In response to the widespread clear-cutting of ancient, endangered trees in order to produce mass-market, cellulose-based fibers like rayon, modal, and viscose, “rainforest-free fashion” has become the latest cause célèbre of the sustainable apparel movement.
This year, 120 million trees will be transformed into textile fabrics, and as many as 40% will be harvested from sensitive, old-growth ecosystems that not only provide habitats for millions of species, but are also considered the ‘world’s lungs,’ thanks to their ability to sequester carbon dioxide.
In addition to being highly destructive, the textile production process is also extremely wasteful, with up to 65% of each tree ending up as byproduct. And instead of replanting the same species of tree that was destroyed, mills typically plant fast-growing acacia and eucalyptus trees to feed their need for cellulose at the expense of biodiversity.
But companies like H&M, Victoria’s Secret, Zara, Eileen Fisher, The North Face and 96 others have signed on to initiatives led by Canopy and the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), vowing to clean up their supply chains. And if all parties honor their commitments, activists say up to 80% of all cellulose-based fabrics could be rainforest-free by the end of 2017
You can read more about it at Racked.
