Redress, the Hong Kong-headquartered, Asia-focused environmental NGO accelerating the change to a circular fashion industry by educating designers and consumers, releases their industry report on the role, influence, and opportunities for circular fashion designers. Supported by the VF Foundation, the report focuses on the fashion design stage in China and Southeast Asia, which produces approximately 60% of global exports of garments, textiles, and footwear.

Fashion’s environmental challenges, mostly brought on by its current linear system, are well known. Approximately 100 billion apparel items are produced per year, representing a 50% increase since 2006. The majority of clothing is landfilled or burned within one year of production. As one of the world’s most polluting industries, fashion currently contributes up to 10% of global CO2 and on its current trajectory is projected to use 25% of the world’s carbon budget by 2050.