In 2023, the fast fashion giant Shein was everywhere. Crisscrossing the globe, airplanes ferried small packages of its ultra-cheap clothing from thousands of suppliers to tens of millions of customer mailboxes in 150 countries. Influencers’ “#sheinhaul” videos advertised the company’s trendy styles on social media, garnering billions of views. But climate advocates and researchers say the company’s lightning-fast manufacturing practices and online-only business model are inherently emissions-heavy – and that the use of AI software to catalyze these operations could be cranking up its emissions.
https://grist.org/technology/as-fast-fashion-giant-shein-embraces-ai-its-emissions-are-soaring/