The fashion industry is the world's third-largest water consumer, fourth largest polluting industry, and fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The washing and drying process during textile preparation involve hazardous chemicals which is released to water bodies. The increasing demand for garments is fuelling these dangerous practices. Our agricultural system is directly linked to the fashion industries, from the land that produces cotton crops to the sheep that produce wool. For instance, cotton, the most widely used fibre in the world, are cultivated on 2.5% of the world's agricultural land and consumes a significant quantity of pesticides and herbicides. This creates natural imbalances among the ecosystem services trade-offs and puts tremendous strain on existing natural resources. To address these challenges, many large businesses and fashion houses have introduced the idea of regenerative fashion.
Regenerative fashion refers to apparels that consumes raw material from agriculture, which relies on minimum soil disturbance with reduced use of external inputs with a goal of soil-to-soil cycling. Regenerative practices support carbon sequestration, improve soil and watershed quality, and enhance biodiversity. The use of organic fibres in the products is one example of regenerative fashion. Regenerative practices heal or restore the damage, conventional techniques of producing fabric have done to the environment. There are several approaches of regenerative agriculture. Planting perennial crops to prevent soil erosion is one example as they can tolerate adverse weather conditions better than annual crops and sequester more carbon underground and helps in decarbonization for long-run. The limited or reduced use of chemicals in the field are encouraged by integrated regenerative practices of pest control by its biological agents or application of biofertilizers. These practices not only reduce cost of input use but also enhance biodiversity at farm to landscape scale, enabling predators of nature to manage pests and weeds while raising pollinator populations inhabiting farms. Regenerative agriculture offers enormous advantages to our biodiversity.