It’s time to heal...

Minna Zutshi

These women are young, glamourous and score high on style quotient. But given a choice between style and sustainable living, they would readily opt for the latter. Sustainable living is a quest for them; it is a journey on which they have embarked and this journey is not very smooth. They are learning, exploring, experimenting, connecting and reconnecting. They are not afraid of failure for they are willing to embrace the learning experiences that come their way.

Each little effort, each baby step, each conscious choice takes them closer to sustainable living. It is time to heal planet Earth.They say,“We owe it to ourselves and to Mother Earth. We had got it all wrong; our priorities were all skewed. Nature has not hardwired us for competition. Compassion, cooperation, synergy, holistic living, gratitude – we are here to live and let live. With chilling clarity, COVID-19 pandemic has brought all this into focus. We are all naturally inter-connected – we cannot be safe and happy if those around us are sick and distressed!”

Sustainable living

From an accountancy expert to nutritionist to eco-brigade volunteer, Ludhiana-based Nitika Sharma has come a long way. She has made sustainable living her avowed mission. “Fashion is beautiful only if it allows the best in our life to flourish. Style makes sense only if it adds to our wellbeing. Otherwise it comes tagged with a good measure of discontent and even misery,” she quips.

For her, it’s a big and vociferous ‘No’ to cosmetics containing microplastics. “Many cosmetics and skincare products contain microplastics that are touted as good for skin. But their environmental costs are very high. These microplastics end up in the stomach of aquatic animals,which ingest them. From there they end up in the food chain,” explains Nitika. And the worst part is that the plastic particles and even the plastic dust never biodegrades; it remains present for hundreds of years, may be even more!

A sustainable shift

With high carbon footprints, fashion industry and sustainable living have hardly ever been on the same page. But the COVID-19 pandemic is changing this unenviable equation. Fashionistas are finding ways to heal Planet Earth. Reduce, reuse, recycle — is their new motto.

“It is an unpalatable fact that our fashion industry is one of the major contributors to environmental pollution. This is sad but true,” says Ludhiana-based fashion designer Tanu Vohra. She reels off some statistics to support her statement – “Fashion industry produces 10 percent of all humanity’s carbon emission and is second largest consumer of world’s water supply. It pollutes oceans with microplastics.”

Tanu feels that COVID-19 is a call for a shift to more sustainable, reusable and recycled fashion products. She has already planned to register for online courses in sustainable fashion. “The old model of fashion industry is no longer valid and will not work. We need to change it or at least modify it,” she says. ‘The sooner we accept it, the better it would be for our fashion industry, for us as fashion designers, for our customers and above all, for our planet.”

Individual efforts count

“As an individual we can contribute towards preserving our environment,” says Shruti Jindal, fashion designer and owner of Soltee (a fashion store) in Ludhiana.

She avoids single-use plastics.She does not keep any disposable water bottles in her store. At times it gets difficult as some of the high-end customers are not comfortable when they are served water in a glass; they prefer packaged water. She, however, tries to explain it all to them.

Shruti never uses disposable crockery unless it is a plate made from the material of pattal or some biodegradable crockery which she sources online.

When it comes to giving gifts, this entrepreneur’s first choice is plants. The other popular gifts from her to her friends and acquaintances are cotton bags. “I have been putting across messages that if you give your old cotton shirt to me, you will get a nice cotton bag in return,” she says.

“Each one of us can make a difference and each one should try!”