Lucy's EPQ Blog

1/12 -  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/29/fashion-industry-amazon-rainforest-deforestation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other What I was hoping to find out: From this source I was hoping to find out the impact the fast fashion industry has on the environment and how it damages nature and wildlife. I wanted to know whether there is anything being done to save the environment and I wondered whether the fossil fuels produced from the fast fashion factories would have an impact on global warming.  What I found out: I learnt that major fashion brands are largely to blame for the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. The main reason behind this is because their connections to the companies who produce leather goods. Over 500,000 rows of data including brands such as Coach, Prada, H&M, Nike and New Balance all have been evidenced to have connections with these companies. ZBS (Brazil's largest leather company who are massively involved in Amazon's deforestation) supply around 5

 20/9  https://kleiderly.com/blogs/kleiderly-magazine/did-covid-19-change-the-fast-fashion-industry What I was hoping to find out: I wanted to find out how the Covid-19 pandemic has effected the fast fashion industry, whether it was for the better or the worst. I was interested to know whether the fashion industry had re-thought their ethics of clothing production and made an attempt to change their ways, or whether the lockdown has made clothing production worse whilst people were off work with less money and are wanting to buy clothes for cheap. Also I'd like to know how the pandemic has effected the makers of the clothing.  What I have learnt:  Covid showed us that the world we live in is not sustainable, it was a time of re-evaluation. In lockdown many shops had to close their doors, affecting the consumer's purchasing choices. In Germany, fashion companies lost up to 1.5 billion euros a day. Surprisingly, online shopping only increased by 22% since 2016 in the Covid lockd

So far, I have researched which shops are doing their bit to become more sustainable and what they are doing to achieve this, I have read an article which told me a lot about the popularity of more sustainable options (charity shops, Depop etc) and I have found out some of the ethical factors behind fast fashion. I have also conducted some research into how 16, 17 and 18 year old girls and boys in my sixth form feel about fast fashion in general.    

Questionnaire I created an anonymous Google Docs questionnaire to find out peoples opinions on fast fashion. The questions I asked were: Do you care about whether your clothes are sustainable or not?  Do you shop at clothes shops well known for fast fashion? (i.e Primark) Do you shop at charity shops/ vintage stores? Do you feel guilty for shopping at fast fashion shops? Have you ever researched the effects of fast fashion? Would you like to start shopping more sustainably at some point? Do you look on tags at shops to see if clothing is sustainably produced? (H&M green tag) I sent this questionnaire to Year12 and Year13 sixth form and received 20 responses within the first 5 minutes. I waited until I had 100 responses before collecting the results, which only took 1 day. I would predict that many of the responses I had were female as it is typically more of a topic of interest - so the results may be biased.  The results: To an extent: 45.9%, yes: 28.6%, no: 25.5% Yes: 79.6%, no: