Week 1 - Qiuying Lin

Before watching "The True Cost" video in class, I never think it's problematic to buy new clothes regularly. It's a habit for me to change new clothes every season, although I just wear the clothes less than 10 times. Everyone around me have same customer behavior as me, then I regard this as the common sense and don't think there exists negative influence behind my behavior. I didn't realize this is called fast fashion until I take this class this quarter.

"The True Cost" raised my awareness of relentless reality behind our daily fashion demand. I could't image that the workers in clothes supply chain in the video were living below the minimum wage. It was really ironic that people who made our clothes by hands were in hopeless and dangerous life because of these textile. A collapse sweatshop in the video caused 1000 worker's death because they wanted to keep the low cost and had to continues working inside the dangerous building. When I saw a mother worker wailing in front of the lens and said, she believed these clothes were produced by their blood, but in order to give her child a bright future and hope her child not to get the same way as her, she would continue struggling, I'm so impressed and start to think seriously of fashion industry and to reflect myself and the society. As author said in Satan's sweatshop, "In an era, when the economy is necessarily a global one, it is impossible for consumers to avoid products made less than ideal labor conditions." But, I should not so selfish to build my happiness upon the pain of others'. The workers have same human right as us. If buying less clothes can save them from hopeless life, I will contribute my effort into Green Challenge.

As what have been revealed in the video The True Cost of Fast Fashion from Economist, in order to tackle the fast fashion throwaway culture, brands and customer need to change their behavior. Rent the Runway, the clothing borrowing service, is a good project for this. Customers are allowed to rent clothes with other people. In this case, customers are cycling through clothing rather than buying something only for wearing several times, and at the same time, the clothes are worn faster because of sharing. Meanwhile, there actually are many business opportunities in selling less. The Patagonia's sustainable model can prove this. I believe that methods are always more than difficulties as long as we start the first step.

In the future, I'm encouraged to recycle my clothes and pay more attention to workers and environment condition under apparel industry. I will also appeal my friends and my family to join in our Green Challenge project to make a more sustainable world together.

Work Cited:

• Movie: Andrew Morgan. “The True Cost” (2015)
• U.S. News & amp; World Report. (n.d.). Santa's Sweatshop. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.saigon.com/nike/news/Us1.html
• The True Cost of Fast Fashion | Economist. (2018, November 29). Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLfNUD0-8ts

Week 1 - Be Green Challenge - Carson Ho

When I first heard about the Be Green Challenge during the first day of class, I felt pretty nervous about how well I could uphold the challenge. While I do not shop often, I think I tend to shop in large spurts, especially when certain products are hyped up and released on a certain date. On rare occasions, I shop out of retail therapy when I am stressed or finished something that's pretty stressful. My biggest fear about this challenge is missing out on hyped clothing and shoes that sell out almost instantly.

Now that I've learned and became more aware about some of the societal issues surrounding fashion, I don't feel as nervous about the green challenge. I feel like the lessons on fast fashion and fashion sustainability really opened my eyes to how most Americans shop excessively and produce large amounts of textile waste. One particular quote from Annamma Joy's article, “Fast Fashion, Sustainability, and the Ethical Appeal of Luxury Brands” alerted me to how unsustainable and damaging fast fashion is as she wrote, "Affordable prices mean that consumers are buying more clothes more frequently. But it also means they’re truly disposable. You may keep an item after ten washes, but the item may lose its lustre by then, or it may have gone out of fashion” (283). This quote led me to think about my own closet and how I have a lot of clothes that I rarely wear. At that point, I realized that I don't always need to buy more clothes, so hopefully these next few weeks will go smoothly, in terms of the green challenge.

image from http://www.smartwomenonthego.com/its-time-to-take-control-of-your-closet/

Works Cited

Annamma Joy. “Fast Fashion, Sustainability, and the Ethical Appeal of Luxury Brands.”

