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The Evolution of Fashion Trends in 2020

Vancouver Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2021 will be held on October 24 and 25, 2020. Fashion has been undertaking a huge rethink in how it navigates itself. During COVID, most retail outlets have been shuttered especially those founded on non-essential items such as apparel, sporting goods, furniture and most anything outside of the basics. Over and above this, the climate as well as human rights are becoming tantamount issues.

Waste a Lot, Want Not

If fashion retailers weren’t proactively using online sales and marketing, they soon had to pivot their companies or fall to the wayside in the race for a shrinking global consumer. As well, over the last decade, the fast fashion industry is reluctantly coming face to face with their impacts on the environment.

https://www.ecowatch.com/sustainable-fashion-2646356550.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4

The current consumer generation are making companies take notice as their buying habits shift. In 2019, Nielsen did a survey on the consumer habits. They found that younger consumers were concerned about their effect on the environment. According to the survey, 53% of those aged 21 to 34 said they’d give up a brand-name product in order to buy an environmentally friendly one, compared with 34% of those ages 50 through 64. Meanwhile in a recent European survey done on consumer trends, a majority of shoppers are concerned how their habits would affect the current COVID crisis while just over half of that number were choosing to shop locally putting less strain on the supply chain as well as supporting their local businesses.

A Pioneer in Sustainable Fashion

In a recent Amanpour & Company episode, Christian Amanpour interviewed Stella McCartney.  During the interview, McCartney discusses her brand of fashion in this current era. The fashion house is about “doing more with less” says McCartney. Challenging the current standard in fashion houses, where if there is excess in a production run, it is buried or burned to maintain design integrity. However, McCartney is always striving to reach the pinnacle of sustainability. No longer considered the “eco weirdo”, McCartney reflects on how to make her vegan-friendly sustainable fashion house better. McCartney created her own fashion label using principles based on ethical consumption practices back in 2001 as she launched the self-titled fashion house with Kering, previously Gucci. Finally, in 2018, she bought out Kering’s stake in the company and took full control of the helm. In December of the same year, she collaborated with the United Nations to come up with a new fashion industry charter for climate action.


Bloomberg Philanthropies; Creating sustainable fashion to curb climate change Dec. 21, 2018

Falling in Line

Following quickly behind McCartney’s footsteps, Kering’s CEO, François-Henri Pinault, gathered together a group of fashion industry leaders to create the 2019 Fashion Pact. The coalition of companies discussed how they would proactively reduce their impact on the climate. The Fashion Pact was presented to Heads of State at the G7 Summit in Biarritz by President Emmanuel Macron. However, in the list of signatories, there are only 2 manufacturers. Meanwhile, some of the biggest impacts on the environment come from this area of its industry. At the Copenhagen Fashion Summit (CFS+) held on October 12-13, the Fashion Pact had a live panel discussion. However, they failed to establish quantifiable targets. There was also no talk about how the brands are failing the garment workers and suppliers during this global pandemic. One of the panel speakers, Paul Polman, says things need to be “pushed as aggressively as possible” although “the industry alone cannot enact the change needed,” referencing governments and policymakers about the other aspects of the industry. 

Reframing Fashion

Determined to make change happen, grassroots fashion retailers and designers are revisioning their industry from the ground up. Many of the sustainable and ethical fashion innovators are local grassroots businesses. Of course, this should be to no surprise but what is surprising is the holistic nature to which they approach their business. Each company chooses a focus and envelops it with complete fervor. For example, the Girlfriend Collective prides itself on its transparency. The collective produces sustainable, ethically made activewear that also focuses on inclusive sizing. The materials include recycled plastic bottles and recycled fishing nets. Meanwhile, the manufacturing is performed in an SA8000-certified factory that guarantees fair wages, safe and healthy conditions for employees, and absolutely no child labor. Learn the specific details on their “about” page.

