Why It’s So Hard to Track the Fashion Industry’s Emissions

To understand fashion’s climate challenge, think of a shirt.

Every shirt starts with raw materials. Cotton, for example, is grown on farms and then spun into yarn in factories largely found across the Global South. The fibers are sent to textile makers, who turn them into fabric used to make clothes. The clothes are shipped to apparel retailers, who sell them to consumers in stores and online. The exact number of steps in the process depends on the company and the product, but the overall gist is the same: Behind any piece of clothing you buy is a complex supply chain, almost every link of which involves emitting greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.