Why Your Clothes Might Be Fueling Climate Change

Fast fashion might seem like a win-win — trendy styles at budget-friendly prices. But what many shoppers don’t realize is the massive environmental cost stitched into every bargain buy. Beyond the obvious issues like textile waste and unethical labor, there’s a quieter culprit adding fuel to the climate crisis: carbon emissions.

A High Price for Low Prices

According to Matuszak-Flejszman et al. (2024), fast fashion is the second most polluting industry after oil, a shocking fact that should make us all pause before clicking “add to cart.” The industry’s carbon footprint isn’t just about the clothes themselves. It’s about the fossil fuels burned at nearly every stage: producing the garments, powering the factories, and transporting them across the globe.

While conversations about sustainable fashion often focus on fabrics or fair labor, the emissions from global shipping and air freight are flying under the radar. Yet they’re a huge part of the problem.

A Global Supply Chain Fueled by Fossil Fuels

The fast fashion supply chain is complex and emissions-heavy. Brands often manufacture in the Global South, where electricity grids still rely on coal and diesel. Every step, from harvesting raw materials to shipping final products, leaves a carbon trail.

Matuszak-Flejszman et al. (2024) estimate that the textile industry generates around 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent annually — nearly 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And it’s not just about how much we’re making; it’s how fast we expect things to move.

Shipping: The Silent Emissions Giant

Here’s where things get even more surprising: shipping plays a bigger role than most people think. Fast fashion relies on tight deadlines and quick turnarounds, which means a lot of air freight — a method that emits up to 44 times more CO₂ than ocean freight. In one study, 91% of the carbon footprint from fast fashion consumption came from the production and transport of jeans alone.

Brands lean on diesel-powered trucks and carbon-heavy planes because they’re fast and efficient, but they’re also killing the planet in the process.

Speed Comes at a Cost

Frequent restocks, returns, and the mountains of packaging that come with them only add to the industry’s emissions. Plus, the global nature of the supply chain leads to duplicated efforts and chaotic logistics.

As Matuszak-Flejszman et al. (2024) note, fast fashion is “fragmented” and highly sensitive to disruption. This makes emissions from transport not only high but also difficult to monitor and control.

Are Brands Doing Anything About It?

Some brands are trying. H&M, for instance, reduced its transport emissions by 33% since 2019, thanks to less air freight and more biofuels and electric vehicles. But not everyone is keeping up.

Inditex (the company behind Zara) saw a 24% increase in transport emissions from 2018 to 2023. And Shein? A staggering 55% jump in just one year, as shown in Figure 1, with no detailed climate transition plan in sight.

Worse, over 99% of these emissions are “scope 3,” meaning they come from suppliers and transportation partners — areas that are harder for companies to control but still their responsibility. This is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1

Transport-related emissions from Shein in 2021–2022

Figure 2

Shein’s scope of emissions in 2021-2022

What Needs to Change?

The authors argue for clearer metrics like CO₂ emissions per transported kilometer to track real progress. They also call for better reporting standards. Some brands, like H&M, offer transparency in their data. Others? Not so much. In fact, the researchers had to make estimates to assess emissions for Shein and Inditex due to limited disclosures.

As production slowly becomes greener, transport’s share of emissions will grow, especially with the rise of next-day delivery. If we don’t act now, the way our clothes move might become a bigger problem than how they’re made.

Source: Matuszak-Flejszman, A., Preisner, A., & Banach, J. K. (2024). Transport-Related Emissions and Transition Strategies for Sustainability—A Case Study of the Fast Fashion Industry. Sustainability, 16(17), 7749-. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177749