How circular economy tackles climate change with fashion industry in South East Asia

Jun 22, 202219 min read

If you are interested in applying to GGI's Impact Fellowship program, you can access our application link here.

1. Introduction & Objective:

In the last two decades, the drop in the prices of apparels have certainly been one of the biggest motivators for mankind to buy clothes and also discard them soon enough. That brings us to a pertinent question: what is the true cost of apparel? Obviously, production cost has significantly gone down and in turn the selling price has also reduced significantly, thereby incentivizing consumers to consume more. But the price we are paying for the same, doesn’t account for the cost the garment workers, developing nations, our planet and all over human livelihood is paying.

The western countries are increasingly revamping their production in South East Asia and Africa owing to reasons such as cheap labor cost, lenient labor laws, non-existent bargaining power of the laborers for right wage etcetera. To add to its woe, the discarded clothes also make their way to the South East Asian countries as second hand exports many of which end up in the landfill.

This paper is identifying key sources of pollution from the industry, and suggesting solutions with a circular economy model to promote sustainable fashion. From materials to product disposal, through manufacturing and consumption, there could be alternatives for each stage in the product life cycle to make it more environmentally-friendly.

The goal of the whitepaper is to identify measures by which we can:

to reduce CO2 emissions by 30-40% by 2025
to reduce landfill by 30% by 2025
to reduce water consumption by 50-60% by 2025

2. Stakeholders in Industry:

2.1 The major brands

Fast Fashion brands produce inexpensive apparels that quickly move from the runways to our closets to the landfills within the span of one year or less; inspiring an impulse buying and also a throwaway habit.

Most of them greenwash and mislead their conscious consumers by lying to them that they are sustainable and ethical business practices but the truth is far from it.

Zara, H&M, Urbanic, Uniqlo, Shein, GAP, Forever 21, Mango are some of the fast fashion names that are known for causing the most damage to the planet and the environment.

2.2 Consumers

Fast Fashion brands mostly target the age group of 18-24 years old with low to medium income status. The rise of e-commerce and digital innovation is one of the most habit-forming marketing tools that has been instrumental in nudging this demographic to buy more.

2.3 Laborforce

While many argue that Fast fashion being a major labor-intensive force, providing employment opportunities in many developing nations, there is an ethical side of it that they mostly ignore which underlines how the sweatshop workers are exploited through low wages, poor working conditions, long working hours and sometimes physical abuse as well.

In the last couple of decades, the fashion brands are strategically moving their manufacturing hubs to low-income and economically vulnerable countries in South-east asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam etcetera. These brands mainly target to employ females (about 80 percent of garment workers are female), owing to their poverty and lower negotiating power for wages or better working conditions in comparison to their male counterparts.

2.4 Communities

While organic cotton produces 94% less greenhouse effects and uses only 243 litres of water for producing cotton needed for one T-shirt(instead of 2700 litres consumed incase of regular cotton) many fashion brands stories about shifting to organic cotton production are false.

According to sources, the organic cotton industry is booming in India, witnessing a 48 percent growth even in the pandemic. But people who source, grow and process organic cotton have a different story to tell. The problem lies in the certification agencies, most of them are based on single-numbered visits annually to the fields and factories. The absence of a central database of the number of transactions makes it easy for one certificate to be used multiple times. And that is how, the number of organic cotton sold far exceeds the number of organic cotton produced.

Therefore, the credibility of these certifying agencies were put to question recently by the European Union. It voted against accepting indian organic cottons certified by agencies: Control Union, Ecocert and Onecert. Apart from India, there are many other countries like China and Turkey whose organic cotton supply is questionable.

NGOs worry that the exposure of the truth about these ‘organic’ productions may lead to the total collapse of the industry and a few of the farms that actually produce organic cotton would be put out of business.

There are many conscious brands like Eileen Fisher who are actively working towards addressing that issue. They are engaging directly with the farmers who are transitioning to produce organic cotton. They help them through the transition period by supporting them in the initial three years when they lose money.