Another local design collective with similar aspirations will be presenting their designs at the upcoming Vancouver Fashion Week. Faun Studios of Calgary, AB manufactures sustainably and ethically in the designer’s mother’s home country of Vietnam. Marisa P. Clark, the designer of Faun Studio, also launched BOCCA imports. Likewise, this passion project donates 100% of the proceeds to her mother’s charity, B.T. Mekong Education Association, that supports education in rural Vietnam. It appears our current generation is paving the path for all to follow.  For more information on other conscientious fashion, choices check out the Arcadia Blog feature “10 Sustainable Clothing Companies.”

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The Future for Food Production

On March 20th, 2020, Canada enacted a strategy to fight COVID-19, in most, if not all provinces. The way we lived our lives changed overnight. Usually, at this time of year, gardeners and farmers alike would be making efforts to prepare lands, collect seeds, or begin seedlings to be planted in the next couple of months. This would not change for the local agrarian culture. However, access to these food sources would become somewhat complicated. Global supply chains became accelerated overnight as people went into a survival mode.  Many started to hoard random products for fear of missing out (FOMO). Products such as toilet paper, sanitizer, Lysol wipes were hard to come by. As self-isolating households learned to cope with no access to outdoor entertainment, baking products then flew off shelves to the chagrin of grocers ill-equipped to handle the demand.

Soul Food Street Farms @ Trout Lake Farmers Market. Photo by Theresa K. Howell

These unique times put everyone on high alert. In May, community garden membership requests surged sparking Community Garden Builders to create an app that could help regional managers with their needs. Also, a request for food supplies through charitable organizations increased such as was experienced on the North Shore by the Food Bank with one of its suppliers of fresh produce, Edible Garden Project. This may have stemmed from the self-isolation or from unemployment due to the shuttering of businesses. Local food production and its lower costs and immediate access became instantly appealing. However, in June through to August people started going back to their previous habits as grocery stores were easily stocked and opened up for longer hours.

This brings us to the idea of how North America can revisit food production and its many pitfalls. As Winston Churchill and others have insisted one must never let a good crisis go to waste. So how is it that the COVID-19 crisis and the future of our climate can help municipalities and local governments rethink their local populations’ needs and the resources they have access to?

Community Minded Urban Agriculture

In Dallas, Texas, Bonton Farms is an urban farm model that established itself to look at the community on a holistic level. How can urban agriculture affect communities of people who live in poverty?

This is what Daron Babcock explored when he first moved down to Texas. He wanted to make a difference for the community and the people who needed jobs. 25% of the population in America lives in poverty and many young men from those communities find themselves in jail before the age of 25 years old. Instead of dealing with the symptoms of poverty and racism, Babcock looked at how he could assist in getting people healthy food, housing, and employment.

Babcock says, “There should be a huge shift in investment and energy from the downstream measures when they have fallen in the river and they are drowning and moving it upstream before they fall in and give them the resources, they need to become something special to give back to this world.”

Currently, Bonton Farms is the largest urban farm in the U.S. with over 42 acres inside the city of Dallas. The community has over 1800 people coming down to visit them. “It’s no longer us and them, it’s we and things change.”, says Babcock.

How Urban Farming Saved a Dallas Community by Freethink published on February 2020

Learn more about Bonton Farms at https://bontonfarms.org/our-story/

Current industrial food production is also less than ideal for its variety, nutritional content, and environmental impact. This essential service has been managing in a less than ideal situation creating an imbalance in the system states Michael Ableman, co-founder, and director of Sole Food Street Farms in Vancouver, BC. He establishes that “the system is way out of balance. You have 1.5% of the population providing nourishment for the rest of us.” Ableman has been a social advocate for how to manage food production in urban settings with the intent of affecting populations living on the fringes of society, for over a decade now. Learn more about Michael Ableman and his current publications in our concluding edition of food production at Harvesting Ideas and Ideals. So where is this food production, currently?

