What are the Sustainable Development Goals & what’s the link with the Fashion Industry

Girl asking about something

Sustainable Development Goals. If you have been following my blog for some time now you already now that I’m all about the fair production of fashion, fair trade & fair wages. And that is one of the main missions of this blog, is to spread the word and create an awareness about our  consumption of fashion. 

How come? Well, I think that very effort counts. One for me is by creating and showing you ways to make the most out of what we already have in our closet, explore your personal style and to sees the real value of our purchases.

For more reference you can read this article.

Sustainable Development Goals and Fashion Industry.

Sustainable Development Goals and the impact our consumption of fashion have in the world is greater that you can imagine and are directly related.

In 2015 United Nations Member States adopted a set of goals outlining a future scenario for people and planet. Here you can see the list of countries that are part of the SDG’s

The 17 global goals that represent an urgent call to action for all countries and citizens to work in global partnership to succeed in achieving them. All of these goals are important but on this blog post I’m just going to talk about 3 of them that in my personal opinion are directly linked to fashion production.

SDG GOAL #1 End Poverty in all of it’s forms everywhere.

This to me, makes total sense. Let’s put it this way, just take a look at one of the garments you are wearing right now.  Now look at  the composition label, if it’s 100% cotton I’m going to tell you a little story. 

China and India are two of the largest cotton producers in the world —among others, of course— It is estimated that 70% of cotton is produced in small cotton farms, a family business on which the whole family depends. This family depends of this crop, since dad, mom, son and daughter work on the land. 

In comparison of a cotton farm located in a developed country like Australia or the USA where everything is mechanized. The small farm have to sell their  cotton at the same price as the industrialized cotton farm.  Using COMMON SENSE, this is NOT FAIR at all. But as the years go by, we realize that common sense is NOT that common. 

This is why global poverty is linked to the Fashion Industry.

What do you think?

SDG GOAL #5 Gender Equality

Gender Equality… this is how gender equality affects women in the fashion supply chain. Just put it this way, around 60 to 75 million of people work in the fashion industry and 70 to 80% are women, many of them are subject to daily exploitation, physical and verbal abuse. 

What is Gender Equality?

“Gender equality refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys. Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that women’s and men’s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female.

Sustainable Development Goals Course 

SDG GOAL #8 Sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.

Decent work is KEY for the Sustainable Development Goals.  For me and I hope that for many of those who are reading this article too.I also think that as human beings, decent work, should be a normal thing. We work to develop our skills and abilities and for that we expect to be remunerated so that we can have an economic livelihood and have a dignified life. 

According to the ILO, 5.6% of the global population is unemployed, and even for those who do have jobs, nearly 2.2 billion people live below the US$1.90 poverty line. In order to keep up with a growing population of young people entering employment, it is estimated that around 30 million new jobs a year will need to be created.

The foundations of this goal go back to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966, which states that “in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political rights.”

Source: ILO , SDG

So here it is, just a few of the Sustainable Development Goals. If you made it to the end of this article. I would like to know your opinions.

I will let you know why is that I decided to get involved in this way into the fashion industry. But here’s a sneak peek and maybe this article is useful as well.

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