Week 1

Mary Qin
ASA 141
Blog 1/Week 1


I have heard about the unethical working conditions of garment workers before this class, but in all honesty, I never really thought about it too much. I was very detached to it and it was not until I watched "The True Cost" in class that showed the plight and the suffering of the workers that I gave a second thought about the clothes that I buy. I have definitely never thought about how unsustainable clothing can be. Roger Harrabin mentions in his article, "Fast Fashion: 'Penny On a Garment' to Drive Clothes Recycling" that fast fashion produces more greenhouse gases than all the planes in the world. Forever 21 and H&M are fast fashion and are  clothing stores that I often frequent. In retrospect, I remember buying countless pieces of clothing that I knew would be ruined within a wash, but I bought it anyway just because I wanted to wear it for a singular occasion. I realize now that this is very wasteful and how this can accumulate to be a big problem. "Fashion Brands and Consumers Approach Towards Sustainable Fashion" mentions a lot of different ways to practice sustainable fashion. This includes thrifting, sharing/trading clothing, or upcycling clothes. While I think that this green challenge will be extremely difficult and I don't know if I will be able to make it to the end, I am also excited about being able to practice these sustainable methods. I will for sure have to learn to borrow clothing more and be creative with the materials that I already have. My habits will definitely have to change. I think that I will definitely be challenged in this challenge as a lot of events are happening within these five weeks, which are when I am most prone to consumerism. My love language is also "gifts",  so while I did do some early shopping in preparation for this challenge,  I still think it will be extremely difficult to control my impulses.

Works Cited:
Morgan, Andrew. "The True Cost". 2015

Khaundaul, Asimananda and Pradhan, Swikruti. "Fashion Brands and Consumers Approach Towards Sustainable Fashion" Fast Fashion, Fashion Brands, and Sustainable Consumption. 2018

Harrabin, Roger. “Fast Fashion: 'Penny on a Garment' to Drive Clothes Recycling.” BBC, 2019.

Asimananda Khandual and Swikruti Pradhan. “Fashion Brands and Consumers Approach

Towards Sustainable Fashion.”

Asimananda Khandual and Swikruti Pradhan. “Fashion Brands and Consumers Approach

Towards Sustainable Fashion.”

Week 1

Jacqueline Yee

Blog post #1

ASA 141

In America, there is this idea that having more is better. It creates a never-ending cycle of consumerism and accumulation of more and more objects though there might not be a need for them. I’ve linked a video below about materialism and excess consumption especially in American dual-income households. The first part talks about the clutter in the household with unnecessary items like toys and clothes. We often keep old things for nostalgia and memory. But we continue to add to the collection,

In part, this is because items have gotten cheaper-- companies have found ways to reduce production costs by outsourcing the work to other countries, and where factories have poor working conditions (U.S. News and World Report, 1996). In Santa’s Workshop companies like Guess, Disney and Mattel use factories where workers are paid with low wages, there are infestations and poor water quality in the factories (U.S. News and World Report, 1996). After reading the articles, and watching all the films, I was unaware of how bad fast fashion and materialism really was. It has really opened my eyes to what I am condoning with the way I spend my money. In addition, I have learned about our carbon footprint on the earth as a society, but it has always translated more in terms of food choices, diet, and food packaging. For example, it has always been easier for me to avoid eating meat, bringing my own straws and utensils and composting, but when it comes to clothes, it is always different.

As time progresses for the be green challenge, I know it will get more difficult to avoid buying items since summer is approaching. It will take a lot of self-control. But this will be a good exercise to be more aware and conscious is spending my money in more sustainable ways, and to avoid excess consumption.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AhSNsBs2Y0

References:

1.     U.S. News & World Report. (n.d.). Santa's Sweatshop. Retrieved April 28, 2019, from https://www.saigon.com/nike/news/Us1.html

2.     (UCTV), U. O. (2013, October 30). Retrieved April 28, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AhSNsBs2Y0

Week 1 -Narayan

Pryanka Narayan

ASA 141

Week 5

            Prior to reading Santa’s Sweatshop article, I wasn’t aware of how immense the concept of the exploitation of humanity behind fast and trendy clothing is.  I briefly knew that the articles of clothing and objects that were sold in America were made in third party factories located in China or India but wasn’t aware of the working conditions. For example, by reading that article I learned huge companies such as Disney and Mattel toy company used people in third world countries for extraneous work. Many of these people were forced to work in cramped buildings that were surrounded by rats, chlorine drinking water, extraneous hours, yelled at to work faster, and forced to pay their employer if they did not finish a task.  According to the article Factory Exploitation and the Fast Fashion Machine, the concept of fast fashion puts many people at danger. The workers are demanded to finish large amounts of work at a very short time rate. They are securitized from going to the bathroom or getting a drink of water. There is also a lot of toxic masculinity within the workforce, as women make up the large majority. 80-95% of the workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka are women. Personally, I feel like I have naively contributed to the exploitation as I love buying fast fashion clothing, but after learning of how severe the problem behind fast fashion is, I know I need to change. With Summer approaching, and cute dresses, shorts, and skirts going on sale, I know it’s going to very hard to not want to indulge. I have informed by boyfriend and sister about this project to make sure I don’t fall back. I know this isn’t going to be easy, but financially and morally it will be a cleanse.

