You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol mess Here and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
So we're gonna talk a little bit about fast fashion, which kind of came into its own in the nineteen ninety. So we're talking about a business model of rapidly converting
designs and trends into cheap and readily available clothing. It's been celebrated matt for making high fashion accessible to the masses, but the model is also blamed for promoting over consumption and a lot of we've done Bloomberg has done a lot of stories about all these barely worn clothing that are exported to countries like Ghana and just shows up in landfills and it's just pollution and it's just bad for the environment.
After like poor children are paid eleven cents an hour to make them. There's horrible conditions and so yes.
Yes, there's a lot there, all right, It's just.
Like a horribly bad Yeah.
So, joining us with some thoughts on the ethical and environmental impacts of fast fashion on Zoom from Montreal is Aloaisa. I say it correctly.
My name is Elouise Eloisa.
I'm sorry. I forgive me. Eloisa lewis founder and CEO of New Climate Culture, and they are a climate science and biodiversity think tank. I just couldn't read my own handwriting. Eloisa, good to have you here with Matt and myself. Tell us first of all, a little bit about your think tank and who you guys are. You know who funds you and kind of what your main missions are.
Sure, I'm self funded thanks to an incredible inheritance left to me my grandfather, who is a physicist who did really incredible things for the world, especially during World War Two for the Canadian Navy. So my grandfather just believed in myself and my projects. I originally was an AI researcher working on artificial intelligence at the top universities and
research institutions domestically and internationally. But then I decided to become a climate scientist because I saw the importance that basically, no matter what you do for your own personal health or your own personal like subgroup on the planet, we all share the same air, water, and soil as those things migrate independent of our political cultural differences, and so that really intrigued me. I wanted to help detox the planet as much as I was interested in programming the human biome.
So all right, let's jump into fast fashion then, Eloisa, I can see, you know, the arguments against it are pretty clear. On the other hand, it's a great way for people who don't necessarily have a lot of money to feel good about themselves and dressing fun clothes. What do you think about the industry?
I think that I mean, even right there, that's the beginning of the problem. Is that we live in a kind of capitalist, consumptive culture that makes you feel that your self worth is dependent on the clothing you wear, and that that's what makes you like more valid or more hireable or something like that. And so I think that just these industries, especially fast fashion, fast food, anything that wants to get you to make an impulse purchase is going to play into your insecurities and your sense
of time most importantly. So maybe I think it's part of the false narrative that's being given, that's being fed to consumers that they don't have time to find ethical fashion when there are I know, everyone's already spending hours, you know, scrolling on their phone for entertainment, and so the same time resource that's being used for potentially some kind of other entertainment or temporary satisfaction could be redirected, and just the attention redirected toward doing a little bit
more research and putting more effort into how we're shopping where we're shopping from.
Totally totally agreet. I feel like, you know, Elouis, I was thinking about this, and I agree it's a dangerous thing, and it's more about quantity than quality. I feel like
when it comes to it. Having said that, I think about when we used to talk a lot about organic food, be like, yeah, you gotta all got to eat better, but it's expensive and not everybody can afford that, And so how do we figure out better systems so that we can reach more people, whether it's fashion, whether it's food, or what have you tell us about some of the things that you guys have been working with or on to reduce the impact that really all of the fashion
industry has on the environment. To be fair, you make a pair of genes, it use a ton of water, So let's talk about that, like, so, and what you're where you're making some.
Progress on yes, So when we think about this narrative of how something is made and then how it comes to our doorsett. You know, if earth is our playground, what New comment Culture is really focused on is how businesses play in that playground and especially where they're sourcing materials, how they're sourcing it. So there's a difference between a finite resource like fossil fuel and a renewable resource, which is something that is part of a circular economy. So
we want to source. And what New Climic Culture helps not only can we help your company find the right materials so that you can create ethical fashion in your production line, but also examining all the different aspects of production and what chemicals are being used in the processing,
et cetera. And then even further, what we can do is actually help start businesses of farms, because what we need everywhere, any nation state or bioregion needs to have its own local economy of clothing so that we're not dependent on you know, it's very much out of sight, out of mind to have a foreign investor or a local investor create a factory that isn't really a lifestyle that we should be putting other humans into, even regardless of if it's possible to cource people to do it.
So people we're looking at farming, really at the seal answer to different material pollution in the wastewater and landfills.
You know this probably more than most that to move the needlely get to move something like a Walmart, or you get to talk to Amazon like those those outlets where a lot of stuff is being sold. Have you what's your thoughts on that? And have you been able to approach some of these kind of players if you will, within the industry.
Absolutely, I mean that's really what I'm here to do. I don't have I don't consider anyone my competition or enemy in this industry of climate science, because particularly for me, what my specialty and what my thing tank is about is as simple as clean water, clean air, clean food, clean soil, and that being the basis of our economies actually being the fundamental measure of like a successful local economy in any part of the world. And yeah, I'm
here to talk to anyone. I've been quoted next to Amazon on Google X, on mobile, at and T, so I'm ready to talk. I'm working with many companies all over the world, especially research institutions and universities, are interested
in talking to me. I find there are kind of the front lines of trying to educate students and future entrepreneurs about to make better choices so that we can set up industry from the beginning well, so that you know, it's okay, we can definitely work with the established, but if we're going to really look at the future of the next industrial revolution, we know that it's going to
be artisanal. It's going to be about higher quality of life and higher pay for everyone, because, like you've said, a large part of this is because in order to maintain the current systems around us electrical and gas and heating and water, we are our money is spread very thin.
And so that's something we think about again with the company, is every aspect of where is your money going as a consumer in your lifestyle, so that you can you know, why is it that we can't afford organic food sometimes and we can't afford organic clothing Japanese Japanese done them, like why and why not have more industry that is local so that we can really show off pride as Americans or as whatever a nation state or buy region you're in. That's really about showcasing again a.
Lifestyle, Eloisa, I'm just saying, we just have about forty five seconds left here, So for folks who might be listening, and we have a really smart audience, investors and so on in consumers of lots of stuff, advice in terms of maybe you know, being able to contribute to kind of the way you're thinking about it when it comes to the fashion industry or buying stuff, and just kind of like I said about thirty thirty five.
Seconds, Okay, well, look for like couture, vintage, slightly used, trading at sea, things like that, any makers, artisanal makers of clothing. That's who we're going to be like the most important people to support and potentially invest in. And then secondarily, go ahead and check out Project Drawdown that's a compendium of solutions for climate change, as well as our company, New climateculture dot com.
I love it. I love it. I have to tell you my daughter and I Matt, we love going to like vintage shops and stuff I like. I don't know if you're into advantage, I.
Love it too. I mean that's the fun. But I mean I had to admit I'm guilty of being a consumer. So yes, I like to shop, and vintage shops are usually cooler than any other shops because otherwise you just have the mall chains that kind of suck you, like moths too, though, I just like hanging out there because they have good air conditioning.
Alouisa, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. She is founder and CEO of New Climate Culture on Zoom from Montreal. Check out her on Twitter at Buddha Culture