2.5 Government

Brands like H&M advocate their customers to exchange their old clothes with coupon vouchers. The brands claim that this strategy is aimed at reducing fashion waste by using the old discarded ones at their plants to make new clothes and thereby using less resources. While in reality, 60% of what they collect through donations are still wearable and are mostly sent to secondhand clothing charities. But these clothing donations have badly impacted many African countries’ textile industry to the point that they have banned these donations. Apart from that, the ever changing fashion creates clothes that are poor quality and goes out of trend too soon and therefore many of the secondhand clothes are not bought either.

Trashing clothes also costs the government a lot of money. In the US, a municipality spends about $45 per ton of fashion waste to be sent to landfill. New York govt. spends nearly $20.6 million annually to ship textile wastes to landfills and incinerators; a major reason why it has become especially interested in diverting unwanted clothing out of the waste stream.

3. Scale of industry

In this paper we focus on fast fashion as it is the leading contributor to environmental pollution despite accounting for ~2% of the total apparel industry as it contributes a lot of apparel units at affordable prices.

The overall fashion industry is expected to grow to ~1.9 trillion USD by 2025 from ~1.4 trillion USD in 2020 driven by high growth in the luxury sector mostly in China.

Fast fashion is expected to grow by 7% to reach USD 40 bn by 2025. This is primarily being driven by increased consumption by the young population and new technologies such as virtual & augmented reality that are bridging the gap between online and offline channels.

The top players in fast fashion are Inditex Group, H&M and Fast retailing accounting for 14.7%, 11.3% and 10.4% in total revenues in 2019 respectively.

4. General Environmental Impacts by Industry:

As consumer spending is increasing(especially in developing nations, more and more people entering the middle class), the apparel industry’s environmental impact could be exponential.

Increase in environmental impact if 80% of developing nations achieve western per capita consumption levels: source Mckinsey

Needless to say, the fashion industry is affecting the planet in many ways. In this whitepaper, we are zeroing in on the environmental impacts by the fast fashion industry in the following impact areas:

Plastic pollution
Landfill waste
Water consumption
CO2 emission

4.1 Plastic Pollution

Polyester with Plastic Microfibres is the most commonly used synthetic material in the fast fashion world as it is cheaper and faster to produce than natural fibers. With every single wash, it sheds microfibres which end up in the ocean water. Ocean Wise, a marine conservation organization, estimated in October 2019, that U.S. and Canadian households release over 870 tons of plastic microfibers into the ocean every year from laundry alone. As they don’t biodegrade, the planktons in the ocean consume these microfibres and then they end up traveling up the food chain. Many of the contents of the waste water are carcinogenic.

4.2 Landfill waste

According to Environmental Protection from the US, “the methane emissions from landfills in 2019 were approximately equivalent to the CO2 emissions from nearly 12.0 million homes' energy use for one year”.

A landfill the size of Delhi will be needed to dump India’s waste by 2050. Every year in the globe, an estimated 92 million tonnes of apparel waste is created each year and in return, the equivalent to a rubbish truck full of clothes ends up in landfill every second. By 2030, we are expected as a whole to be discarding more than 134 million tonnes of textiles a year.

4.3 Water consumption

The fashion industry consumes one tenth of all of the water used industrially to run factories and clean products.

Furthermore, textile dyeing requires toxic chemicals that subsequently end up in our oceans. Approximately 20% of the wastewater worldwide is attributed to this process, which accumulates over time. As many factories moved overseas as stated previously, they may be in countries without strict environmental regulations, resulting in untreated water entering the oceans.

Apart from that, the wastewater produced from the plants contains lead, mercury and arsenic etcetera which are eventually released to rivers. Everyday, about 22,000 litres of toxic waste gets dumped by tanneries into the rivers of Bangladesh. 95% brands don’t disclose their annual footprint at raw material level. The transparency decreases as we move further away from the supply chain.