Taking it to a Higher Ground

Produce found in our local supermarkets is selected for their ability to travel long distances and go through many changes before arriving. For instance, greenhouse tomatoes used to allow for a choice of 500 varieties. Now based on the industrial farm production and the supply model, they have been reduced to 12 varieties. To enable a lengthy transport and handling process, they will be picked while still green disallowing the growing process to nurture its full nutritional development. In the end, the process of industrial farming utilizes 70% water, 37% land, 30% energy while emitting 20% greenhouse gases to give consumers basic produce that could be grown on rooftop gardens, balconies, front or backyards. So how can food production be explored closer to home?

“Nothing about urban agriculture is really revolutionary, it’s simply a recreation of something that is very, very old.” says Mohamed Hage in his 2012 TEDxTalk.

Mohamed Hage, an agriculture and technology enthusiast, is the founding president of Lufa Farms, a company that designs, builds and operates rooftop agricultural greenhouses. It was to provide fresh, local and responsible vegetables to montréalais consumers that he created the first commercial rooftop greenhouse in the world in the winter of 2011. Mohamed Hage supervises all of Lufa Farms’ daily activities, but is particularly interested in research, planning, construction and operation of the greenhouse environment.

His present goal is to help this new agricultural model be progressively integrated onto rooftops across major cities. https://montreal.lufa.com/en/

Looking at rooftop gardens, a variety of professors have been instrumental in creating the Ryerson University Green Roof project in Toronto. These same people have helped the municipality pass a bylaw that states that any new buildings over a certain size must include a green roof. Currently, buildings built before the 1950s were the only rooftops available for rooftop gardens as they have the load-bearing capacity to handle the weight of a rooftop garden. When fully saturated with mature plant cover, a thin extensive green roof can weigh about 13 pounds per square foot. A more typical extensive roof with 3 to 4 inches of growing medium weighs 17 to 18 pounds per square foot, and a deeper intensive system can weigh 35 pounds or more per square foot. These are some factors which are important to consider when considering rooftop farming. Listen for more details on how the Ryerson explored their venture with the Green Roof Project in this video:

Growing Food in the City – Urban Rooftop Farm in Downtown Toronto by Exploring Alternatives published Feb.2019

Learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of Rooftop Gardening.

CBC’s Now or Never PODCAST explores “What it takes to Farm” in their September 23th episode. Trevor Dineen and Ify Chiwetelu interviewed six different farmers across Canada from BC to Ontario. Tune in to hear about the different farming traditions was uncovered during the PODCAST interviews.

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May the Fourth be with Us

During this global pandemic when the world was put on pause, we saw the wholesale effects of the inequities in our technological system. The most vulnerable were being bombarded with a need to catch up to a digital world that remained just at the edge of their grasp. Previously, schools, libraries, and public spaces provided the bridge between these digital realms. Suddenly, those were closed. These public institutions, with COVID-19, only became accessible through an internet connection and a digital peripheral. These distinct disparities are discussed in The Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab. Schwab points out that “the digital divide becomes ever more pressing as it is increasingly difficult for people to participate in the digital economy and civic engagement without proper internet access and/or without access to a connected device of sufficient knowledge to use the device.” in his book.

Throughout modern history, humankind has witnessed, as well as instigated, these mechanistic and electronic revolutions. The first and second revolutions were earmarking by industry which brought about a carbon-based economy utilizing huge manufacturing plants run by coal. As time has moved forward, we have outgrown these modes of thinking and production. While the most current 3rd and 4th revolutions started back in the late ’70s, they were the beginnings of a technology-based digital economy. We are currently in the late stages of the 3rd revolution which revolved around the introduction of consumer-based computer internet technology which brought the world closer via communications. Moving rapidly into the 4th revolution, we are experiencing how to harness those specific digital attributes to create a systemic shift in the way we think about health care, education, and politics.

