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If there’s one piece of knowledge we want you to take away from the Back to Basics issue, it’s that a garment’s use outweighs everything else when it comes to its environmental impact. Even if you manage to stock your closet with all-organic gear, your part in looking after the planet is far from over.

The typical item of clothing goes through the laundry a mere 20 times before getting tossed, yet “most of its environmental impact comes from laundering and not from growing, processing and producing the fabric or disposing of it at the end of its life,” writes Kate Fletcher, author of Sustainable Fashion & Textiles: Design Journeys.

And the American Fiber Manufacturers Association sponsored a study that estimated as much as 82 percent of energy used in a garment’s life-cycle is expended just through washing and drying.

So now getting through your laundry pile is more than just a weekly chore; it gives you the potential for making an effortless but positive environmental change.

Some designers have already explored the use of raw denim, which can be washed once every six months; other companies are following suit and designing clothes with reducing the laundry load in mind. Consumers can look forward to innovations such as stain-resistant clothing and “no wash” tops coming to a mall near you.

Home technology has also been catching up with the rise of front-loading high-efficiency washers and dryers. And the advent of “wet cleaning,” an alternative to dry cleaning that doesn’t create pollution and uses nontoxic detergents, looks even more promising than the dubiously named but commonly found Green Earth solution, which is based on a combustible silicone-based solvent.

However, reducing your clothes’ environmental impact doesn’t need to be sophisticated. If you wear a shirt just twice before it hits the laundry hamper, you’ve already cut its laundering by half. Because ultimately, when a change is easy, it’s more likely to happen.

And you can make a pledge to take good care of your clothes by treating them carefully and taking them to the seamstress instead of the landfill.

We’ve done the preliminary research for you. Follow these links to see whether your laundry detergent is good for the environment, and how to get soft clothes without the use of chemical-laden dryer sheets.