The above-mentioned aspects by the fashion industry are contributing to higher levels of carbon emission. That accounts for about 10 percent of global carbon emissions because of its extended supply chain and energy-intense production process. If the industry doesn’t rectify the model of supply chain, an increase of 50% in greenhouse gas emissions is expected within a decade.

4.4 CO2 Emission

Textile industry produces 1.2 billion CO2 equivalent every year, which is more than the combined emission of maritime shipping and international flights. Globally, it amounts to about 2-10% of the total carbon emission. Major manufacturing plants are based out of either India or China where most of the plants are coal-fuelled, and it thereby increases the carbon footprint of each product.

Kg of carbon emission per tonne of spun fiber

5. How current business models lead to environmental impact

In this section we will focus on the fast fashion industry. Fast fashion describes clothing designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to take advantage of trends. The collections are often based on styles presented at Fashion Week runway shows or worn by celebrities. Fast fashion allows mainstream consumers to purchase the hot new look or the next big thing at an affordable price

This is made possible because of cheaper, speedier manufacturing and shipping methods, an increase in consumers' appetite for up-to-the-minute styles, and the increase in consumer purchasing power—especially among young people—to indulge these instant-gratification desires.

Generally speaking, Fast fashion;

Distinguished by its quick design & distribution cycles; often less than 2 months
Enables fast fashion companies such as H&M, Zara to offer a wide variety of affordable fashionable clothes to consumers through just-in-time logistics

Key Features of Fast fashion model

Shortened manufacturing cycles -
1. Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity's carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams. Faster production means more CO2 emissions in poorly constructed factories
  1. If the fashion sector continues on its current trajectory, that share of the carbon budget could jump to 26% by 2050, according to a 2017 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
2. A 2017 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated that 35% of all microplastics in the ocean come from washing synthetic textiles like polyester.
  1. According to Bloomberg report on Feb 2022, clothes from most fashion sites contain new plastics as shown here:- Shein - 95.2%; Prettylittlethings - 89.3%; misguided - 84.1%; Boohoo - 83.5%; Asos - 64.7%
  2. Washing clothes, meanwhile, releases 500,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean each year — the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles.
3. The fashion industry is also the second-largest consumer of water worldwide.
  1. It takes about 700 gallons of water to produce one cotton shirt & 2,000 gallons to produce a pair of jeans.
  2. e.g. In Uzbekistan, cotton farming used up so much water from the Aral Sea that it dried up after about 50 years. Once one of the world's four largest lakes, the Aral Sea is now little more than desert and a few small ponds.
4. Fashion causes water pollution problems, too. Textile dyeing is the world's second largest polluter of water, since the water leftover from the dyeing process is often dumped into ditches, streams, or rivers.
  1. The dyeing process uses enough water to fill 2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools each year.
  2. All in all, the fashion industry is responsible for 20% of all industrial water pollution worldwide.
5. The pace of apparel production often exceeds demand, begging the question of what happens to the clothing that never gets sold.
  1. H&M came under fire in 2018 for disclosing in its annual report that it had accumulated $4.3 billion of unsold inventory. In the years since, its stockpile has remained roughly at the same level. In 2017, a Swedish power plant abandoned coal as a source of fuel, instead burning mountains of discarded clothing from H&M.
  2. Gabriella Santaniello, founder of retail research firm A-Line Partners, says that overproduction results from the pressure that companies face to grow their sales. “There’s a business case for them to constantly funnel more product out, because they see it as a missed opportunity for sales. But it’s a slippery slope,” she said. “If you don’t get the fashion right one month, it triggers the domino effect. That’s how these retailers end up with such a glut of inventory.”
  3. A spokesperson for Inditex, the parent company of Zara, said that Inditex’s inventory surpluses are not significant. Cumulative inventory across its eight brands decreased by 16% in 2019 and again by 9% in 2020. The spokesperson said that whatever goes unsold at the end of each season gets sold through authorized third parties, donated or recycled.
  4. “The single biggest concern in the fashion industry is that there is too much clothing,” said Sheng Lu, assistant professor of apparel studies at the University of Delaware. “Fashion brands try to address the problem of sustainability by encouraging consumers to shop for more sustainable fabrics, but the reality is that just leads to more and more consumption.”

