Evergreen Style: PNW Climate Week

From July 16 to 25, PNW Climate Week hosted various community-led events across the region to inspire climate action. Cheryl Scheiderhan is a member of the small but mighty team who worked hard to make this year the most impactful one yet.

As a fashion professional, Cheryl is focused on the complex relationships between climate, clothes, and consumption. Being in a city like Seattle, which thrives on technical solutions, it’s proving difficult to convey the relevance of fashion. I recently caught up with Cheryl to better understand how fashion has been situated in the regional climate conversation to challenge public perceptions and learn about the personal passion that drives this work.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Piled fabric in a warehouse

Francois Le Nguyen via Unsplash

JeLisa: Everyone [in fashion] has a unique story about finding themselves in sustainability. What is your story?

Cheryl: I think, being in India [was a lightbulb moment]. Just seeing how brands weren’t helping, or they were just, you know, enabling the water [sources] to get dirty—that was kind of the biggest one. By the time you get to the [major] factories, you’re like, “Oh my God, look at this.” You see fabric stacked up, and things [compound] from there. You know, once the seed is planted, everything else starts to show up in front of you.

JeLisa: Exactly. It’s like the saying: Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. How then did those experiences and that desire to, perhaps, challenge the system lead you into PNW Climate Week?

Cheryl: I have gone to a couple in the last couple [of] years, and I really enjoyed the in-depth discussions and all the different people you meet. And so this year, I saw on Luma that they were doing a planning session. I jumped into that because I wanted to see how they do it. When I was [at] Seattle Zero Waste, we did a clothing swap. You see people bring in like 100 Shein outfits, and so we ended up with [hundreds of items] to figure out what to do. So, after that, I was like, “Okay, we gotta educate the consumer more about products in general.” I thought if I joined PNW Climate Week in fashion, that we could start to build on that, because a lot of times, [dialogue is] on certifications, water reduction, and energy reduction. But, what if you can reduce [consumption], or you know, use a scary word—degrowth? I think, [there needs to be an emphasis] on the consumer end to educate them to be more aware and start planting the seeds. Kind of like how India planted the seed [for me].

JeLisa: What would you say are some of the climate challenges and solutions that have been presented either from the guest speakers or from the community so far in the events, fashion or not?

Cheryl: The Department of Commerce [talked] about regulations to build energy or build something that’s not standard somewhere in Washington State. The challenges are with smaller cities or smaller counties. They don’t always have planners, or planners that are doing single-family homes, or manufacturing, but not for energy or anything like that… So, it [covered] how to bring the planners together and educate them more, and streamline the regulations, and maybe upskill and understand regulations. I think that’s the challenge. I [also] went to the fashion show; just meeting people and having these [types of] conversations [is] fun. It’s building, you know, different connections to different organizations. PNW Climate Week is tech-heavy, climate tech-heavy, and energy-heavy. Fashion is kind of seen as, “Oh, that’s cute.” What we’re trying to [do is instill] hope. How can we build up fashion to be seen as an important part of, you know, reducing climate impact, especially out here? We’re not Portland or New York or LA.

JeLisa: Yeah, I was excited to see that fashion is still a part of the discussion. For attendees who are more interested in tech solutions, why do you think fashion should be on their radar?

“(Re)Thinking Fashion's Footprint: The Waste Shift” panelists at PNW Climate Week

Lisa Ferguson, Courtesy of Cheryl Scheiderhan

Cheryl: I think fashion is relevant because it makes you more aware. If we can make people understand more about the supply chain or the impacts of where things go at [the] end of life, because you donate or you go to a clothing swap [and] you feel really great. But, it still has to go somewhere. And so I think with us, even though it’s planting seeds, it’s just making people understand that what you consume and what you buy and what you wear, it does impact [the] climate long term. Some of it will impact forever with the microplastics and different things. We had a plastic specialist at our plastic pollution event, and this fact that she said stuck in my head. It was something concerning microplastics and the Salish Sea. You know, right on the waterfront. She said [microplastic levels] dropped during COVID, drastically, and [scientists] couldn’t figure out why. Well, they finally concluded it was because you didn’t have all the people running and walking in synthetic clothes. As you do, you know, the abrasion would fall in. I think educating people that what you wear does have consequences, even when you’re running and thinking you’re being environmentally friendly. Are you?

JeLisa: Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, we all wear clothes. But, how do you draw the correlation between what they’re interested in and what you think they should also be interested in?

Cheryl: That’s the challenge. It might be like in the future of figuring out how to bring in people who [work with the] Higg Index and tie that into fashion.

JeLisa: What do you want the people who have registered for the upcoming fashion events to take away?

Cheryl: There’s no easy solution, especially in the Pacific Northwest, on what happens to your garment [at the] end of life. There is no guarantee that if you drop it in the clothing swap or donate it somewhere, it still is not going to end up in a landfill or in another country where they’re going to have to clean it up, and they have their own steps to deal with. As consumers, we have the power on the front end to decide. I think people should realize that if you buy it, you have to deal with it [at the end of life]. I think [another] takeaway would be to also learn more about that new policy. Since Extended Producer Responsibility is going into California, you know, [the government is] starting to do more related to textiles.

JeLisa: How do you suggest people keep the momentum going after PNW Climate Week has ended?

Cheryl: There are a couple [of] things. First, the Good Green app that’s partnered with PNW Climate Week [has something] called Direct to Action. After you get done with the events on the app, it will ask you to do like one or two things. My action is to send a message to your representative about SB 1420 and read about it. The other [action] is to delete your fast fashion [e-mail] subscriptions so you don’t keep getting triggered. Second, [the PNW Climate Week team] is gonna send out a creative list with more information (i.e. referrals for alterations, fair trade organizations, etc.).

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The moral of the story? We are what we wear. Climate action must include fashion. Otherwise, we risk not only our health but also that of the environment in which we live. Ready to clean up your act? Check out the PNW Climate Week events calendar or sign up to volunteer. Every action counts.