequently but to understand the complexity behind these terms for a brand to be sustainable it's very difficult. We identify which brands are going out of their way to be as environmentally friendly as possible and in addition, no brand will be perfect, certain brands adopt certain sustainable principles that others have not yet but support that just an idea you know. So, many times is when a brand does make a positive movement in the direction of sustainability, you'll find a hundred people ready to call out every single tiny little way that they are not sustainable. Always support brands moving in a positive direction when it comes to sustainability and ethics. Environmentally friendly is that they should be cruelty-free and their packaging should be recyclable. So here is some sustainable skincare brand.

L’Oréal they've been able to do a lot more selfless work which we respect and they're very transparent about where they source their ingredients how they do it to minimize slave labor and unsustainable sourcing as much as possible. They have provided in-store recycling programs you can bring any of your recyclable cosmetics to their stores and using the TerraCycle program (free recycling program collects and recycle every kind of waste) you can just drop off all of your products there and they will recycle them for you. This is amazing because everything is done with intention and transparency which is something so hard to find but so critical when it comes to ensuring sustainability and ethics.

Kinship is a new skincare brand that focuses on very clean products but what their packaging they do use plastic packaging however it is made of 100% recycled material that they gather from the ocean around the world together with all the plastic together melted down into pellets that are used to create their incredible packaging. They've removed 1.5 tons worth of trash from the ocean but here's the last thing that so cool not only they gather their trash to use to make their packaging on the back of each product you'll find a QR code that you can scan and it will show you the exact location where the trash used to make your packaging this is so cool innovative. This is the type of technology and thinking that we need for the future so obviously, you should buy a few items from their websites like the super mellow cream and the sunscreen and see how they work especially because they are free of essential oils in those products.

Last Lush Cosmetics, from an ethical and sustainable standpoint this brand is doing everything right they offer products like their shampoo bars and hair masks that are completely free of packaging. If they do have the packaging, they have a recycling program that you can trade your packaging in for to get a discount they're very transparent about whether they source their ingredients from and the slave labor potentially used within their production cycle.

No matter from which brand you buy always read labels of cosmetics or skincare products you wish to purchase. Always purchase organic and eco-friendly products for your skin and products that are made for your skin type. Read the return policy. You want to be able to return the unused items if it doesn’t work for you especially if you paid a considerable amount of money.

What Is the Impact of Using Eco-Friendly Products on The Environment?

 An environmentally sustainable product is less detrimental to the environment than its conventional contributor.

More consumers purchasing eco-friendly products will reduce greenhouse emissions, give chance to our planet to breathe and restore, and make our houses and towns safe in the long run. Switching towards Eco-friendly home products has a greater impact on the environment.

Instead of using plastic bottles glass or stainless stain bottles can be used. The benefits of using a glass and stainless-steel water bottle over a plastic one are various. One is, stainless steel is recyclable also doesn't produce a foul odor after a few uses, these bottles are corrosion resistant, and won't leach harmful chemicals when exposed to sun or heat. You don't have to be worried about BPA leaking into the liquids. Glass bottle is also an option when choosing bottles. a Glass bottle also doesn’t leach when exposed to heat and sun. But plastic bottles are cheaper to produce but when plastic bottles end up in landfills it takes 700 years to decompose. The plastic bottle is not an eco-friendly product to use.

Over the row of a year, a person is expected to consume over 20,000 toilet papers, resulting in a significant number of trees cutting and water being lost. And many people avoid using recycled toilet paper because they think it is made from used toilet paper. Recycled toilet tissue is manufactured from recycled paper obtained from various recycling schemes, indicate that the paper has not yet reached the end of its useful life cycle.

Carry a reusable bag with you if you go to the mall and grocery store. It would be beneficial to the environment. One of humanity's ever-rising concerns is plastic bag waste. The United States uses over 100 billion plastic bags every day, with an average of 300 bags per person or 1,500 bags per home, and only 1% to 3% of these are recycled. Bags that are not recyclable become waste because they don’t biodegradable. One trillion plastic bags are used around the world, per year. Producing a plastic bag is bad for the environment, and discarding and not recycling a plastic bag is often bad for the environment. Any plastic bags will last 100 years in the environment. Furthermore, plastic bags kill about 100 aquatic species per year, because a plastic bag is used for just 10-15 minutes on average before being discarded. As a result, we must reduce our use of plastic bags. Consider the environmental effect of such a popular thing, considering its ease, if you are given a plastic bag.

When it’s come to sustainability paper bags have advantages over plastic bags. Paper bags are easy to recycle because they are biodegradable. But the paper bag is very resource-heavy to produce than a plastic bag.