2. Just-in time logistics can indirectly lead to increased CO2 emissions from transportation means especially between factories and retail stores.

3. Marketing (Iconic, flagship stores) - Fast fashion companies often have elaborate marketing and advertising techniques that attract consumers to shop as often as possible resulting to repurchase and increased dumping of fairly new clothes.

As of 2019, the current report shows that 62 million metric tons of apparel were consumed globally. More items tend to end up at the landfills because the lower quality clothes are worn out only after a few washes and this demands for more new clothes.
1. While people bought 60% more garments in 2014 than in 2000, they only kept the clothes for half as long.
2. Apparel consumption is set to rise by 63 per cent to 102 million tons a year in 2030, according to a 2017 Pulse of the Fashion Industry report.
3. What's more, 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year. And washing some types of clothes sends thousands of bits of plastic into the ocean
In Europe, fashion companies went from an average offering of two collections per year in 2000 to five in 2011.
1. Some brands offer even more. Zara puts out 24 collections per year, while H&M offers between 12 and 16.
Each year 93 tonnes of clothing ends up in the dump. The equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second.
1. In total, up to 85% of textiles go into landfills each year. That's enough to fill the Sydney harbor annually
2. The US throws 11.3 million tons of cloth waste each year, that is 2150 pieces of cloth each second.

4. Wide variety

Fast fashion offer consumers a lot of fashion variety which fuels the massive consumer spend especially in younger generations with increasing disposable income
100bn garments hit the market every year
Apparel & footwear production is expected to rise 81% by 2030 - the world will be producing 102 million tonnes of this fashion goods every year then.

6. Introducing Circular Economy to make a difference (and what is it?)

With urgent environmental challenges faced by the fashion industry, the circular economy model has emerged. It is a systems solution framework that focuses on circulate materials at their highest values and eliminate unnecessary waste. It is widely endorsed by UNCTAD, the European Union and their member states. There are few corporate, NGO and academia supporting the model too. It is practiced within a closed loop of supply chain processes (graph in below).

For the fashion industry, it can start from replacing petrochemical garments (materials) to increasing clothing use and regenerating values. By adopting the circular economy model, the fashion industry can regenerate environmental values in each stage of the value chain.

Energy and material input: considering biological-based and wood-based materials (cotton) instead of plastic-based ones
Production: adopting manufacturing process with renewable energy instead of traditional process that generate greenhouse gas
Distribution: streamlining operation on maximizing each transaction of transportation channels, minimizing frequency of transaction
Use: introducing rental model that provide customers with access to a variety of clothes while decreasing the demand for new clothing production
Disposal: providing repair service along with products, recycling clothes materials

There are some good cases in South east Asian regions for business’s reference.

6.1 Thailand: MoreLoop deadstock fabrics + Cloth swap

South East Asia Fashion Sustainability Report 2021

In Thailand, a startup is founded to prevent surplus fabrics ending up in Thailand’s landfills. The company succeeded in selling the materials to fashion designers or small-medium enterprises and repurposing them as products for corporate clients. By 2021, this Bangkok-based Moreloop will have created 180,000 new products with 60,000 yards of repurposed fabric to create. Eventually, it had prevented 317,001 kg of CO2 emissions by recycling the materials.

6.2 Singapore: The Fashion Pulpit

The Fashion Pulpit has organized clothes swaps that is recognized as a motivating approach. That encourages reuse of pre-owned garments in efforts to reduce the average footprint of Singaporean consumers. From 2018-2020, the initiative has managed to save 75,000 fashion items from disposal.

