Since the major announcement of COVID and the lockdowns that followed, many people are beginning to reevaluate their lives. People are taking long, hard looks at their lives and how they are living them, as well as the impact that they are having on the environment around them. Heck, the fashion industry is one that’s been paying close attention to the effect that it’s been having on the environment. Since that huge documentary release in 2015, the fashion industry has done more than ever to reduce its harmful effect on the environment. Regardless, more and more people are just concerned with sustainability these days. And, this is a good thing, but if you want to truly understand being sustainable, you need to understand sustainable materials, their properties, what makes them so good, and everything that they have to offer.
Understanding Sustainability And Its Meaning
Whether you are talking about being sustainable or sustainable materials or energy, you are simply referring to having less of a negative impact on natural resources and people. These materials and practices avoid depleting or degrading the environment. This is because they are designed in a way with properties that puts less stress on the environment. This is just one of the many reasons that society can safely rely on them for the future. That being said, sustainability really is all or nothing. Some materials are very Eco-friendly while others are completely opposite. The ultimate goal is to phase out these less-sustainable products with ones that are more effective and efficient for the environment.
Improved Health
The biggest idea of sustainable materials is that they aren’t going to hurt anyone. Sure, there might be rare occasions when someone turns out to be allergic to one of these materials, but the main idea is that these materials are specifically designed not to hurt anyone. Lyocell would be the perfect example in this situation. What is lyocell? Lyocell is an environmentally sustainable fiber developed by TENCEL. It has much less of a propensity to harm someone or the environment as compared to some of the other available materials today.
Responsibly-Sourced
The material producing industry can be a shady one. You’d be surprised to learn about some of the underhand tactics that clothing and material manufacturers use today. You’ve likely heard of sweatshops or kids under 16 working in third-world countries. Unfortunately, this is a reality that comes along with the material world. This is also something that sustainable materials seek to chance. Manufacturers that create sustainable materials want to make sure that they are created legally by legal workers who are paid fair and reasonable wages.
Economical
Sustainable materials can also be produced at much cheaper costs than their more harmful counterparts. They also have properties like durability that makes them last longer, giving them more economical properties. Creating materials that are expensive with low-quality properties is completely useless, even if they have a low impact on the environment because it would mean that you would have to produce more and more over time. This is why sustainable manufacturers strive to create materials that are less expensive with higher quality properties while also having a much lower impact on the environment as well as the people around them.