The 4th Industrial Revolution

https://youtu.be/khjY5LWF3tg

World Economic Forum published on April 13, 2016

An Overview of Industry 4.0

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a way of describing the blurring of boundaries between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. It’s a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies. It’s the collective force behind many products and services that are fast becoming indispensable to modern life. Think GPS systems that suggest the fastest route to a destination, voice-activated virtual assistants such as Apple’s Siri, personalized Netflix recommendations, and Facebook’s ability to recognize your face and tag you in a friend’s photo. In a quote from the World Economic Forum:

“When compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace. Moreover, it is disrupting almost every industry in every country. And the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management, and governance.” https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/ 

A Needed Pause

Meanwhile, much of humankinds need to create and progress is partially why we are in this global pandemic. Encroaching and opening areas that were previously frozen or untouched has made a global population vulnerable. For example, visiting wet markets to attain new culinary sensations or travelling to more sensitive areas are leaving boundaries between habitats mutable. So, it seems as though this pandemic reminds us to stop and take a moment. Be more mindful of the world around us. These times give us the opportunity to reflect on where we are at and what we are doing. It has also challenged our ability to be “agile” in the face of immediate change. Suddenly, we needed to rethink how to approach education, business and the arts in order to stay healthy. Educators were being fast tracked to teach online through remote learning. Non-essential businesses were reimaging how to engage their consumers in new ways of physical distance and limited engagements. The arts were having to relook at how to perform and entertain through digital networks and social platforms. These challenges were met in many cases and we managed. This reminds us all, we can meet changes with success.

This is what brings me to the question, how do we move forward to be inclusive of everyone’s needs?

Change Makers answer the call

Let’s look at one change maker that started reimagining industry 3.0 then the 4.0 world early on in his life and now revolutionizing the way we think about our lives in the 21st century. As a young man, South African born, Elon Musk started to imagine the world through futuristic eyes while reading Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. His mother, Maye Musk says, “When Elon was young, I noticed that he read everything. He was always absorbing information. We called Elon the Encyclopedia. I guess now we would call him The Internet.” He resonated with the idea that “you should try to take the set of actions that are likely to prolong civilization, minimize the probability of a dark age and reduce the length of a dark age if there is one”.[i] From his formative years, it became a mission of his to assist in maximizing his capacity to influence creations that better humanity and prolong sustainability. Outside of being the CEO of Tesla, one of the most globally renowned electric vehicle companies, he’s also affiliated with SolarCity, SpaceX, Hyperloop, OpenAI and Neuralink. Each of these businesses revolve around industry 4.0 concepts.

For instance, SolarCity is a U.S. provider of solar power systems. Then in 2016, SolarCity was acquired by Tesla. The integration of the two companies seemed obvious as Musk says, “If you have a great solar roof, and you have a battery pack in your house, and you have an electric car, that scales worldwide. You can solve the whole energy equation with that.” (Oct 28, 2016 | Source)

The concept for HyperLoop creates a high-speed transportation system that builds reduced-pressure tubes using pressurized capsules as the mode of travel between large city centers such as New York to Washington, D.C. This transportation system has been cited as being cheaper than any other mode for long-distance transport. As well, it’s impact on the environment is nominal outside of the initial construction.

Meanwhile, a division of SpaceX, Starlink, is in the final stages of providing delivery of high-speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable. When putting tens of thousands of satellites in orbit and connecting them in a network with one another, he says he can ensure smart global coverage in a way no one ever has. Each solar-powered Starlink satellite will have sensors and thrusters so it can detect its location and stay in line. Musk also says these satellites will safely deorbit at end of life without leaving behind unnecessary space garbage. Currently, Starlink is in its beta test stage and looking for consumer’s be part of their large scale implementation process. In his book, Schwab suggests that by 2025, 90% of people will have regular access to the internet. As he says, “regular access to the internet and information will no longer be a benefit of developed economies, but a basic right like clean water.”

With TESLA, Musk has also done what previous CEOs failed to do which is put priority in sharing the technology and making these all-electric cars affordable for an average consumer. As well, in 2014, Tesla allowed good faith usage of its patents to accelerate the development of electric vehicles. Then, in 2016, he unveiled the Model 3, Tesla’s most consumer-friendly electric vehicle coming in at $35,000 US and making it the world’s best-selling electric car. Being a stickler for branding as much as technology, Musk originally wanted to label his newest addition, Model E. However, Ford wouldn’t release its trademark ownership. Interestingly, the dampening of the “E” version caused Musk to rethink his spelling of all TESLA’s S, X, Y series to be S3XY instead of his preferred SEXY.

