Fast fashion is racking up air miles and emissions


Reality TV and beauty mogul Kylie Jenner is used to making headlines for her high-glamour, jet-setting lifestyle.

But when The Kardashians star shared a photo of herself and her partner, rapper Travis Scott, standing between two private jets with the caption: ‘will you take mine or yours?’ last month, it sparked a firestorm of criticism. The trip in question lasted just 17 minutes, according to an automated Twitter account that tracks celebrity flights, sparking an outcry about the reckless use of gas jets that has expanded to include other stars such as Drake and Taylor Swift.

The issue has spent weeks in the news cycle, with outrage fueled by global weather extremes this summer that have served as increasingly visible signs of the climate crisis.

Like celebrities, the fashion industry is all about flight in pursuit of comfort and speed.

The share of clothing, footwear and textiles transported by air has roughly doubled over the past decade to 17 percent of the total, according to a 2020 report by consulting firm McKinsey & Co and advocacy group Global Fashion Agenda (GFA).

This comes at a heavy environmental cost; flights are the most carbon-intensive means of moving goods around the world. Air transport was responsible for nearly 6 percent of shipping emissions in 2019, despite accounting for less than 1 percent of tonnage, according to the OECD’s International Transport Forum.

As fashion continues to accelerate, can brands compromise to slow down their shipping?

A shift away from polluting air transport does not seem likely any time soon. Air shipping gained ground during the pandemic, serving as a reliable shipping option when seaports were backed up and shipping containers were scarce. It’s also the fastest way to get goods from factories to warehouses, allowing brands to respond to changing trends with more flexibility, a huge bonus during the current climate of economic uncertainty. And fashion is just getting faster, fueled by new data-driven business models like Shein’s.

Air cargo volume is expected to grow by about 4 percent year-on-year in 2022, up 12 percent from pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to the International Air Transport Association.

To be sure, transportation accounts for only about 3 percent of fashion’s overall greenhouse gas emissions, according to the McKinsey and GFA analysis. But de-flying and slowing down the fashion supply chain is a relatively simple and cost-effective fix that brands can make today.

Slowing down may seem like a risk, but some brands are already experimenting with ways to bring consumers along for the ride, explaining the environmental benefits and offering the option to pre-order or choose slower shipping methods.

More action in this direction could immediately and significantly reduce the brands’ emissions.

For more BoF sustainability coverage, register now for our new Weekly Sustainability Briefing by Sarah Kent.



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