You should still use an organic cotton bag instead of disposable bags. If you take care of your reusable shopping bag made of recycled products, it will keep you eco-friendly for a longer period. Furthermore, a reusable shopping bag is simple to disinfect, 100% compostable and recyclable, and can replace hundreds of plastic bags throughout its life. Cotton bags have recently been blamed for being more harmful to the atmosphere than plastic bags. Critics, on the other hand, failed to consider the long-term environmental impacts of a disposable bag – a plastic grocery bag that takes 100s of years to biodegrade. Researchers compared the amount of energy used to produce a reusable cotton bag to a plastic bag. Organic cotton is undeniably the winner in the long term. The simple advice to everyone, whatever bag you have in your house pile of cotton bags or plastic bags doesn’t throw them out. Keep using all of them until they fall apart. Overall, reusing a bag as many times as you can reduce its impact on the atmosphere.

When it comes to eco-friendly items, you can't go wrong. They're more durable, reusable, less dangerous, use fewer resources, and are safer for the species in the atmosphere. Furthermore, using eco-friendly items can help to maintain not just the environment and the health and well-being of your loved one.

Eco-Friendly Cars

 If you are looking to buy a car. How do you pick the car that is good for you and for the planet? There is already a lot to inspect when choosing a new car, and factor like climate change makes it even trickier. Well, we are here to guide you through it. Cars don’t just produce emissions when you are driving them. Assembling a car any kind of car takes a tremendous amount of energy, and so does disposing of it. So, when we talk about the climatic impact of a car, we have to consider the industry to landfill, not just on the road. So, that applies to all kinds of cars. But there’s still a lot to consider. First of all, we have got our good internal combustion engine cars. They can be powered by ethanol, propane even biodiesel, but mostly run-on gasoline and regular diesel. These kinds of vehicles account for nearly one-fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions. But you have still got some choices that can reduce the impact of even a gas-burning car. Fuel efficiency how far you can go on one liter or gallon of gas depends a lot on vehicle type, age and model. Older cars can be less fuel-efficient, but buying a used car technically produces fewer emissions than a new car, because no extra energy went into producing the used car. Luckily there are a few easy means you can use to compare cars' fuel efficiency. And when it comes to which fuel is good to use, carbon dioxide emissions from diesel cars are likely to be lower but diesel cars emit more other kinds of gases, that may not affect the climate, but make the air less healthy to breathe. Considering all this, many climates conscious car buyers are turning to electric vehicles. Electric car run-on electricity stored in a battery. That simple! An electric vehicle doesn’t burn any kind of fuel and they don’t even have a tailpipe so they don’t emit any emissions when they are on the road. Remember, making a car and all of its parts takes energy, and this can produce its own emissions. So how clean are electric vehicles? Today’s electric cars typically run on lithium-ion batteries, which contain elements that are really rare and difficult to find like cobalt. But the process of mining and processing these metals into usable battery components requires a huge amount of energy. Even the wiring, casing, and the stuff that holds the battery together are expensive. All this considered, manufacturing an electric car produces about 65% more greenhouse gas emissions than manufacturing a regular car. When an Electric vehicle is plugged in, it’s gaining electricity from the power grid. Depending on where you live, how electricity could be generated by coal, nuclear, wind, solar, or in most places, a mix of all of these. So, driving an electric vehicle will probably still produce greenhouse gas emissions, just not from the tailpipe. When you consider manufacturing and charging, there’s no truly zero-emissions car in the market yet. But the thing is even though assembling an electric car produces more emissions than making a gas-powered car, and even though many electric cars get their energy at least partially from non-renewable sources over their whole lifetime most electric cars still generate less than half of the emissions of gas-powered vehicles. Electricity generating plants are simply more efficient at turning combustible fuel into energy than a car engine is at turning gasoline into energy.

So, are hybrid cars in the middle ground? Well, non-plug-in hybrids with gas engines and batteries charged when the car is moving are just fuel-efficient regular cars with a more emissions-heavy production process. The impact of plug-in hybrid cars on small gas engines and batteries charged by plugging in is hugely dependent on the energy source charging them. Manufacturing emissions are higher for hybrids cars too, but in many cases, the on-the-road emissions savings is more than enough to make up for that. The biggest factor in whether a plug-in hybrid contributes more or fewer emissions than a regular car is the source of the electricity going into its battery, similar to those questions surrounding electric cars. There is a couple of other choices out there too, like hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which use hydrogen gas to power an electric motor! The technology is tricky, the infrastructure just isn’t there yet and as of right now they are super expensive. It's too early to suppose how they may pile up compared to gas and electric vehicles in a practical way. The answer to this question “which car?” could be no car at all. If you live in an area that’s highly walkable or rideable or that has convenient public transportation, it may not make sense to drive daily. But the harsh truth is we have built a world that depends on automobiles, so we need to drive toward a greener car future. Just think if everyone in the World drove electric vehicles, we could cut our total car-produced gas emissions by half, even without changing how we make our electricity! We are in a huge time of transition when it comes to how we get around in a climate-friendly way.