During this same time frame, in 2015, Musk announced his creation of OpenAI, a not for profit artificial intelligence (AI) company. OpenAI’s intentions are to develop artificial general intelligence in a way that is safe and beneficial to humanity. Which aligns itself with Neuralink, where the organization is looking at ways on how to create devices that can be implanted in the human brain.

Musk’s visions remind us all that anything is possible. These changes will advance North America into a cleaner and more empathic future.  So, with the right investments and policies from other leaders, a shift in global civilization is just around the corner in this Fourth Revolution.

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (2016) by Klaus Schwab

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Waking up to the New Realities

In the recent podcast on See Change MAKERS, we explored the idea of collective housing. In these communities, many people collaborate by sharing their skills to better a home life environment. During the COVID-19 crisis, we have learned how important working together as a global community can make on finding answers to big issues such as learning from what other countries do to curb a virus that has no boundaries; wash hands with soap and water; social distance and stay home. However, meeting challenges by isolating and ignoring the situation, means matters will worsen as seen by countries such as the United States. The US administration initially applied denial then took a hands-off approach when helping their state senators and citizens mitigate the crisis. Now, they have the greatest number of cases, globally.   

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization states in their current healthy green recovery manifesto, we need to work together to climb out of this crisis in a conscious and thoughtful way. The guide outlines six key points to enable a healthy and safe green recovery. They are:

  1. Protect and preserve the source of human health: Nature
  2. Invest in essential services, from water and sanitation to clean energy in healthcare facilities.
  3. Ensure a quick healthy energy transition.
  4. Promote healthy, sustainable food systems.
  5. Build healthy, liveable cities.
  6. Stop using taxpayers money to fund pollution.
World Health Organization’s “Prescription for a healthy & green COVID-19 recovery” published May 29th, 2020

The WHO also establishes that when we put our energies towards the betterment of humanities, health and welfare, people will listen to create the needed changes. Currently, global scientists, researchers, various companies and organizations plus health care providers are working together collectively to come up with a vaccine as well as interim preventative measures.

Collaboration in the sciences is nothing new. Peer-reviewed journals are a mainstay for all scientific research. It is necessary and mandatory to have research reviewed by your peers to look at the pitfalls or other peripheral circumstances that may not have been considered during research. This is practiced in universities, hospitals, and many other established public research institutions. Collaboration and cooperation are also important in the field of technology and business. Much of the day to day computer-related tasks are based on these foundations in their very application. Consider Google, one of the most popular search engines with a stunning 87.35% market share. Google hosts a variety of collaborating resources such as Google Drive, Docs & Meet to name a few. Each of these offer platforms in which others can contribute and/or share information. Whether it is health, technology, business, or education, we live in a society that at its foundation requires some form of collaboration.

Commons-Based Peer Production produced by P2Pvalue & designed by Laura Recio

The World Health Organization invites you to contribute your Big Idea to shape the future of training and learning in achieving better health for all.

CONTRIBUTE YOUR IDEAS BY CLICKING HERE

The next phase in human evolution anticipates our ability to work together for the common good for us all. This leads us to the consideration of the next global industrial revolution, which will be discussed during See Change MAKERS’ next BLOG installment.

Please stay tuned in…

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AHEAD of the FLATTENED CURVE

COVID-19 has given the world time to reflect on many issues. From the way we work to the way we consume. Suddenly these modes of transactions and communications have been revisited. Interestingly, we’ve realized, we can live without the variety of distractions that our lives have become entangled with. Meanwhile, environments, and ecosystems have flourished because we are able to live with less. So now, the economy needs to begin again. Where does this lead us?