7. Positive impacts on environment by Circular Economy approaches

To cope with negative environmental impacts, we found that a circular economy approach could make a difference in following aspects.

7.1 Reducing plastics pollution

To tackle plastic pollution from the Fashion industry, one of the circular economy approaches is adopting Recycled Polyester (rPET) at the stage of material input. Comparing environmental impact of two materials below.

The Fashion Pulpit, Why Swap?, 2020

From the above table, replacing PET with rPET reduces negative impacts on the environment. That reduces greenhouse gas emission for 79% which equals 1.7kg of CO2, 90% of water consumption and saving excessive space for landfill.

Reference PET usage data from the United States: In 2012, the amount of PET waste was 4.1 million tonnes. Among the waste, 31% of PET waste was recycled, which contributed to the production of rPET.

In the same year, there were at most 1.3 million tonnes of rPET produced. And the demand on rPET has around 7 % compound annual growth rate, so it is estimated that the market size of rPET will be growing. One of the suppliers, ALPLA operates recycling enterprises at 3 sites with an annual capacity of around 65,000 tonnes of food-grade rPET. Below is the market trend for the recent 5 years.

Assuming the demand on clothing materials remains unchanged, the increased usage of rPET can resolve the environmental impacts in aforementioned aspects. From 2021 to 2025, there will be a total growth of 29% on the market size of rPET.

By 2025, it is estimated to have reduced greenhouse gas emission by 2.193kg per a kilogram of rPET. Around 272.8 liters of water can be saved per a kilogram of rPET, whereas 36.7 square meters of space in total can be saved away for landfill usage.

7.2 Reducing Landfills

Many of the raw materials used for manufacturing are synthetic materials. An estimated 342 million barrels of oil are used each year in the production of synthetic fibres. and if we aim to reduce the carbon footprint of textiles, then we must shift our focus from the ideal ‘Reuse, Rewear and Recycle’ to minimizing the impact right from the start.

Bamboo fabric is derived from the natural fiber of the bamboo plant. Bamboos are widely grown around the world and unlike cotton which is a resource heavy and thirsty crop to grow, it doesn’t require much care. It also absorbs greenhouse gas emissions and produces more oxygen. Apart from that, It is much more easily bio-degraded.

Cotton farming accounts for more than 10% of total pesticide use and nearly 25% of insecticides used worldwide. As Bamboo is not susceptible to insects, it will stop the usage of those harmful chemicals.

Cotton plants require around 20,000 litres for every kg of cotton extracted. Bamboo uses only one-third of that to grow to harvestable levels.

Pinatex as an alternative to Leather: Tanning is a resource-intensive process; involving about 20 stages and 20 chemicals making it hard for both manufacturing and disposal. So, instead of Leather and other synthetic materials, Pinatex/Pineapple leather is PETA approved and emerging as a better alternative. It involves Closed loop production and low impact processing As it doesn’t involve processing like traditional leather, it is easily biodegradable.

The Environmental Profit & Loss, a sustainability report developed in 2018 by Kering, states that the impact of vegan-leather production can be up to a third lower than real leather.

With all mentioned approaches, landfill is expected to be saved for 30%.

7.3 Saving Water Consumption

Use of organic cotton over conventional cotton that utilizes less cotton
1. Organic cotton uses approximately 90 percent less ‘blue’ water (from groundwater and surface-water bodies, such as freshwater lakes and rivers) than conventional cotton
2. It is estimated that each year the production of conventional cotton uses 16 percent of the world’s insecticides and around 6 percent of the world’s pesticides unlike organic cotton which is grown naturally with a focus on sustainability
Utilization of new innovative technologies that utilize less water in production
1. Example; EndeavourTM machine, which produces no wastewater and reduces energy consumption by 85% compared to traditional dyeing, is now in production.
2. Use of laser equipment that reduces water use by up to 65% during manufacture of new clothes
3. Meanwhile on the high-street, Gap Inc reports that product teams are selecting materials based on water quality impacts and potential for circularity. Likewise, Adidas’s investments in recycled polyester have enabled it to position itself as a leader in innovation, and better face future water-related challenges and risks..

