Ki is an app that shows consumers the environmental impact of the clothes that they find in stores. By scanning the bardcode of an item of clothing with KI, they can see the in detail how the materials and the resources used to produce the item impacted out environment.
Fast Fashion
The fast fashion industry has earned quite a bad reputation in the last few years. While millions of consumers enjoy the low prices and the easy accessibility provided by such huge brands like Zara or H&M, the industry has proven to cause a devastating effect on our society and our planet.
Fast Fashion is one of the biggest sources of pollution worldwide. One important aspect is that it created a so-called ‘throwaway’ culture. Compared with 2000, in 2014 fast fashion sales increased 60% while simultaneously customers threw away their purchases twice as fast. This essentially translates to high production, higher consumption, and higher waste. This is highlighted in the production practices of both Zara and H&M, where they produce 24 and 12-16 respective collections. As consumers are now throwing away their purchases twice as fast when compared to two decades ago, 85% of textiles of all textiles are discarded in landfills annually. Fast fashion also consumes the second-highest amount of water– one cotton shirt requires 700 gallons of water for production. Overall, fast fashion is the culprit behind 10% of all carbon emissions, which will increase to 26% by 2050 if no changes are made.
To respond to the widespread criticism they received, several brands have adopted new guidelines or included ethical clothing lines in their collections. But this might not be enough. According to Patsy Perry, senior lecturer in fashion marketing at the University of Manchester: “Most fashion retailers now are doing something about sustainability and have some initiatives focused on reducing fashion’s negative impact on the environment. However, there is still a fundamental problem with the fast fashion business model where revenues are based on selling more products, and therefore retailers must constantly offer new collections.”
