"The best thing you can do to make clothes sustainable is to take the bike to your local second-hand shop," says Malin Wennberg, Head of Communications at Mistra Future Fashion, which is one of the world's largest sustainable fashion research programs.

It is not really about what we buy for garments, whether it is made from recycled fibers, or organic cotton, but how much we buy. A new report released by Mistra these days shows that when it comes to Swedish clothing consumption, 80 per cent of climate emissions occur during manufacturing.

Wear-and-throw-phenomenon

The average Swede buys 13 kilos of clothes a year and throws 8 kilos a year.

- Trend sensitivity does not go hand in hand with the sustainability concept, says Malin Wennberg. We were more climate smart in the past when we could not afford to buy so much clothes, when we repaired what was broken.

Mass production combined with cheap labor has meant that clothes do not cost as much anymore. Fashion has become a wear-and-tear phenomenon and it harms both environment and climate.

In recent years, working conditions for textile workers and the environmental impact in countries where much of the production takes place has become a hot topic where there is much talk of responsibility at the large clothing companies. The climate impact has not yet had the same impact when it comes to our clothes. An impact that is increasing as consumption increases.

Most climate impact in manufacturing

The fashion industry has in many ways woken up, there are many good initiatives, although in many cases it is more initiative than action, says Malin Wennberg

The climate impact is 3.1% when distributing goods to the shops, with 10.8% when we take the car to the store to buy the jeans, with 2.9% when we wash them, with 2.8% to take care of them after we flung them. But the major climate impact, 80.4%, occurs in manufacturing, which includes everything from cotton cultivation to textile factories.

- The best thing we can do for the climate is to buy fewer clothes, use them more times, and cycle to the store to buy them, says Malin Wennberg.