Climate change
Contrary to what some of those crazies say, we think climate change is real and fashion is not making it better. From growing textile fibers to moving fabrics around the world, making clothes sadly fuels this global climate crisis.


Production Emissions
Production processes emit CO2 and other greenhouse gases which pollute our atmosphere and contribute to climate change. Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity's carbon emissions.(6) For example, conventional cotton, leather and other raw materials grown in industrial farming operations create huge energy footprints. Also, polyester, nylon, and other petroleum-based materials emit harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas almost 300 times more potent than CO2.(7)

Chemicals & Pollution
The production of textile fibers requires an intensive use of chemicals. Approximately 43 million tonnes of chemicals are used annually to produce textiles.(8)


Runoff
Runoff from these dye houses can contain heavy metals, alkali salts, toxic solids, and harmful pigments. About 40% of colorants used around the world contain organically bound chlorine, a known carcinogen.(9) It can cause cancer like tobacco, asbestos and DDT. What a nightmare-factory.


Trashed clothes
Americans throw away over 16 million tons of textiles a year.(10) Over 95% of the clothing thrown away in the US can be recycled or reused, but sadly more than 85% ends up in landfills.(11)(12) Even in a landfill, these materials don’t just go away—nylon takes 30 to 40 years to biodegrade, while polyester requires more than 200 years.(13) Talk about a hand me down.

Cotton
We do not think conventional cotton is awesome. It has some of the most harmful environmental impacts of all fabric. Yet cotton made up about 25% of global fiber production in 2019.(14)


Pesticides
According to the World Wildlife Foundation, conventional cotton consumes 11% of the world’s pesticide sales and 24% of the world’s insecticide sales, despite the fact that cotton only uses 2.4% of total arable land. Terrible ratio if you ask us.


Water
Most cotton requires high levels of irrigation and water-intensive processing. A cotton t-shirt can use up to 2,000 gallons of water to make (that’s close to 48 full bathtubs’ worth).(3) Irrigation systems input and circulate chemicals into the groundwater, making cotton production the largest textile contributor to freshwater and soil toxicity in the world.

Other not awesome fabrics
Did you know most fast fashion is actually made out of oil? We were shocked when we found out, too. Polyester, acrylic, nylon, spandex, and acetate are all made from nonrenewable fossil fuels, which require a bunch of energy to produce and emit gross stuff from the landfill.


Shoes
Footwear represents about 1/5 of the total impact of the apparel industry and nearly 1/4 of the climate impacts.(15) 97% of the impact of shoes happens during material processing and manufacturing, so that's where we focused our attention with Ref Shoes.(16)


Production
The manufacturing process emits pollution into the air and waterways harming environmental and human health. For every ton of polyester, manufacturers emit over five tons of carbon dioxide.


After-life
These textiles take anywhere from 20 to 200 years to biodegrade.(12) When they do, they release chemicals like formaldehyde, heavy metals, BPA, and PFCs into the environment. So basically you wear it twice and it lives in a landfill with its formaldehyde and BPA buddies for 200 years.