Week One: AllSaints Button Down

1. Reflection on the 1st week
1. Describe (IN DETAIL) how your first week went with your behavior to reduce your environmental impact?
1. What did you do? How did you do it? How often
2. Why is the conservation behavior good for the environment? (Justify your choice!)
3. Identify barriers: what has prevented you from undertaking this behavior to reduce your environmental impact in the past?
4. What needs to change to make this behavior to reduce your environmental impact achievable for the next 30 days?
5. Can you make that change yourself or do you need outside help?
6. Explore incentives: are there internal or external incentives that would help motivate you to make the change?
7. References: *Cog Skill: SELECTING RELEVANT RESOURCES
1. Include citations in one of two ways:
1. In-text
2. Footnotes

The first week of my project went moderately well. I have only made one new purchase in the past week, a button-down shirt from AllSaints, a British label headquartered in London. AllSaints is a company is characterized for having premium quality apparel as well as being a higher-end and costly brand.

According to the Details & Care tab on the shirt's page on Nordstrom.com where I purchased, the shirt was created through 100% viscose, which according to the article What Is Viscose? - Two  Sister Textiles is a non-synthetic fiber that is created through "regenerated cellulosic fiber made from cellulose, most commonly wood pulp, but many plants can be used such as bamboo. The cellulose is broken-down and regenerated into a fiber." The lack of synthetics is a more sustainable alternative compared to the synthetic fabrics and materials used by fast fashion brands. Bamboo and plant materials are biodegradable, and therefore poses little-to-no risk to the environment. So exposure to the environment does not pose a serious concern. However, there is a limitation here. The method in which the resources are acquired can be considered unsustainable. To acquire the bamboo and plant materials, they need to be cut down and spaces of vegetation need to be destroyed, which is obviously harmful to the natural world.
There are other positive outcomes from this purchase: the means of transportation. The shirt was shipped from Nordstrom in Downtown Seattle and delivered to my house via UPS. This is also a plus, as the UPS company declares a mission to "achieve a 12% Achieve a 12% reduction in absolute Greenhouse Gas emissions across our global ground operations by 2025." UPS is also a firm adopter of innovative technology to limit the ecological footprint caused by the company. For example, the UPS trucks use propane, methanol, liquid natural gas, renewable natural gas and compressed natural gas as their sources to fuel the UPS trucks. 
Purchasing from online Nordstrom (a domestic company that also happens to be headquartered in the city I live in) rather than from AllSaints.com directly could be a better option. Although AllSaints has locations all over the country, it's very likely the source of items I purchase could be sourced and shipped internationally from the UK, which would require flying, and planes emit gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, amongst others which mix with the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. 

Going forward, I need to continue reviewing the materials used to create apparel I'm interested in purchasing, and also conduct background research on the brands and labels I purchase from. Another thing is seeing if domestic retailers and companies that have expansive non-fast fashion options (Nordstrom, Totokaelo, etc) carry the items, rather than ordering directly from international sources.