Today on YOU & YOUR ENVIRONMENT it was an educative time with our guest Ayeni Faith Damilola
Ayeni is an Environmental Activist and Program Manager, Green Global Network, Environmental expert at TiredEarth, UK, and Ekiti State representative of Eleven Eleven Twelve Foundation and a Sustainability Adviser Degree: Forest Resources and Wildlife Management, Ekiti State University.

In The Studio

: What is fashion and what does unsustainable fashion mean
Answer: Fashion has to do with clothing. Clothes are for comfort, protection, and are means of personality expression. The present Fashion system is unsustainable because of over production and over consumption. Producers control the mind of consumers through fashion trends, people do not buy out of need but to stay in fashion , and to be seen as affluent. Culture also contributes, an example is the asoebi culture, where people just buy clothes to show support and happiness for others.
Question: Is there sustainable fashion?
Answer: The current fashion industry is not sustainable, there are predictions by researchers that it is not possible for the fashion industry to be sustainable, when we say something is sustainable it means it doesn’t pollute or destroy the environment, to produce one piece of cotton short about 3000 litres of water is required, and to produce one jean trouser from cotton it would require about 7000 litres of water.
However fashion industry can be sustainable but it will require all stakeholders putting their hands on deck, government, consumers, producers.
Question: How do we balance the negativity caused by Fashion Industry and the sustainance of the Environment?
Answer: We should not see fashion as an instrument of destruction, consumers have a major role to play. Consumers should patronise slow fashion (sustainable fashion), durable materials and materials that would stand the test of time not trending materials. Upcoming fashion brands that are environment conscious should be patronised and when buying products the environmental costs should be considered. Consumers should buy second hand clothings, repairing of clothes should be considered, fashion industry should introduce the idea of circularity in their production, so materials that can no longer be repaired can be recycled
Question: What advise would you give the government in regards to regulating the fashion industry?
Answer: The Government should take the environment seriously, they should improve on implementation of Environmental laws. Its not enough to just make laws.


Inemesit Umoh

The Host & Guest