For business to create real value and to be sustainable, we need responsible ways of producing and delivering services.

With the new mall opening in Helsinki Finland, boosting fast fashion stores Reserved, Mohito, Cropp Sinsay, and the HM CEO making controversial statements about consumer awareness and sustainability, the many problems of the fashion industry are a hot topic in the Nordics now. These problems demonstrate once more the intersectionality of racism and pollution.

The Industrial Revolution started sometime in the middle of the 1700s and and in sync with the growing population has continued its growth, population reaching 1 billion by 1800 and by now 7.4 billion. The use of coal has impacted and changed the composition of industry in almost every aspect of the  manufacturing and generating process.

The major impact points of industry: air, water, soil and habitat.

Next to the oil industry, the fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world, 20% of global industrial water pollution stems from the treatment and dyeing of textiles. It takes around 7,500 liters of water to make a single pair of jeans,  that’s the same amount of water the average person drinks over a period of seven years. Most of our clothes are produced in China, Bangladesh, or India, countries mainly powered by coal and with underpaid workers being exploited for the benefit of fashion buyers in other parts of the world.

Coal is the dirtiest type of energy in terms of carbon emissions. 

The usual prime victims

India, China and the USA are the countries which are causing the most pollution in the world. Most western countries have outsourced the most polluting parts of production to Asian countries. Fast fashion gets mainly disposed of in African countries, where it destroys the local economy.

Raising consumer awareness

Through campaigns or providing information on sustainability in stores or through tags on clothes we already know about how these big companies like HM, Zara, Mojito or Primark exploit women and children in the textile industry, but most of the people are unaware of the fashion industries devastating role on the environment.

We need to educate consumers to buy only what they need and to choose more sustainable options, instead of following the currently trending fast fashion culture.

We need to be aware that locals will use the water for drinking, bathing and cooking, while factories continue to pollute waterways with toxic chemicals. 

by guest blogger Kirsi Bleumonde Mutshipule

Kirsi Bleumonde Mutshipule has studied nursing in Helsinki, Finland and is currently studying social science in Gävle, Sweden. She has been an activist, board member and CEO for Rasmus - Finlands national network against racism and xenophobia.

Most notably she is a photographer with an excellent reputation. Find her work here: