Reliance Foundation, Observer Research Foundation, and the United Nations India Office have published a compilation of 17 great examples of work in India on each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - Ideas, Innovation, Implementation: India’s Journey Towards the SDGs. The United Nations in September held its General Assembly. One of the key discussions was around the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030) and the countries are looking at how they have performed in their halfway mark for these goals. Implementing these ideas could hasten our journey to the SDGs, and provide a strong foundation on which a post-2030 agenda might build further.
India’s Circular Design Challenge: Where Fashion and Sustainability Meet | SDG 12
India is a global leader in textile production. Amid the global transition to environmentally conscious practices, R|Elan™ launched the Circular Design Challenge (CDC) in partnership with the UN in India to support the country’s mission of becoming a sustainable fashion hub. The CDC advocates for the recognition of India’s heritage, the relevance of creating fashion labels with social impact, and the necessity of adopting a circular manufacturing model.
The environmental cost of fashion
The CDC fosters innovations to transform the fashion industry. Under current global production practices, a truckload of abandoned textiles is incinerated or dumped in a landfill every second. Meanwhile, on the consumption side, at the beginning of the century, people bought 60 per cent less clothes and wore them twice as long as in 2015.
Circularity: The key to long-lasting garments
The CDC’s main task has been reconciling sustainable environmental practices with the fashion and textile industry while promoting social and economic development. India is the world’s second-largest polyester, silk, and fibre producer. This domestic industry contributes approximately two per cent to the country’s GDP and represents 11.4 per cent of its total exports. However, the industry also drives environmental degradation. The CDC attempts to bring fashion back to its cultural roots, reminding Indians how garments such as saris were passed down from generation to generation until the piece lost its shape, and the fabric was repurposed to fulfil other household needs.
According to Darshana Gajare, head of sustainability for Lakmé Fashion Week, circular fashion is not a concept adopted from current international trends, but rather it means ‘going back to Indian traditions and practices, and reconceptualising what sustainability means in the national context, which cannot be understood without celebrating craftsmanship or considering a brand’s social impact.’ This was incorporated into the vision of the CDC and into the evaluation rubrics of the proposals.
Towards a global environmental revolution
There is extensive potential in sustainably connecting and educating all links of the fashion value chain. The CDC has increasingly incentivised consortiums to apply, as having participants with pre-established networks enables wider knowledge transmission and adoption of circular practices. Similarly, the CDC constantly develops ideas to reach a broader range of designers. For instance, it is exploring the possibility of providing mentorships to conventional fashion labels in the future. Through workshops conducted under the CDC, existing brands could learn to incorporate circular practices in their processes and gradually transition their production lines to be more climate-conscious while also remaining profitable, driving economic growth in India.
The CDC was initially conceived as a small-scale project, helping one designer a year grow their sustainable brand. But its mission has always been of the big picture: contributing to the sustainable transition of the fashion and textile sector.
To read further, download the book now: https://reliancefoundation.org/sdgs_publication