You’ve probably read somewhere that Fashion is the world’s second-worst industry (after oil) when it comes to pollution. And the reasons it is and the reason it isn’t are what makes this topic so complex.
How Do We Rank The Biggest Polluters by Industry?
When we rank industries by their negative contribution to the environment, there’s no real agreed upon way of doing it. We have to consider the waste created directly by that industry but also where it overlaps with other industries. For example, in analyzing the Fashion Industry we have to look not only at their direct carbon emissions, chemical usage, and water usage of product production but also trucking and transport, metal smelting, leather tanning (and livestock for that matter), fabric dying etc. Knowing when to stop is enough to make your head spin. So where do we start? Perhaps with the biggest contributor to Global Warming and most straight forward pollutant to measure. Carbon Emissions.
Which Industry Releases The Most Carbon Emissions?
The Earth releases its own natural carbon, from plants, oceans and living things in the natural carbon cycle. These carbon emissions are easily absorbed back into the Earth. But after humans started extracting fossil fuels, we upped the amount of carbon in our atmosphere and only 40% of it can be reabsorbed. The rest of it is just hanging out, trapping heat and causing a little thing you may have heard of, called Global Warming.
Ok, so who are the main culprits when it comes to producing these extra, un-absorbable carbon emissions? Here’s what the EPA has to say.
1. Energy
No big surprise that the production of energy makes up one of the biggest industrial contributions to carbon emissions. Collectively making up 28% of the United States Greenhouse Gas contributions. With approximately 68% of electricity coming from burning fossil fuels, mostly coal and natural gas (sorry Trump, ‘Clean Coal’ isn’t actually a real thing!)
2. Transportation
Coming in tied with Energy is Transport. This includes trucks, cars, boats, planes, and trains. Pretty much any non-human powered or electric mode of getting from point A to point B, with emissions from cars and ‘light duty’ vehicles making up 60% of the contributions. These statistics are only considering the fuel burned to power the vehicles and not the actual production of them. Which brings us to….
3. Industry
Coming in a close 3rd, making up 22% of Greenhouse emissions is Industry & Production. This is an incredibly broad industry (hello Fashion, we see you) but in general, it’s referring to the fossil fuels burned to convert raw materials into pretty much anything. Whether that be metal, plastic, textiles or otherwise.
So with the Big Three out of the way, that leaves us with...
4. Residential, Commercial and Institutional Sectors
This is the energy used in heating, cooling, general electricity, and waste management in homes, businesses, hospitals, schools etc. It makes up a solid 9% of Greenhouse emissions and is a place where we can really make some individual impacts as homeowners, designers, architects, city planners, and community activists.
5. Agriculture
If you’ve been looking for a reason to switch up your eating habits, this just might be it. While the farming of livestock contributes considerably to global carbon dioxide emissions, the animals themselves also contribute large amounts of methane, which at 10% of the overall emissions, is the second largest Greenhouse Gas.
6. Forestry and Land Management
This is a ‘win some/lose some’ Industry. Like we mentioned at the beginning, the Earth has the ability to reabsorb up to 40% of the human-created carbon we’re contributing. This tends to happen within the land used in Forestry and ‘Land Management’, so while the industry is a huge contributor, it can be argued that it is creating a net carbon impact through managed forests reabsorbing CO2.
As you can see, there are countless ways to categorize ‘pollution’ with regards to industry and this is just one. We can look at which industries create the most plastic, most waste, most run-off, most air pollution but one thing is clear; there’s a whole lot going on, beyond what we can see.
What changes to legislation would you like to see enforced on these industries?
While you're here, why not check out our Plastic Free Club and join a like-minded community that helps our team and other members to do more to go plastic free?
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Gilsulate
August 9, 2021Shri
April 25, 2021Kennedy
January 15, 2021History Buff
October 5, 2020Deepak Singde
April 13, 2020David Heenan
February 27, 20201. Fossil fuels are a finite resource, we should reduce using them for fuel wherever possible, not just to reduce emissions, but also because we need them to make plastic. (I can hear the uproar already), but consider, without plastic for insulation no electricity, without plastic - no computers, cars,
televisions, radios, aircraft, bicycles, push chairs, mobile phones. The list is endless, and even includes many energy saving devices like wind turbines and solar panels. Much of the problem is not what we make, but what we do with it.
2. All of life on earth contributes to greenhouse gasses. It is naive to think that livestock being removed is going to solve the problem. There is a complete ecosystem out there, we mess with it at our peril. Our farming practices are part of that ecosystem. If we get rid of all livestock we will have to produce millions of tons of artificial fertilisers or in a very few years our soil will be so depleted that crops will begin to fail. The upshot of this is more forest will be destroyed to grow the food we need, and at some point some developing nations may well even decide to rid the planet of wildebeest, caribou etc. to grow more crops.
3. The solutions are simple. Avoid Brazilian, coffee and beef, Chinese electronic gubbins. Also seek out producers who are the biggest polluters and boycott their products. Finally accept that the only long term solution is to reduce the human population. The only human right is the right to life. Once we have this right the rest is up to each of us. No one has the right to have more children than either they or the planet can afford to sustain. There are just too many of us.
Elizabeth G Hung
July 19, 2019Carla Moiteiro
April 5, 2019JOhn REble
April 5, 2019Alan Mytty
April 4, 2019And war is a huge contributor to environmental degradation, fossil fuel use and wars for fossil fuels.
PS Love your products.
Gretchen White-Streuli
April 4, 2019