I'm Kimberly Atkins store, and this is Justice by Design, a podcast where we look for solutions to some of the most pressing issues we face in our society because those solutions don't just happen. They are carefully done by design. So that's not the only reason why I call this podcast Justice By Design.

For those of you who know a little about me, it's also a nod to another love in my life,

and that is fashion.

I used to design bespoke women's wear for many, many years.

And then when the pandemic hit and I had a chance to slow down and think about what the future of that

would look like, I wanted to only move forward in that endeavor if I could do it in a way

that caused no damage to the planet. Because climate and climate justice protecting the planet

and the people in it, particularly the most vulnerable, is something that is dearly, dearly close to my

heart. And I started trying to find the playbook for sustainable fashion. And I quickly found that there is

none. There was none. I was shocked to know that given the enormous amount that the fashion industry must contribute to climate change,

that there aren't people already, the people at the top of the industry, really steering the ship

in the right direction to ensure that we can look good without doing damage to the planet.

But it really wasn't.

In fact, my research as I looked into this led to a series that I wrote for the Boston Globe called Not So Fast Fashion that identified just how big of a problem fashion is for the planet.

10% of the global carbon emissions are produced by the fashion industry.

Think about that.

And in addition to that, there are hundreds of billions in textiles that are either created

for the fashion industry and never sold,

and that is called deadstock, or it is consumed, people give it away or throw it away,

and it ends up rotting in landfills here in the United States and also shipped to the global south.

Countries in Africa and in South Asia receive this where it can rot and burn in landfills,

setting off toxic chemicals.

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