Garment mountains build up as recycling breaks down! - Introducing the “Beyond Your Clothes” Campaign.

BERLIN, BERLIN, GERMANY, April 7, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The ‘Beyond Your Clothes’ campaign is part of the “SMART Textile & Garments” project, funded by the European Commission and implemented by sequa GmbH.
It is a Pan-European campaign consisting of raising awareness on the disastrous environmental consequences of the fast fashion industry and its social impact. It is becoming a growing concern, as our clothes consumption has increased by 60% in only 15 years and is announced to exponentially rise under a business-as-usual scenario.

Meanwhile, with Covid-19, an unprecedent level of unsold garments are burnt or destined for landfills. As a result, some countries are now submerged by this upsurging issue and are considering exporting to stop the accumulation of textile waste.

Therefore, it seems particularly vital to increase awareness around this environmentally threatening conjuncture.
It is in this critical context that the ‘Beyond Your Clothes campaign’ has been created, consisting of an innovative website (parallax) which provides, in an interactive and ludic approach, different layers of information to a wide audience, from fast fashion consumers to sustainably active individuals.

The provided facts are supported by studies shared by Greenpeace. The inclusive and informative content is available on the following website: www.beyondyourclothes.com. The campaign will be supported by a guerilla activation and a social media presence while the most engaged sustainable influencers around the globe will be relaying the initiative.


TODAY’S IMPACT OF THE BURGEONING 'FAST FASHION' INDUSTRY.

Nowadays, our consuming habits have massively evolved, with brands creating up to 52 different collections per year compared to just 2 seasons a few decades ago. At present a garment can be worn only once, becoming a disposable product. This purchase behaviour brings catastrophic consequences to our environment, given that now, the clothing and textile industry is currently the second largest polluter in the world.

To put the numbers in perspective, we produce 2 billion tee-shirts per year, knowing that one single cotton tee-shirt requires 2700 liters of water (the equivalent of 900 days of drinking water for a single person). In the same direction, in 2017, textile purchases in the EU generated about 654 kg of CO2 emissions per person according to the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Meanwhile, the social impact of the textile and garment industry is colossal.
The global outsourcing of the textile and clothing industry has gone hand-in-hand with an almost complete erosion of the labour and social rights of workers. Furthermore, the ILO estimates that 170 million are engaged in child labour, with many being part of the textiles and garments production chains to satisfy the increasing demand.

THE 'STRATEGY FOR TEXTILES' INITIATIVE FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION.

The EU’ Strategy for Sustainable Textiles aims to reduce the impact of fast fashion on the environment, adopting a new Circular Economy Action Plan. It includes the EU’s new comprehensive Strategy for Textiles with proposals to put in place a new sustainable framework, alongside developing eco-design measures to ensure that textile products are fit for circularity, as well as establishing the uptake of secondary raw materials, tackling the presence of hazardous chemicals, and empowering business and private consumers to choose sustainable textiles and get easy access to reuse services. Additionally, the EU aspires to achieve high levels of separate textile waste collection by 2025.

The ‘Strategy for Textiles’ is part of a wider approach called the ‘European Green Deal’, which identifies textiles as a priority sector for the EU to pave its way towards a carbon neutral and circular economy.

WHAT ARE THE CAMPAIGN ASSETS?

To maximize reach and educate consumers on the potential ecological implications of fast fashion, 360 Agency Berlin created multiple digital assets to build the campaign effectively. With informative text and studies provided by Greenpeace, ILO, and UNICEF, the content of the immersive website www.beyondyourclothes.com comprises of several layers of understanding to appeal to readers with varying levels of awareness on the impact of their consumption, and to transform them into well-conscious and empowered consumers.

In addition, there are various sections on sustainability, including how to handle clothes with care to make them last longer, how to look for less energy-intensive fabrics, and demonstrating why clothes are not disposable.

To further enhance the message with riveting imagery, the co-director of the ground-breaking and award-winning documentary RiverBlue, Roger Williams, graciously allowed 360 Agency Berlin to reuse the outstanding video material that took the crew three years to shoot. Despite unattainable authorizations and arduous logistics, they succeeded in making a beautiful, compelling, and complete documentary, providing light onto the world’s most polluted waterways and areas of the global clothing manufacturing industry: China, Bangladesh, India, and Indonesia.

In parallel, 360 Agency Berlin took months to gather the most engaged influencers around the globe who have shown the true interest in the vital sustainability aspect of the campaign. To assess their sustainable engagement, 360 Agency Berlin mentioned that no funds were involved in relaying this campaign, eliminating influencers having only a pecuniary motivation. The most sustainably engaged influencers have been invited to join a platform to meet and exchange about sustainability and relay the entire non-profit initiative, as well as share between themselves tips and information from their different locations around the world (Canada, India, France, Netherlands Uk, USA and Switzerland).

“It is essential to mirror what truly stands behind our clothes consumption and to experience that small changes can have some great impacts,” said Andrea Henao, Founder of 360 Agency Berlin.


Launch of the campaign 12th of April 2021

About 360 Agency Berlin
360 Agency Berlin/Europe is the first leading advertising agency group in the world dedicated to promoting exclusively sustainable brands and initiatives. ‘If we advertise and consume responsibly, we can change the lives of thousands’

Available for interview:
Sabine Erez, Project Director of SMART Textile & Garments, a project co-funded by the European Union
Maria-Rosa de Paolis, European Commission’sDirectorate-General for International Partnerships (INTPA.E.2)

Andrea Henao
360 Agency Berlin
+49 176 23948438
Andrea.henao@360agencyberlin.com
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Beyond Your Clothes - Environmental Consequences