It's been fashionable, at least since the 60's to be sustainable; that the fashion industry is one of the last fiddlers to join the band says much for it's integrity and long term view.
To sustain anything something has to be consumed and destroyed. So whereas in the short term something may seem durable, viable, economic or ecological, at the same time other things have their demise. Reuse leads to degradation. As all resources are finite, the more use > the shorter time to destruction.
Water is a resource in many ventures, and the fashion industry, finally, wants to get on the sustainable bandwagon to make their products more appealing to the consumer. One touted fact is that cotton takes x litres to produce y amount of cotton. The linked text is one persons use of such facts. Being a journalist, the reason for using these facts is to gain attention. They and you may think that there is some useful information in this knowledge and by following lots of green steps we can save the planet from destruction ~ this is not the case.
Water is used to grow all crops and it is a well worn fact that farming animals is highly detrimental to water quality and uses many times the amount of water that would be used to produce equally usable vegetation products. So the production of cotton has to be considered alongside, for example, the production of wool and leather.
Linen, hemp and others are touted as using much less water. These and many other plants used for fibre need little or no pesticides or fertilisers, if you believe the facts. However the rougher cellulose material from bamboo and trees use many processes involving toxic chemicals and a lots of water to process and produce artificial fibres (modal,viscose and rayon).
Synthetic fibres made most often from petroleum products are not only rife with the use of a not replaceable source, but add nothing to the biosphere. Further great pollution is created in obtaining and processing the oil, with the added concern that the plastic fibres degrade to microscopic and then nano particles that pollute almost every corner of the material world.
I have been told by a neighbour, who works at Plymouth University, testing for micro-plastic pollution in the marine environment, that in some areas of Cornwall the sand at the top of beaches can be as much as 30% plastic; particles the size of sand and smaller. Another friend working as a research fellow in Exeter University is studying plastic as it further degrades and becomes so small, nano=plastics, that it enters cells through normal osmotic pressure.
Clearly the use of plant fibres is preferable in that the waste and degraded material will completely breakdown and produce organic matter as humus and nutrition for other plant growth.
There abides the question as to which plant production uses the least water and chemicals to grow. This does not equate to the idea of sustainable, but it's practice does help to focus the mind on the unsustainability of any form of consumption.
The philosophy that there is a good, better or benign use and consumption of a resource, be it human or other animal, plant or mineral, is an excuse or reason for laws that distribute the booty of the looting of the environment.
This sort of sustainability is not related to life but the deceitful habit of exploiting those people and other animals of any opportunity to raise their conciousness to real everlasting concious life by making the controlled killing spree the thing to do ~ a sustainable fashion.
Life to be sustainable must logically not rely on a finite, or any number of finite resources. Life cannot therefore consume and is the only enduring entity.
If you focus on this philosophy, create your own laws, you may devise a combination of ways to reduce consumption, that are uniquely yours. Maybe then you will leave enough space in your mind and your body for your soul to enjoy the presence of everlasting life.