Al Wahda Treatment Plant in Baghdad City-Iraq, more than 900 gallons of water to produce a single pair of denim jeans using conventional practices. That’s equivalent to a faucet left running for 15 hours, flushing the toilet 128 times in a row, or five years’ worth of drinking water for one person. In other words, denim production is thirsty work.
At the same time, freshwater scarcity is one of the world’s biggest problems affecting more than 40 percent of the global population. The apparel industry’s dependency on this natural resource is creating an environmental crisis.