With Black Friday quickly approaching, millions of shoppers will be making purchases—many of them clothing.
Before the pandemic, over 50 percent of consumers wanted the fashion industry to follow more sustainable practices, and this sentiment has only grown post-lockdowns. The sustainable fashion movement continues to call for changes to the traditional fashion industry’s environmental footprint, and new advanced nuclear technologies could be a part of the solution.
Fast fashion has taken the world by storm with cheap, low-quality garments that mimic runway styles. This culture has vastly increased the amount of clothing that is manufactured. From 2000 to 2014, it’s more than doubled.
In part because of this, the fashion industry is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after food and construction, and according to a UN estimate, accounts for between 8 to 10 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The industry releases 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, which is more emissions than the shipping and aviation industries combined.
Amidst the fast fashion empire’s takeover, there’s a growing movement to shop second-hand or from brands that use less water, have more ethical work conditions, and emit less carbon.
The UN’s Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action was launched in 2018 and renewed at this year’s UN climate conference. Big names have signed onto the pledge to achieve net zero by 2050—from Nike, lululemon, H&M and Primark, all the way to high-end brands such as Chanel and Hermes. Over 130 companies have committed to identifying best practices, addressing gaps, engaging relevant stakeholders, establishing working groups, and sharing tools towards this goal. Other brands have joined coalitions to make significant changes as early as 2030.
Decarbonization is critical to meeting these goals and the world’s climate targets.
The conversations and commitments coming out of COP26 this year solidified nuclear power’s central role in decarbonizing the electricity sector, but what if it could also help decarbonize fashion?
Rickey Ruff, who is the Senior Global Brand Process & Operations Manager at Adidas, has pioneered a passion project called Global Nuclear Concepts that seeks to deploy micro-reactors at clothing factories.
Moved by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the centrality of energy to meeting climate targets, Ruff sees nuclear as critical to the clean energy transition. And he thinks microreactors are the key to helping developing nations establish reliable, clean energy and could suit the unique needs of industries such as fashion.
“Basically, I just noticed, at this complex where you build Aston Martins, if we were to put a reactor there, that would absolutely replace all of their…dependence on fossil fuels, replacing oil and coal and gas with nuclear power,” said Ruff on a Titans of Nuclear podcast.
Most clothing factories are in countries powered by coal and are surrounded by limited space to install renewable energy sources such as solar panels or wind turbines. The textile portions of the fashion supply chain are very energy-intensive and require thermal energy to run boilers.
Due to their small design and ability to easily create heat, small reactors could be a great fit for the challenge of decarbonizing the industry.
“The concept is certainly in the ballpark of where we need to be,” said the president of Apparel Impact Institute (AII), Lewis Perkins, in an interview with Vox. “Without disruptive innovation, the industry is not going to meet their science-based targets by 2030.”
Micro-reactors are one percent or less of the size of traditional reactors operating today. These new designs are safe, easily transported and installed, and can be retrofitted to their destinations. Oklo, Ultra Safe Nuclear, BWX Technologies, X-energy, Westinghouse and others are working to advance micro-reactor designs. Although micro-reactors are still in their design phase, deployment for some designs is anticipated around 2026, and these reactors could provide stable, carbon-free, always-on energy for years to come.
It is imperative we find ways to decrease the fashion industry’s carbon emissions, and Ruff’s project is showing the world that advanced nuclear’s versatility could be game-changing for sectors beyond electricity.