Water savings of ~67% expected if new circular based methods are adopted by the fashion industry with majority of the savings from use of new production methods that consume less water as well as use of organic cotton to manufacture cloth.

7.4 Reducing CO2 Emission

Comparing CO2 emissions of standard materials supply chain & those with organic materials, with the processes of crop cultivation & fiber production as below:

Table 1: Global Consumption of Textile Substrates:

Source: Athalye, A., Carbon footprint in textile processing, 2012, Fibre2Fashion Table 2: Kilogram of CO2 Emissions per Ton of Spun Fiber

Source: Ecotextiles report

As seen from Table 1 & 2, Polyester is the most consumed raw material in the fashion industry and it also contributes highest to the Co2 emission, therefore we aim to reduce the carbon footprint of Polyester and thereby control the Co2 emission from the onset of the supply chain.

Adopting organic cotton than conventional one could save 60% CO2 emissions from the supply chain. It is estimated that a circular economy-driven approach could even reduce almost 75% CO2 emissions by replacing polyester.

Combining the aforementioned approach on upstream and brand’s own operation, it is certainly important to encourage sustainable consuming behavior.

According to a report from McKinsey, below are the impacts on CO2 abatement with actions taken by different stakeholders.

Obviously, manufacturers have the biggest impacts on CO2 emission abatement, which is more than 3 times of the other stakeholder groups.

By implementing the above mentioned measures, we can optimize our environmental impact by the focus areas(in accordance with the pre-defined goals) as below:

About 66% water reduction
Over 42% reduction in CO2
30% reduction in landfill waste

8. Way Forward

Generally speaking, besides emerging startups which are adopting circular economy models, other stakeholders play imperatives on ecosystem & economy. It is estimated to have 4 major key players to shift the fashion industry towards a circular economy model, with government interventions. Below are suggested key actions for each player to take to ensure a move to sustainable fashion.

8.1 Supplier/ Manufacturer

Replace PET with rPET during the process of materials production
Adopt organic materials such as bamboo fabric and organic cottons
Redesign materials usage strategy with fashion designers
Adopt smart IOT map system to optimize distribution channels & frequency
Allows used clothes returning to factory for materials dismantling and re-production

8.2 Retailer

Prioritize suppliers with less carbon footprints
Adopt smart IOT map system to optimize distribution channels & frequency
Set up collection points for used clothes and collaborate with suppliers for logistics
Provide repair service along with products and recycling clothes materials

8.3 Consumers

shift to a buying practice to drive social, economical and environmental impact. Good on You is a platform that consumers can use to educate themselves on the ethical and sustainable practices from their favorite brands.
Slow fashion is the antithesis of Fast fashion and can be a guiding rule for the consumers. This trend asks consumers to buy clothes that they can rewear and repurpose for a longer period of time and made by brands who manufacture clothes keeping the environment in mind.
If we extend the life cycle of our garments (especially our cotton garments) by nine months, we can reduce the water footprint of our clothing by about 5-10%

8.4 Government/ policy maker

Government interventions are required, at least to manage a database that keeps the impact performance transparent among companies.

Consult with industry players on setting up a guidelines on environmental-friendly procurement on materials
Pioneer to adopt organic materials for internal use
Coordinate a centralized tracker on organizations’ performance on reducing carbon footprint
Support and invest on smart city technology to streamline distribution of products
Provide financial and network support to cloth swapping and 2nd hand market
Promote and incentivize retailer’s repair & recycle service
Introduce fee-charging system on both supplier, retailers and consumers in minimizing fashion waste

Conclusion

According to a project by DrawDawn, climate mitigation solutions can also be a means to improve the living standards of millions living below poverty in South Asia. It can bring changes in those lives who also happen to go through the worst effects of climate disasters and climate change.

