Project 2 Report, CMST&230

Public Relations: Marco Medina, AJ Clark, Ashley Delacerda, Raveena Sarai, Claire Ramel, Chisato Kamatani

Problem Identification: 

As time goes on it has been clearer that the way us humans live life affects the environment, both positively and negatively. With this we asked the question: how can today’s youth and adults alter their lifestyle to live more environmentally responsible in order to decrease their carbon footprint? A small, yet significant part of everyday life is getting dressed, and where you get your garments from, and its overall lifecycle plays a large role in the global environment. By shopping fast-fashion, and promoting factory made materials, and purchasing mass-produced food products, carbon emissions continue to increase and lead to temperatures rising globally which creates a ripple effect of environmental atrocities.

Problem Analysis:

When we consider a better environment we fail to focus on small changes we can make for ourselves, and incorporate into our lives. Various foods we consume daily  have been processed through factories and we truly don’t know what we are actually putting into our bodies. The ingredients are usually unknown as we know what the label states but not actually where it comes from. Going to a local farmers market you can find fresh fruit and vegetables that have been grown from someone’s backyard. Clothing is also an essential item. We look past the process of how it was made and we fail to realize the harm that has been created when we purchase clothing. Factory clothing causes damage in ways that we don’t think about as often as we should be. The use of so many factories are the primary contributors to global warming and climate change. “Fashion is visualizing and communicating positive and negative issues around the way we make and use clothes” (Rissanen, 2011) Some examples are sea levels rising, droughts resulting in forest fires, and high magnitude hurricanes to name a few. The inevitable fate of all clothes and accessories is to end up in landfills (Rissanen, 2011)

Solution Criteria: 

As a group we put together a plan to complete our own personal Small Wins which seems to equal as a Small Win for the environment. Within four weeks we planned to separately visit and support different secondhand store locations and small community businesses all while abiding to Green River’s COVID-19 guidelines for safety of others and ourselves. We prioritize mask requirements and maintaining a safe physical distance of at least 6 feet during the time of this Small Wins project.

Solution Suggestions: 

There are many environmental issues we face globally leading us to decide between multiple solutions. In order to reduce plastic use, people are encouraged to use reusable water bottles and bags. One other option is to become mindful of your food sources, rather than supporting mass produced supermarkets relocate meat, fruit, vegetable, and egg purchases towards local farmers. A similar focus is adding sustainable fashion into personal closets gradually including it into everyday wear. With the variety of resources being mom-and-pop shops, second hand thrift stores, small community businesses, or small online businesses we are able to cut the demand for fast fashion at larger chain stores ultimately providing our solution towards the environmental consequences of fast fashion. The consumer demand for sustainable fashion has allowed this movement to expand and normalize convenient online access through stores such as ThredUp, Etsy, and Depop. We gravitate towards this cause as a group and agree the growth proves the Small Wins of this ethical movement. 

Solution Selection: 

When choosing our specific small win, we wanted to choose something reasonable and attainable for everyone to participate, and so collectively we chose second-hand shopping. A main reason for this is that fashion and clothing are something we each value and spend hundreds of dollars a year on it. We had found multiple varieties of second hand stores, from GoodWills to Plato’s Closet, etc. as well as local estate and garage sales. This experience is also something that can easily be continued outside of this class due to its inexpensiveness, convenience and accessibility. If someone could shop at a secondhand store even half the time, their footprint on climate would still see a decrease, and a clothing item’s lifecycle will increase, lengthening the time before it seals its fate in a landfill. 

Solution Implementation 

The first step in implementing our solution was to search each or our local areas for stores that sold secondhand apparel. The second step was to travel to these stores to search for clothing rather than going to a store to purchase brand new apparel. The final step in the process is to continue to shop second hand in the future when new clothing is needed. If we continue to shop second hand whenever we need new clothing, that provides the largest impact on helping the environment over time.

Conclusions 

Second hand stores have the power to reduce waste by reusing, and be able to give happiness to people with low prices and great deals. That will also help to make a better environment by eliminating unnecessary hassle, especially incineration. Not only that, reusing and recycling clothes helps minimizing the need for new production and reducing textile waste as well (Jennifer & Colleen, 2015, p.1 ). It can also help animals because animal’s skin, fur, hair, and body are used for clothes. As a result, reducing carbon footprint creates a win-win relationship for the entire world, and one little thing has the power to make a huge positive impact on the whole planet.

References 

Jennifer Farley Gordon, & Colleen Hill. (2015). Sustainable Fashion : Past, Present and Future. Bloomsbury Academic.

Gwilt, A., & Rissanen, T. (Eds.). (2011). Shaping sustainable fashion : Changing the way we make and use clothes. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.comLinks to an external site.