We have been given an opportunity to start anew; to begin again in a different way. During this pause, the European Union has been utilizing the time to conceptualize their GREEN DEAL. As many of us have been working from home, so to have the policymakers and administrators. On May 4th, PBS’s/CNN’s Christian Amanpour talked with the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen about the EU’s new Green Deal. Leyen established that the Green Deal will ramp up as they open up. This downtime has provided the perfect pause to solidify the vision and perfect a starting point to implement the new circular economy. By applying their vision of a circular economy, they hope to increase the EU’s GDP by .05% which will employ 700,000 people by 2030. One of the significant trajectories for this new economy is to have climate neutrality by 2050. Immediately, one main focal point is waste reduction through repairables, renewables, and reusables. From energy resources to consumer products, there will be a focus on creating lengthier life to various consumables such as electronics, waste reduction, and building on resource sustainability.

The European Commission presented The European Green Deal, which sets out how to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, boosting the economy, improving people’s health and quality of life, caring for nature, and leaving no one behind. 13/12/2019 Strasbourg – EP/Louise-Weiss

The three overarching themes of the E.U’s GREEN DEAL are:

  • No net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050
  • Economic growth is decoupled from resource use
  • No person and no place are left behind.[1]

The consortium is looking at, not only, their own cluster of countries but looking at the global effects that a population’s actions place on all of us. They have quite rightly taken responsibility.

In some parts of Canada, some of these circular economy actions have been taken place for a number of years without actual acknowledgment. In the lower mainland, reusables are becoming the norm not the exception. Policies may actually be lagging behind public behavior. When talking about resource and energy management, the policy is an imperative act. Thomas Gunton, the director of the Resource and Environmental Planning Program at Simon Fraser University and a former B.C. deputy environment minister is quoted in his recent op-ed article for CBC.


“The good news is we have the ability to meet our climate-change commitments by replacing fossil fuels with wind and solar energy, buying electric cars, and upgrading our homes and businesses to reduce energy consumption. And, as the International Energy Agency states, the current economic downturn presents a major opportunity for governments to accelerate the trend toward clean energy.”[2]  

            So where do we go from here? As Canada starts to ramp up, will we be a country “ahead of the curve”, once we have flattened it, or will we be left behind?

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en

[2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/covid-19-climate-change-crisis-opinion-1.5554971

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2020 EARTH DAY’s 50th Anniversary

We are here on the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. We have come a long way. In the current global pandemic situation, we have realized how much human impact has actually affected the planet. It seems during this sudden pause, the earth is taking a breath. Animals are moving freely; waters are clearing and air emissions have been dramatically reduced.

Fifty years ago, the environmental movement was spawned by one of the largest environmental disasters of that time; the Santa Barbara Oil Spill. It came at the end of a decade that started out with the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.* The book laid out a warning against the harmful effects of DDT and other chemicals in the food chain. All of this during an era which was ripe with civil unrest and antiwar sentiment.

Now almost fifty years onward, we were seeing similar earmarks. As the world brought in massive protests aligned alongside Greta Thunberg’s environmental call, people started to pay attention again. Then suddenly all was put to rest or on hold. Now here we are on April 22nd, 2020, in a global social isolation brought on by a virus that has no borders. There have been many who have said this is nature calling out for us to pay attention.

Are we ready to listen this time?

*This is a New York Times article about Rachel Carson and her book, Silent Spring. You will be asked to sign in for FREE to read it (with no obligation to pay). I strongly suggest you do. I chose this article since it gives so much other information such as her background, the situation that motivated the book, etc. It is an exceptionally well-written piece and worth the sign-up. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Photo by Daniel Frank

During a recent episode of Quirks & Quarks, host, Bob McDonald spoke with University of British Columbia oceanographer Philippe Tortell about his new book, Earth 2020: An Insider’s Guide to a Rapidly Changing Planet— a collection of essays examining how our understanding of the environment has changed in the last half-century, and a better path forward for our planet. In his new publication, you will see a multitude of CHANGEMAKERS telling their stories.

Free Read of the publication