There can be significant impacts to various stakeholders by implementing the aforementioned measures from the previous section. For example, green business practices for raw material production(e.g. cotton) can significantly improve climate resistance and yield which will lead to an increase in income for the farmers and which will further lead to an increased disposable income that can be spent on education. And then better education will pave the way for gender and economic equality. With better education and equality, there will be knowledge among the factory workers for right wage and right working conditions. And the more informed the immediate stakeholders are, the more is the possibility for fashion brands to adopt a responsible and traceable business model.

It would also mean a transformation in the supply chain of these fashion brands and the transparent visibility of the same to the consumers. The current innovation by the brands are inspired by the cumulative effort of conscious customers, nonprofit and for-profit organizations and governmental regulations. While it is a starting point, the road to a sustainable future is a long road ahead. Continuous innovation and collaboration across stakeholders will pave the way towards that. And the same will be accelerated by giving the driver’s seat to developing nations through financial ownership.

Meet The Thought Leaders

Shatakshi Sharma has been a management consultant with BCG and is Co- Founder of Global Governance Initiative with national facilitation of award- Economic Times The Most Promising Women Leader Award, 2021 and Linkedin Top Voice, 2021.

Prior to graduate school at ISB, she was Strategic Advisor with the Government of India where she drove good governance initiatives. She was also felicitated with a National Young Achiever Award for Nation Building. She is a part time blogger on her famous series-MBA in 2 minutes.

Naman Shrivastava is the Co-Founder of Global Governance Initiative. He has previously worked as a Strategy Consultant in the Government of India and is working at the United Nations - Office of Internal Oversight Services. Naman is also a recipient of the prestigious Harry Ratliffe Memorial Prize - awarded by the Fletcher Alumni of Color Executive Board. He has been part of speaking engagements at International forums such as the World Economic Forum, UN South-South Cooperation etc. His experience has been at the intersection of Management Consulting, Political Consulting, and Social entrepreneurship.

Akshay Cyril is a consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), with a background in Mathematics from St. Stephen's College.

Meet The Authors (GGI Fellows)

Dipti Mishra post her MBA from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar(XIMB, Batch 2019-21), is currently working as a Consultant in the BFSI domain for Mindtree limited. She enjoys consulting and is in constant awe of how much technology can spearhead us all into a brave new world. She has a keen interest in climate change and environmental sustainability and is curious about the possibilities of a harmonious existence of people and the planet without making profit at the bottom of the totem pole.

Victor Musila is a commercial Associate with Glovo in Kenya. He graduated in 2019 with a degree in Bsc. Industrial Chemistry graduate from the University of Nairobi. Previously he worked as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in the Nairobi Office. He has worked on projects ranging from Covid-19 to Insurance.

Jasmine Ko dedicated herself to social innovation platforms in Hong Kong. She focuses on cross-sector collaborations with her literature and public service background. She helped provide business resources to the community of impact venture and social enterprise. She is highly skilled and has also mentored community assistants, managed teams and served as a key point of contact for her clients. Through GGI, Jasmine aims to explore her prelim knowledge of Consulting and further steer her career in social impact and business for good.

How circular economy tackles climate change with fashion industry in South East Asia

If you are interested in applying to GGI's Impact Fellowship program, you can access our application link here.

1. Introduction & Objective:

2. Stakeholders in Industry:

3. Scale of industry

4. General Environmental Impacts by Industry:

5. How current business models lead to environmental impact

6. Introducing Circular Economy to make a difference (and what is it?)

7. Positive impacts on environment by Circular Economy approaches

8. Way Forward

Conclusion

Meet The Thought Leaders

Meet The Authors (GGI Fellows)

If you are interested in applying to GGI's Impact Fellowship program, you can access our application link here.

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