Despite rolling out public commitments on carbon emissions and circularity in recent years, fashion has been relatively quiet when it comes to water pollution, an oversight that has negative impacts on the planet, people and the future of the industry, according to a new report published this week by environmental nonprofit CDP.
The fashion industry impacts water resources at every stage of the value chain. But CDP, which runs a global disclosure system for businesses and governments to manage their environmental impacts, says only 21 per cent of the companies in its system reported water pollution issues that could potentially become a substantive financial or strategic risk to their business. What that suggests is not that the industry is using water resources in a sustainable way, but that it’s not taking the world’s water crisis, and its role in it, seriously. Water scarcity already affects more than 40 per cent of the world’s population, according to the UN, as freshwater resources decline and harmful pollution climbs.