10,000 people take a stand against the fast fashion industry
The world’s first crowdacting platform CollAction launches its largest crowdact to date: Slow Fashion Season. 10,000 people pledge to not buy new clothes for three months to take stand against the negative impact of the (fast) fashion industry.
A quick post from me today but one of high importance! I’m sharing this because I hope I may inspire some of you to act and join us in taking a stand against the fast fashion industry. I have already started my journey on only buying secondhand clothing and I’m having a brilliant time from it!! I think I’ve actually become trendier because of it, I’ve definitely become the queen of seeking out treasures on EBay!
On Friday I popped along to a local charity clothes sale and by god am I glad I did! One glass of Prosecco, 2 hours later and only £20 down, I left with a pair of jeans, 3 skirts, 3 dresses, a top and a ring. Unbelievable. AND I felt good for it knowing that my money had gone to charity.
So what’s it all about and how do I get involved?
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands (17 May 2019) – CollAction, the world’s first official crowdacting platform, announces the launch of Slow Fashion Season – Edition 2019. For the second consecutive year, CollAction urges people around the world to commit themselves to not buy any new piece of clothing from 21st of June until 21st of September 2019. Last year the goal was 2,500 sign ups. This year, the stakes are higher with a target of at least 10,000 people. This would make Slow Fashion Season 2019 CollAction’s biggest crowdact to date.
The reason: the fashion industry is responsible for enormous amounts of water consumption, water pollution, waste, questionable working conditions, and global greenhouse emissions. The amount of water the fashion industry consumes each year could fill 32 million Olympic size swimming pools (Global Fashion Agenda, 2017) and it accounts for 8% of global greenhouse emissions according to Environmental Impact of the Global Apparel and Footwear Industries by Quantis (2018). Research by The Boston Consulting Group and the Global Fashion Agenda states that consumption is expected to increase from 62 to 102 million tons in 2030, which equals to 500 billion t-shirts. While we are busy pointing at others, we are forgetting that “it only takes a small group of committed individuals to change the world”. Margaret Mead said so, not us.
Last year 2,625 people took part in Slow Fashion Summer* – equivalent to saving 92.1 million litres of water and preventing 375,400 kg of CO2 emissions. This year, CollAction is committed to finding at least 10,000 people worldwide to take action against the fast fashion industry. If 10,000 people participate, we save the equivalent of 360 million litres of water and 1.4 million kg of CO2 emissions.
*The previous edition was called “Slow Fashion Summer”. As the campaign became global, we changed the name into Slow Fashion Season. And as it will be summer in the northern hemisphere, winter is coming for the southern hemisphere.
CollAction hopes to initiate collective behavioral change and give a clear signal to the fast fashion industry and governments. With Slow Fashion Season, the goal is to get 10,000 people to take action in Summer 2019 against Fast Fashion – in the Netherlands and abroad. The registration for the Slow Fashion Season (through www.slowfashionseason.org) closes at 23:59 on 20th of June 2019.
“We want to make people aware that there are other solutions – that another lifestyle, or way of consuming is possible. And that doing the right thing doesn’t have to be boring or painful – it can be fun and creative, especially when supported by our growing community of CollActivists. We can wait for governments, the industry, or other people to act. Or we can set an example with our actions, together.”
My own image taken when I was a twenty something aspiring fashion photographer. Dress from the local charity shop.
“I think the point of the exercise is to realize that you don’t really need to buy anything new. You can buy most of it secondhand, often much nicer & cheaper compared to the common fast fashion stores. It’s not just fun to hunt for these treasures, but also more sustainable to do it this way. Also, it is good to be conscious that you & I are able to create impact by making different purchase decisions.”
About CollAction
CollAction.org is the first official crowdacting platform in the world and offers a new solution to collective action problems, like climate change, traffic jams, and plastic pollution. Introduced by CollAction, crowdacting means: “taking action collectively and conditionally with the purpose of achieving positive impact on the world and its inhabitants”. With crowdacting, people commit to taking action when a predetermined target of number of people is reached. The concept is very similar to crowdfunding, but people commit to actions, instead of money.
CollAction aims to make the world an even better place by developing and maintaining a platform that facilitates crowdacting: www.collaction.org. It is our goal to move 100,000 people to action in 2019. CollAction is a non profit entirely run by volunteers.
SO PLEASE JOIN US!!
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