On December 2nd, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation released its new book, Circular Design for Fashion. The book redefines the fashion industry’s future and shares stories from some some of the most influential names aimed at inspiring a creative-led circular economy revolution. Circular Design Program Manager Elodie Rousselot shares how creatives can become part of the transformation towards a resilient and thriving industry that tackles climate change and biodiversity loss.
“Reshaping the whole system” may sound like a daunting (but necessary) goal to ensure the fashion industry helps tackle climate change. How does the book help creatives implement more circular design practices?
During our research, we found that the creatives working in the fashion industry were, mostly, very much aware of the negative impact the fashion industry has on the environment. But for most of them, we also discovered that this knowledge actually overwhelmed and paralyzed them, and they just didn’t know where to start to tackle those issues.
With this book, we wanted to, firstly, inspire these creatives with a hopeful message, build their confidence up, and show them that they can start their journey to redefining the future of fashion now. We wanted to set a clear and ambitious vision for the future of fashion — one that the industry can align behind and all work in the same direction to ensure their efforts add up to system transformation, rather than going in different directions. The creatives have the power to transform the fashion industry from one that is a source of global challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss to one that is a solution to those issues. We show them how to start applying specific circular design strategies, with stories, and examples from those already doing it, and a step by step methodology that can help them redefine their own design process, for positive impact.
Can you share how EMF has worked with a brand through their circularity journey?
At the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, we work with businesses, academia, and policy makers to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy. We work closely with the partners and members of our network, helping them frame their circular economy strategy, and pushing their ambition level towards the transition. Over the years, the Foundation’s Fashion initiative has been publishing key reports, such as A New Textiles Economy report in 2017, The Jeans Redesign Guidelines in 2019, our vision of a circular economy for fashion in 2020, a finally our study on circular business models for fashion and the Circular Design for Fashion Book this year.
We gather insights from across the fashion industry and identify leaders, pioneers, change-makers, and disruptors to capture learnings and compile stories, showcasing the work of circular design pioneers like Gabriela Hearst, FFORA, Adiff or Rent the Runway, to help inspire others to start their own journey.
Why is circularity good for business?
Transitioning from a linear, take-make-waste model to a circular one where waste and pollution is eliminated, products and materials are circulated, and nature is regenerated makes business sense.
In recent decades, the amount of clothes the fashion industry produces has grown and grown, while at the same time, profit margins have shrunk and its negative impact on the environment has increased. Between 2000 and 2015, clothing production doubled, while over the same period, utilisation – the number of times an item of clothing is worn before it is thrown away – decreased by 36 percent.
This trend led to the global fashion industry producing around 2.1 billion tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2018 – 4 percent of the global total. On top of this, due to ever lower prices and lost revenues – from overstock, stockouts, and returns – profit margins of the world’s leading apparel retailers decreased by an average of 40 percent from 2016 to 2019. This was exacerbated in 2020 by the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, which highlighted the fragility of fashion’s supply chains and saw the industry suffer a staggering 90 percent profit decline compared to 2019.
Circular business models for fashion, which allow companies to make revenue without making new clothes, represent a significant opportunity for new and better growth in the fashion industry. These business models, which include resale, rental, repairs, and remaking, can provide considerable greenhouse gas savings, and could be worth USD 700 billion by 2030, making up 23 percent of the global fashion market.
The Foundation was launched 12 years ago to aid in creating a more circular economy. With the release of this new book, how is EMF approaching this conversation today? How has the conversation evolved since the Foundations launch?
The circular economy is a bigger idea and goes way beyond recycling. The circular economy is about systems change, and we need to keep on working to create the necessary bridges and align the different key actors towards this vision. With this book, we wanted to bring this message to an audience key in this transition: the creatives. This conversation often sits with business stakeholders and sustainability teams, but creatives are the people with the ability to shape and design new products, services, experiences, and business models that can fit in a circular economy. We wanted to find a way to inspire them towards it. Designing for a circular economy is a creativity powerhouse. It pushes the creative minds towards new horizons — for better futures.
