For 2020, Neonyt, the global hub for fashion, sustainability and innovation, has chosen air as its theme, hoping action to clean air. From January 14-16, 2020, the upcoming edition of Neonyt will take a closer look at the fashion industry’s carbon footprint, present best-practice labels and encourage discussions on the increasingly digitalised future.
“In these times of Fridays for Future and society’s growing awareness of sustainability, many industry players are recognising the necessity of sustainability in fashion. From the very beginning, Neonyt has been dedicated to the major topics affecting the fashion industry – such as the use of resources, working conditions and pioneering technologies. This season with ´air´ we are again setting the theme for the Berlin Fashion Week, and will ask what the future of fashion will look like,” says Thimo Schwenzfeier, Neonyt’s show director.
The air is polluted by smog and fine dust particles. A major contributor of that is the textile industry, which is responsible for 10 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. From the production to the usage down to the disposal, carbon dioxide is released into the air at every stage by the textile industry.
With the introduction of digital sampling, virtual fashion and the cloud, huge hums of data are meanwhile whirring through the air. New technologies such as visualisation software, 3D body scanning and digital twins are taking the industry to a new level. But in addition to its huge potential for increasing efficiency, digitalisation also poses a whole host of new challenges. Every click on the internet consumes energy and the statistics concerning the number of returned orders in online retail is enough to take anyone’s breath away: a whopping 800,000 parcels are returned daily, causing 400 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. That is equivalent to around 250 car journeys from Berlin to Beijing.
Workers of the fashion industry face greater risk from pollution. Cultivation, production and textile finishing are the stages of textile production that are particularly harmful to people and the planet. Toxins are often used to dye and process fabrics, which the workers inhale and absorb through their respiratory tract.
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