FACT CARDS: STOP SHAMING, START SUSTAINING
Start talking about sustainability and you’re likely to be met with confusion, anxiety and bewilderment. We all know it’s important, we all know we need to be doing something, and we all want to avoid the label Mr or Mrs Polluter. We also don’t want to lose our marbles, get into a state of frenzy and end up becoming a Hong Kong hermit, living deep in the wilds of Ma On Shan, hiding from any form of civilisation
WITH
THE RISE of “fake news” and the name-and-shame culture fuelled by social media, too often we call people out for what they’re doing wrong rather than providing them with the tools and resources to help them become a more conscious consumer.
If Sartre got it right and hell is others, then the holiday season is in fact an exquisite form of torture, obscured behind a barrage of endless air kisses and beneath piles of presents. I’m pretty sure this isn’t what Dickens’ ghosts of Christmases past, present and future had in mind when they were doing their best to elucidate the deeper meaning of this time of year. It’s certainly not what Dr Seuss was thinking when he invented the cranky and villainous old Grinch, then reformed him into a chipper and chummy chap within the span of one children’s book.
There are a lot of sceptics out there – people who believe fashion can’t be sustainable, who say that brands that use the term are just “greenwashing” for marketing purposes. Even Bryanboy stirred things up in 2018, saying he would “jump off a bridge” if he heard another brand call itself sustainable. But is this helpful? Is it realistic? It’s human nature to want nice things – clothes, products, experiences and so on. Just by being alive, we’re already not sustainable. On this topic, Swedish fashion brand Asket’s co-founder August Bard Bringéus pulls no punches: “There is no such thing as sustainable fashion. I cannot back up the claim that we are a sustainable brand because clothing has an impact… we preach a moderate consumption, and that’s as far as we can go.”
So, as inherently unsustainable beings, our greatest responsibility is to be more mindful about what we consume and how we can live the most sustainable lives we can, given the built-in parameters and restrictions of everyday living.