Tips for living an earth-friendly life

Our daily lives and fashion have a huge impact on the global environment. It is important to live a more ecological life for a sustainable future while cherishing the Earth's limited resources. By practicing an environmentally conscious lifestyle, we can contribute to curbing global warming and protecting biodiversity. In this article, we will introduce some simple yet meaningful ideas for sustainable living that you can start right now. These efforts are an important perspective when considering the relationship between earth-friendly living and fashion.

Consumption behavior such as buying eco-friendly products made from recycled materials and choosing environmentally conscious fashion are directly linked to protecting the global environment. For example, choosing clothes made from sustainable materials and refraining from excessive consumption of fast fashion are important elements of living an earth-friendly life. In addition, incorporating fashion items that utilize recycled and upcycled materials also leads to effective use of resources.

Furthermore, it is important to be mindful of the global environment in various aspects, such as practicing energy conservation in daily life, reducing food waste, using eco-friendly means of transportation, etc. These efforts not only change individual lifestyles, but also contribute to the sustainability of society as a whole.

By being mindful of the relationship between fashion and an earth-friendly lifestyle and incorporating the specific actions introduced below into your daily life, you can achieve a more environmentally conscious lifestyle. Small actions by each individual can be the driving force behind big changes.

Reduce energy consumption

In order to live an earth-friendly life, it is important to reduce energy consumption in your daily life. Reducing energy use at home not only prevents greenhouse gas emissions, but also saves money.

To use electrical energy efficiently, try to:

• Adjust the refrigerator temperature appropriately (3-5°C)
• Optimize freezer temperature (-18 to -15°C)
• Use dishwashers and washing machines only when they are full and unplug them when not in use
• Avoid using the dryer and allow for natural drying
• Switch to more efficient LED or CFL bulbs
• Clean your air conditioner filters regularly
• Use rechargeable batteries proactively
• Organize your email inbox and remove clutter
• Rethinking delivery options for online shopping
• Cook more at home instead of eating out
• Reducing standby power consumption of electronic devices
• Choose refurbished products to extend the life of your electronics
• Rethinking smartphone replacement cycles
• Use a solar charger
• Use the stairs instead of the elevator
• Make your own eco-friendly cleaning products
• Choose fashion that will last and limit the use of synthetic fabrics

These efforts are important when considering the relationship between fashion and sustainable living. For example, drying clothes naturally instead of using a dryer can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 1.1 tons per year. Also, choosing sustainable fashion can reduce the burden on the environment.

Switching to energy-efficient light bulbs can reduce your electricity consumption by as much as 80%, making a huge contribution to living a more environmentally friendly life. Using rechargeable batteries also reduces the environmental impact of disposable batteries and contributes to more efficient use of resources.

From a fashion perspective, you can also make eco-conscious choices: by choosing natural materials such as wool, linen, silk, cotton and kami-no-ito instead of synthetic fibres, you can reduce the production of microplastics and live a more earth-friendly life.

It is also important to reconsider how you use electronic devices. Because the production of smartphones uses a lot of energy, refraining from replacing your devices frequently and taking good care of the ones you currently have is a good choice for the Earth.

By incorporating these efforts into your daily life, you can contribute to protecting the global environment at an individual level. It is important for each of us to be aware of the relationship between eco-friendly living and fashion and take action towards a sustainable future.

Green your commute

The prevalence of car sharing and bicycle lanes is expanding in cities around the world. It is important to rethink the way you commute to work in order to live an earth-friendly life. If you cycle 6.5 km to and from work every week instead of driving a car, you can save about 7 billion liters of gasoline (about 7 million tanker trucks' worth) every month. This has the effect of significantly reducing the burden on the global environment.

Here are some ways to make your car commute greener. Just like with fashion, it's important to change your commuting style to be more environmentally friendly.

For example, taking public transport or cycling to work can further reduce your environmental impact – not only are these practices more environmentally friendly, they also help promote a healthier lifestyle.

By being mindful of the relationship between eco-friendly living and fashion, and rethinking the way we commute to work, each of us can contribute to protecting the environment. Small everyday choices add up to big steps towards a sustainable future.

Reduce food waste

Approximately one-third of the food produced annually is thrown away. It may be easy to ignore the burden on the environment if you just throw away a half-eaten rice ball or an expired sandwich in the trash. However, this kind of food waste is far from an earth-friendly lifestyle.