What is Carbon Footprint? Why Carbon Footprint Matters for Climate Change

 A carbon footprint refers to the total amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of an organization and an individual.

Most of the carbon footprint comes from fossil fuel burning. When we burn fossil fuel it produces greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and other gases. There are many other greenhouse gases but to keep it simple and easy to compare, we count them as CO2 equivalent. We can also calculate the carbon footprint of the world, a country, an individual, a business, a product, etc. For example, when we travel with a vehicle that burns fossil fuels, it clearly produces carbon into the atmosphere. If I use an electric vehicle for traveling, then the question is: how is the electricity produced? In the China and United States, for instance, the two countries with the largest carbon footprint, about 60% of the electricity is produced from fossil fuels so there is a good chance that an electric car produces a lot of carbon footprint. That's right, most sector of our modern life relies on energy. The generation of most of that energy releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. From all of the greenhouse gases, CO2 is an important type of greenhouse gas. It is a naturally occurring molecule that is necessary for maintaining our planet's temperature and for good growing conditions. However, since the Industrial Revolution, the burning of fossil fuels - such as coal and petroleum - has produced excessive amounts of CO2 which is harmful to our planet.

How we can calculate the carbon footprint? calculating your carbon footprint is like many others, there is a website for it https://www.carbonfootprint.com › calculator. If you enter how much energy it takes to heat your home, how much traveling you do, how much electricity you use, how much money you spend on food, clothes, accessories, technology, etc. and the search engine behind it translates everything into how many tons of CO2 equivalent that is. Adding it all up at the end, you get your carbon footprint. Mine is 1.63. It is significantly lower than the average. We use fossil fuel in a different form, it releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which makes temperature rise and the earth get warmer day by day. We have emitted much of these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere over the past century that the earth is getting warmer than it has been over the past 400,000 years. So, we need to reduce our gas emissions which means we need to reduce our carbon footprint either by planting trees, building a wind farm and a solar power plant. The best way to reduce my carbon footprint is to address its root causes and take immediate actions. So, we can live in a smaller home, improve the insulation of our house, use less electricity, have more your electricity produced from renewable energy resource, fly less, walk and bike to travel less by car, when you do travel, use a very efficient vehicle, maybe an electric vehicle, eat less meat, especially beef which generates a lot of carbon emissions.

Our current atmospheric CO2 level is four hundred ppm, a level that last occurred about 20 million years ago. This is the highest level ever seen during human existence. All excessive CO2 traps an awful amount of heat and will eventually turn our planet into a very hot mess. To keep the Earth system in balance, we need to reduce our emissions, but it's impossible to imagine a life without fossil fuel because it has been the main energy source for our modern lifestyle for a long time. We use fossil fuel not only to produce energy but also use it to make many other things. New technologies - such as solar, wind, and geothermal - could free us from our fossil fuel dependence, but it will take a great deal of effort to build a clean and green alternative energy system that is strong enough to meet all of our energy demands. The energy transition will be a step-by-step process, but let's not wait until then to reduce our gas emissions. So, for the betterment of our atmosphere, we need to start today, consuming less of everything, from meat and water to all those unnecessary things that we throw away so easily. Even simple things like not wasting food and avoiding extra packaging can help to go lower gas emissions. Changes will happen from today so do your best. However, even if we stop all over CO2 emissions, we won't stop the climate from warming. All the CO2 we've produced so far is like a thick blanket insulating the Earth and it will take time to dissipate. The sooner we stop burning fossil fuels, the sooner our Earth can begin to deal with all of this extra CO2. We all have to take part in reducing CO2 emissions to lessen its impact on the environment.

