A Challenge to Be Met: Ethical Hive
Our long journey towards unpacking the problematic factors of the fast fashion industry has lasted for six months. It begun with the debunking of the 5 WHYs that explain how the fast fashion industry is simply unsustainable. We began with the research. It was a topic that we were familiar with, each member of our party a long term supporter of second-hand shopping. Figuring out the numbers and the details of the harm done to the environment and the workers of the garment industry was appalling and only served to further fuel our passion for the ethical fashion movement.
For our final pitching, we thought it necessary to re-cap everything that we had come up with. To begin with, defining fast-fashion was a necessity:
“Inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends.”
The fast-fashion industry is a fast-acting poison, quickly aiding to the disintegration of long-established human rights and environmental wellbeing. Saying no to fast-fashion is environmental and humanitarian activism, as it promotes the reduction of CO2 emissions, textile waste, water pollution and energy waste, reaction against the violation of human rights and poverty. The fast fashion industry is the third most polluting industry, uses harmful and non-sustainable materials, with a large portion of their products ending up being trashed due to overproduction. Simultaneously, the workers in large factories in countries such as Vietnam have to inhale toxic fumes created by the materials used and work in inhumane conditions where their safety is compromised (sexual assault, child labour), all while being severely underpaid.
To promote the reaction against the above conditions and encourage people to revolt against the industry, we decided to do our best to promote ethical shopping to our audience. For that, we created our own TEDtalk where we discussed the aforementioned issues, as well as a website with the aim to inform and provide alternative solutions to fast-fashion shops.
Our website is called The Ethical Hive, where we suggest articles and documentaries to our readers. In our webpage you can also find content such as interviews with customers and sellers. However, what we consider to be most interesting and innovative about our efforts is the creation of a map that includes ethical shops in the entirety of Greece, with a special focus on our base, Athens. The aim of the map was to show consumers that second-hand and ethical shops can be found in their neighbourhood, in walking or tube distance, since one widely used argument against switching out of fast fashion is the issue of accessibility.
As for the business model of the site, we decided to start out by offering our services free of charge. As soon as we gathered enough of a platform, we could slowly venture into charging. We encourage ethical shops to contact us to be included in our page for a minimum fee as an intermediate between them and their customers, some sort of advertisement. The Ethical Hive would become a portal that would grand access to the buyer into more and more ethical spots near their neighbourhood. Another concept that we came up with was that of a weekly feature. For this part, we would write an article about a shop every week, where we would highlight its strengths and why it’s worth visiting. In order to be the store of the week, each shop would also have to pay a reasonable fee.
Throughout our efforts to inform and provide the reader with the necessary information we hope to raise as much awareness as possible and hopefully reach people who have only been shopping brand new, fast-fashion clothes, because the bigger the movement gets, the bigger the effect it’s going to have on the environment and on the lives of the underprivileged that are constantly under the strain of the antics of an inhumane industry.
Reaching out: Instagram / Wordpress
The rest of the team: Hara Papadatou, Glykeria Demetra Savvaidi
Sources — Further Reading:
Euronews, “EXPERTS CALL FOR ‘TOTAL ABANDONMENT’ OF FAST-FASHION TO PREVENT ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER”, by Rosie Frost
The Guardian “Child labour in the fashion supply chain. Where, why and what can be done” by Josephine Moulds
Student Environmental Resource Centre, University of California Berkeley, “Why Thrifting is Good for the Planet, Not Just Your Wallet” by Leonela Leon, 12 March 2019
Vogue, “6 Ways To Be Greenwashing Vigilant” by Emily Chan, 12 February 2020