Citation

Factory Exploitation and the Fast Fashion Machine. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.greenamerica.org/blog/factory-exploitation-and-fast-fashion-machine

Santa's Sweatshop. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.saigon.com/nike/news/Us1.html

Week 1-Uyen Ngo

Week 1 of the Be Green Challenge-Uyen Ngo

For me personally, when I am looking at the "circle" of "sustainable fashion from producer and customer perspective" (Fig 1. Khandual, Pradhan), I think the aspect of "fair and ethically made" is the most important aspect to me personally. This holds a place in my heart as it is no secret that Vietnam is a big location of sweatshops. We often have talked about how these companies exploit the people's need for work as mentioned in the movie "The True Cost". However, what is often times not mentioned is that sometimes, especially when it is children, they are actually forced to work in these conditions.

An article on BBC talks about Blue Dragon Children's Foundation which a charity that "helps children forced into a variety of jobs from prostitution to begging, but in the past year just over a quarter of that number have been rescued from garment factories in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest metropolis and industrial centre" (Brown). In fact, I did not even know this about my own country and the severity of the situation. I had assumed earlier that like other countries, these children chose to work in order to provide for their family or perhaps other younger siblings. Finding out that people used children trafficking as part of this system actually made it even easier to sustain from purchasing items. I cannot be hypocritical and say I have never purchased items made by these children, in fact I am sure I have a few items in my closet that was. However, the only thing I can do now is start to be conscious of my purchases and over the course of the first week, I actually found it quite easy. I had needed an item for a costume party over this weekend and usually that would mean heading over to Forever 21 and purchasing some cheap and easy one time pieces. However, I was able to think "do I really need to" before actually heading over. And I found I was able to do so rather easily. I could survive not having an amazing party outfit if it meant not supporting something that goes against my morals. 

Works Cited

Movie: Director Andrew Morgan. “The True Cost” (2015)

Asimananda Khandual and Swikruti Pradhan. “Fashion Brands and Consumers ApproachTowards

Sustainable Fashion."

Brown, Marianne. “Vietnam's Lost Children in Labyrinth of Slave Labour.” BBC News, BBC, 27 Aug. 2013, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23631923.

Week 1

Blog Entry #1
Lao, Reanna

The be green challenge will not be much of a challenge for me personally. Having taken environmental science courses since high school, I have always been conscious of my carbon footprint. My spending habits are usually controlled because I save for big investments such as a car or a new laptop. Before buying anything, I like to ask myself "Is this a need or a want," and if I cannot justify my answer, I most likely will give it up. When shopping for clothes twice a year, I usually only ever buy jackets and coats that I know I will wear often. I prefer to shop in store so that I can inspect the quality and check its country of origin. When it comes to clothes, I never shop online because it is a huge waste of time having to scroll down pages of catalog. One thing that was left out of "The True Cost" documentary by Andrew Morgan is the cost of transporting clothes from warehouses to online customers. Though the film was not focused on the carbon foot print of clothes, I hoped that it would have mentioned how packaging ends up in oceans. My biggest concern when it comes to this challenge is food. Though I do not eat much beef, I am guilty of buying food sourced from other countries. My goal for this challenge is to shop at only the farmers market or the Co-Op. I will also try to order less take out, or if possible, bring my own containers. 

This challenge reminds me of an experiment where a group of scientists lived in an enclosed space with different ecosystems. To observe how their actions affected the environment and their health, the scientists collected data for two years. In the article "Biosphere 2 and biodiversity: lessons so far," scientists quickly learned that actions made directly impacted them. Below is a video about one scientist's experience.

References

Cohen, J. E., & Tilman, D. (1996). Biosphere 2 and biodiversity: the lessons so far. Science, 274(5290), 1150-1151.

"The True Cost." Directed by Andrew Morgan. 2015.