‘THERE IS A HEIGHTENED AWARENESS THAT THE OLD WAYS CANNOT CONTINUE’
Much has been said about how Covid-19 may have initiated a shi in our collective thinking. When it comes to the thorny issue of sustainability, there is the hope that when the pandemic forced us all to pause, it may have also encouraged us to rethink our priorities, our entrenched patterns of behaviour, and our relationships with each other and the planet. By stripping away the noise, it brought what was truly important into sharp relief. That’s the hope, anyway.
Conversations around sustainability have certainly intensified. Across industries, from fashion to food and travel to tech, there is a heightened awareness that the old ways cannot continue and that, if brands want to attract eco-woke Gen Z consumers, they will have to start cleaning up their act.
On page 22, Adriaane Pielou questions what this means for the hotel industry. Large and unwieldy, hotels are notorious hotbeds of waste – from the food that is squandered at the buffet table to the energy used to keep the lights burning and AC pumping 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
And that’s before you even consider the number of miniature plastic shampoo bottles that still end up in landfill as a result of many hotels’ old-school approach to amenities.
But there is hope on the horizon. From the Habitas in Saudi Arabia’s AlUla, which was built using modular construction methods, to the Joali in the Maldives, which embraces biophilic design principles, and the Room2 Chiswick, which is the world’s “first whole life net zero hotel”, change is afoot.
It’s a similar story in the world of fashion. On page 30, we take a deep dive into the denim industry, which has a terrible reputation on account of the amount of water it wastes and the harmful chemicals it routinely relies on to create those much-coveted bleached, stonewashed and sandblasted finishes. But a handful of denim mills and brands are now going against the grain, revisiting long-established processes and substituting them with more ethical, mindful and accountable business practices.
The key, says designer Raphael Young in our interview on page 12, is creating clothing that is sustainable, but also stylish, well made and comfortable. Consumers shouldn’t have to make sacrifices in the name of sustainability. “It has to be sleek and simple, beautiful, comfortable, accessible and use the latest biotechnologies to provide the highest level of sustainability and physical benefits.”
With his latest venture, Public Serv-ce, a leisurewear brand that encapsulates all of the above, Young is a shining example of what can be done if enough will, commitment and creativity are poured into the sustainability cause.