Best International Clothing Brands for Climate

 Clothing is more than just the outfit we put on our backs - it helps us to keep warm, makes a presentation about our personality and can be a status indication. Clothing is something we have to think about daily, but we don’t always think about how our clothes impact this environment. From growing or manufacturing textiles, to sewing and transporting outfits across the world, the clothing industry overall releases more than a billion tons of carbon dioxide each year – contributing around 5.5% of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s about as much as roughly all of Russia’s emissions or aviation industry. That’s awful - but there are many ways to be fashionable and environment friendly at the same time. The ways we make clothes and how quickly we throw them away end up having a huge impact on our environment. Take, synthetic materials, for example, Polyester – the most commonly used clothing fabric – is made by combining alcohol with petroleum by-products and acid at high temperatures. Basically, heating some fossil fuels with some more fossil fuels. In 2015, polyester produces as many greenhouse gases as 185 coal-fired power plants. But other materials also have a huge impact on the environment. Leather production means methane emissions from cows. Rayon production means cutting down trees. And, growing cotton uses a lot of water. We also burn a lot of fossil fuels transporting clothes around the world, from where they’re netted to where they’re dyed to where they’re stitched together to the person who finally wears them. Or sometimes, doesn’t wear them. In the US, 65 pounds of clothes per person get to throw in a landfill each year, and a mess of that happens before anyone buys them. So, what can be done to make fashion more eco-friendly? So, the goal is to make clothes that are fashionable and sustainable, ethical labor aspect is important, too and environmentally friendly shipping is important, too. There are so many aspects. It's not just, like, getting organic cotton, it's also giving profit the person right, saving on labor, not throwing away the rest of the stock and so on and so on. Ethical and sustainable clothing is not new. For most of human history has a wardrobe full of clothing wasn’t really a thing. Before the 18th century, textiles were woven, cut, and stitched by hand - an incredibly lazy and expensive process. Clothes were the main purchase, and people didn’t purchase that many of them. Even well into the twentieth century, long after we invented machinery that could stitch and weave fabrics, the average person was still spending between 12 and 16 percent of their yearly budget on clothing. But today we spend just 4.5 percent. So, why would we start spending much less on our clothes? In the 1960s clothing started costing lesser thanks to more advanced manufacturing technologies and synthetic fabrics. Also, around this time, expanding clothing production to countries and regions with lower labor costs became most popular. Since then, clothes have just kept getting cheaper day by day. You can buy a pair of jeans from H&M for 10 to 15 dollars only. 10 to 15 Dollars! I’ve had juice more expensive than that. And all these inexpensive clothes have led to us making and buying more and more clothes than ever before. In 2014 we made more than 100 billion new clothes which are sufficient to give every single person on the planet 15 new pieces of clothing. Today, we’re purchasing, on average 60 percent more fabrics than we did 20 years ago, but we're only wearing it for half as long. As a consumer, if you decide to buy from a fast fashion brand, an inexpensive garment, it seems like a great deal. But, two reasons 1 - It won't look good for long and 2 - The person who made it, somewhere far away overseas is not getting paid or treated well. So, you can change that by consciously determining to buy style instead of trends. And by only choosing items that go with what you already have in your wardrobe. It's the idea of a capsule wardrobe. You buy fewer items, but they're more combinable and so you get more wear out of each fabric. So, it's about to compute quality before quantity. So, what we need is more options - more brands that are in between that environmental hippy side and that mass-market super inexpensive production side. Because the demand is there. 

Let’s take the example of some brands: Ecoalf, a Spanish company that makes swimming trunks from recycled fishing webs, bags from coffee grounds and flip flops from old tires. Yes, they’re a smaller business than the Zaras and Forever 21s of the world, but they’re making their tag on the fashion industry by association with big players. And zealously, many brands have also gotten on board this sustainability train.

Knitted sneakers like the Adidas Ultraboost and Nike Flynitare lighter and use fewer materials than the average sneaker - a lighter shoe is easier and cheaper to transport, requiring fewer fossil fuels to form. And fewer materials in the production process means less waste use. Plus, the point is much of Nike’s Flyknit sneakers is made of recycled plastic rather than directly from petroleum. Of course, looking great and what’s fashionable is all relative but it doesn't have to mean cycling through dozens of materials every season. It also doesn't mean wearing a vegetable sack. 

sustainable brands

There are lots of sustainable and stylish options out there. If you purchase clothes that are sustainable or high quality, it's not necessarily more expensive. It's a question of choice and of the option you got. So far, sustainable fabrics tend to be a bit rougher, they're - not feel as good on the skin, or you just have fewer colors. It's not as resistant when you wash it. So, there is a drawback to it. So, the question is - how much good feeling you want, how much sustainability do you want? Exquisitely you are somewhere in the middle. Ideally, you want both. None of these solutions are perfect. The sustainable fabric still has some impact on the planet, and a lot of it is really expensive. But now trends are moving in the right direction. The thing is, people are more aware of what's going on in the fashion industry and they are more informed to make better buying decisions. So, the thing is, changing. It's evolving - slowly but surely. And the demand for ethical and sustainable clothing is growing and there is space for many more labels. It's really inspiring stuff! And as more and more people and brands start considering how clothes are made, the more fashionable this whole idea will become.