Emissions from the global ‘fast fashion’ industry are set to soar by 60% by 2030, a new report has claimed, although artificial intelligence can play a key role in the sector’s decarbonisation strategies.
According to the report, Unleashing the Power of Artificial Intelligence for Climate Action in Industrial Markets, which was co-authored by UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response in Australia, the fast fashion sector is currently responsible for around 10% of global carbon emissions, with a value of more than $2.5 trillion on a global level.
It suggests that AI-powered technologies can be harnessed in the sector to drive climate action, which in turn could ‘significantly advance’ environmental and market performance.
Data-driven approach
“Due to AI’s unique capacity to collect, integrate, and interpret big data sets, our proposed AI framework provides a data-driven approach to address climate risks, focusing on the environment, infrastructure, and market in an actionable and systematic manner,” commented lead author Professor Shahriar Akter, associate dean (research) at the Faculty of Business & Law, University of Wollongong.
AI can be implemented to reduce routine, repetitive, simple, and standardised tasks, the report suggests, including calculating individual products’ carbon footprint, identifying risk factors, forecasting demand to reduce waste, and assisting with climate education.
The researchers surveyed 211 managers at manufacturing facilities in Bangladesh, a key supplier to the fast fashion industry, who had at least one year of experience using basic AI-powered climate service solutions.
Their findings indicated that those businesses that were employing AI-powered climate service innovation models were able to improve energy efficiency, reduce their emissions, and increase their reliance on renewable energy.
Improved efficiency
“AI-powered climate service innovations can enable firms to adopt innovations that reduce the environmental impact of its business activities while improving energy and material efficiency and managing climate-related risks and opportunities,” commented Professor David Grant, senior deputy director at the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response.
Several fast fashion operators have already made commitments when it comes to reducing their environmental impact – for example, H&M has committed to a 56 per cent reduction in emissions and 100 per cent renewable electricity in its supply chain and operations by 2030.
Elsewhere, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, and Next, have put in place requirements that ensure their supplying factors are as ‘green’ as possible, and comply with environmental and safety regulations.
Profit driver
AI solutions can also enable such businesses to improve their environmental footprint and drive profitability, Professor Akter added, “We show the significant impact of AI-powered climate innovations in the fast-fashion industry on two key indicators of firm performance: environmental and market performance.
“We demonstrate that environmental performance can substantially impact market performance when a firm has robust AI-powered climate service innovation capabilities.”
You can find out more about the study here.