Discarded food produces billions of greenhouse gas emissions. By the time you get to the supermarket, nearly 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gases have already been released into the atmosphere through the production, processing, and transportation of all the food you eat. And once the waste is in landfills, methane gas is produced as the organic waste decomposes. Methane gas traps about 23 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. And 20% of all methane emissions come from landfills.

Living sustainably requires making conscious choices in the food we eat, just as we do in fashion. For example:

• From nearby farms: Buy locally grown foods whenever possible. The further away food is grown or raised, the more greenhouse gases are likely to be emitted to transport it to the supermarket. In Europe and the United States, many farmers participate in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, allowing you to get your hands on fruits and vegetables directly, including some that are a little unattractive. This is gradually spreading in Japan as well.
• Grow your own: Get hands-on and grow your own vegetables, fruit and herbs in the soil. This reduces the emissions generated by transporting and refrigerating food. Many vegetables can be grown in containers, so even if you don't have a big garden, it's a great way to live more sustainably.

In this way, by reducing food waste, using local ingredients, and growing our own food, we can contribute to a sustainable future through our daily diet. These efforts are important ecological choices in our daily lives, just like fashion choices.

In this way, by reexamining our daily lives, it can be a good opportunity to think about the relationship between fashion and an earth-friendly lifestyle.

Our commitment to "Kaminoito®"

Kaminoito® is an innovative, eco-friendly fiber that creates ultra-lightweight bags with a material that is "light as the wind." It was developed using cutting-edge technology based on the traditional Japanese technique of "making thread from paper." Kaminoito® is an eco-friendly natural paper fiber that is woven into an ultra-lightweight fabric.

Developed by the textile company Oji Fiber Co., Ltd., Kaminoito® has environmentally friendly properties and was developed by Murataya, a kimono store in Shimane Prefecture, by blending it with other fibers. This ultra-lightweight fabric containing the environmentally friendly Kaminoito® is both light and durable, and has a smooth texture.

The ultra-lightweight fabric woven with environmentally friendly Kaminoito® has been successfully dyed using Tokyo's traditional Edo Komon® technique. The fusion of this environmentally friendly new material and traditional craftsmanship has resulted in the creation of an unprecedented "lightweight, high-end Western-style ladies' bag." The encounter between environmentally friendly Kaminoito® fabric and traditional craftsmanship has created new value.

Kaminoito® also has excellent functionality. Filaments, which are long, continuous fibers like silk, are twisted together from dozens of single threads to make a single thread. This thread has a beautiful luster, is smooth, and durable. In addition, because the fibers contain a lot of air, they are lightweight, have excellent heat retention, are highly water-resistant, and are environmentally friendly.

The environmentally friendly Kaminoito® is also attracting attention as a comfortable material. It is made from the environmentally friendly resource Manila hemp (mainly produced in Ecuador), which grows quickly and is an environmentally friendly natural fiber that does not produce harmful substances even when incinerated. In addition, the Kaminoito used is decomposed and tested for harmful substances that are harmful to the human body, and its safety is certified according to international standards (Ecotech). (Acquired Level I of the Japan Chemical Industry Standard 100)

Kaminoito® is an environmentally friendly natural paper fiber developed with cutting-edge technology based on the traditional Japanese technique of "making thread from paper. " Kaminoito® is attracting attention as an environmentally friendly material. Kaminoito®, the natural paper fiber woven into the ultra-lightweight fabric, was developed by Oji Fiber Co., Ltd., a textile company, and then blended with other fibers by Murataya, a kimono store in Shimane Prefecture, to create an original fiber that is light, strong, and smooth to the touch. From the perspective of environmental protection, Kaminoito is also highly regarded as a sustainable material.

We have succeeded in dyeing the ultra-lightweight fabric containing Kaminoito® using the traditional Tokyo technique of Edo Komon®. Using ultra-lightweight fabric woven with this new material, Kaminoito®, we have created an unprecedented "lightweight, high-end Western-style ladies' bag." The encounter between the new material and traditional craftsmanship has created new value. By using environmentally friendly Kaminoito, the environmental impact of the bag manufacturing process has also been reduced.

Kaminoito's lightness and durability make it possible to develop products that can be used for a long time. This is an important feature that reduces throwaway culture and promotes environmental consideration. Furthermore, bags made from Kaminoito are lightweight and easy to carry, indirectly contributing to environmental protection. In this way, Kaminoito, as an environmentally friendly material, contributes to the development of a sustainable fashion industry.