Earth Logic Plan launches to transform fashion industry

Rooted in over 50 years of science-based evidence and research, the Earth Logic Plan provides a strategic framework for the fashion sector to move from a unsustainable system of ‘growth logic’, that’s based on economic growth and profits to ‘Earth logic’, putting nature and all species first.

“For many years we’ve been dressing like we are somehow separate from the Earth. But our fate is tied to the health of the planet and this means we need to change. We have reached a hugely important moment in history. We can choose a path of development based on Earth Logic or sink using old methods of economic growth logic,” said Tham.

Leading actors in the fashion are backing the framework and calling for major businesses, designers, fashion makers and wearers to implement the plan with urgency, including: Lucy Siegle, national environmental journalist; Orsola de Castro, fashion revolution co-founder; Helen Storey MBE, professor of University of The Arts London In Fashion and Science; Patrick Grant, founder of community clothing.

Over the last two decades, professors Fletcher and Tham have become world-renowned experts in the field of fashion, textiles and sustainability. This is now translated into a far-reaching, ground-shifting programme of change for the sector.

“The Earth Logic Plan is about rooting fashion in creativity, community, curiosity, courage and care. It is about caring so much about saving this planet that we commit to changing fashion. If we are serious about saving our beautiful planet and future generations, we need to be brave and commit to changing fashion. Every action counts, there is no time to waste,” said Fletcher.

Major businesses are convening in London, Bristol and Glasgow to understand how they can take strategic action to radically rethink and redo fashion. The starting point of the Earth Logic Plan is the IPCC’s deadline of a decade, with a call for the fashion sector to recognise that the necessary shift in knowledge and behaviour is dramatic.

This shift requires a reduction in the quantity of resource use of between a 75 per cent and 95 per cent reduction when compared with today’s levels. While 75 per cent a sharp reduction that would impact our lives substantially; 95 per cent is a massive constriction in access to resources.

In the case of the typical British citizen, 95 per cent is the equivalent to restricting all the possessions someone would ever own to those that fit into a small rowing boat. This would include everything for sleeping, dressing, washing, cooking, eating, entertainment, the tools of productive employment, the things we need for learning and fun.

“The authors of this report make very clear, for the fashion sector to meet the global deadline set by the IPCC and a resource reduction imperative, we will have to leave behind some logics and systems that may have served some parts of our community well in the past. We must let go of the prevailing growth-logic that dominates our sector and swap it for Earth logic in order to survive. It is that stark,” said Lucy Siegle, leading environmental journalist. “The idea behind earth logic is radical but beautifully simple and actionable. A new fashion industry which follows its thinking would be a great improvement on the one we have today.”

The Earth Logic Plan comprises three parts: a) A framework of Earth Logic values to plan and evaluate action research to guide who to collaborate with and how to change 2)   A checklist to keep action research on radical track 3) Six holistic landscapes setting out progressive areas for putting earth first.

Each holistic landscape offers pathways for different actors and disciplines to collaborate, commit and act in Earth Logic ways. The three first landscapes focus directly on fashion activities, such as a landscape of less that instructs how to grow out of growth. The last three landscapes focus on the processes needed to create, maintain, and evaluate Earth Logic fashion, including governance and communication.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (PC)