Time to change course
If the world is to stand a chance of meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the way we produce goods and consume them must change. Naturally, this includes denim.
In 2015, the United Nations (UN) presented the world with a series of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and gave it 15 years to achieve them. One-third of the way into that timeframe, optimism seems thin on the ground. In a statement last September, the UN said that the progress made in the last two decades in building peace and prosperity for all people and the planet “is in danger of being reversed”. It said worsening social inequalities and “potentially irreversible” declines in the natural environment were the main reasons.
The SDG programme is of great importance to the textile industry in general and to denim in particular. There are 17 goals in all, many of which are currently on the minds of denim manufacturers. Not to list them all, a top ten might include goals one, two, five, six, eight, nine, ten, 12, 13 and 15. Respectively, these address poverty, hunger, gender equality, clean water, decent work, improvements to industry, reducing inequality, making consumption more responsible, climate and land use.
If problems of social inequality and our management of the environment are worsening (and the evidence that they are is strong) what can societies and industries do in this decade to achieve the SDGs?
According to a report from an independent group of scientists, which is what the UN sought to highlight in its September statement, the model that has been in place for decades has delivered prosperity to hundreds of millions of people, but most of them are in the world’s most developed economies. “It also has led to continuing poverty,” the statement says, “[and] unprecedented levels of inequality that undermine innovation, social cohesion and sustainable economic growth. It has brought the world close to tipping points with the global climate system and biodiversity loss.”
It is the view of the scientists who put together the 2019 report that the SDGs are still attainable, but to achieve this, the world must “transform a number of key areas of human activity”. These include the way we produce goods and the way we consume them. The report, which is called ‘The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development’, includes a ‘call to action’, identifying 20 areas in which interventions can create “transformative and accelerated progress” towards achieving the goals.
An example that relates to denim manufacturing appears in the report’s comments on the global economy’s least developed countries. The scientists who produced the report say that gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in these countries grew by 4.5% in 2017 and is projected to grow by a higher figure, 5.7%, in 2020. Growth is better than decline, of course, but the detail the UN gives in its presentation of SDG number nine, which is to “build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation”, makes it clear that GDP growth in these countries needs to reach 7% per year for there to be a chance of hitting the goal. Further to that, if they are to achieve this level of growth, the contribution of manufacturing to their economies has to increase. In fact, the goal is that manufacturing’s share of GDP in these countries should double by 2030. Denim production, and textiles and apparel more broadly, are already contributing to manufacturing growth in important developing economies. If the SDG dream is to come true, it’s not just that denim production must continue in these economies: it needs to increase.
For Lucie Brigham, chief of office at the UN Office for Partnerships, an increase will be possible as long as brands and their supply chain partners carry it out in a responsible manner, respecting all of the SDGs. She says younger generations of consumers in particular are now “mobilised”. They know what the SDGs are, she insists, and they understand that they have the power to “vote with their wallets” if they think the goals are in jeopardy. They will put their concerns directly to brands; they will make it clear that they want more transparency and more responsibility. If companies in the denim value chain can respond well to that, they can achieve the growth that will, in turn, help the industry make an important SDG contribution.
