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sustaInaBlE FashIon : a handBooK For Educators
an InstItutIonal approach to sustaInaBlE
FashIon EducatIon
Many universities, colleges and schools teaching fashion
related courses are engaging with some aspects of the
sustainability^1 agenda. It is now almost impossible not
to be aware that the fashion industry has a significant
sustainability ‘footprint’. Poverty wages, excessive hours,
use of fuel in transportation and operations, mistreatment
of animals, water pollution and heavy chemical use are
widely reported on. In addition, at the beginning of the 21st
century, the world population’s ever increasing reliance on
oil puts in doubt the potential of the planet to maintain
current levels of consumerism.
The biggest apparel brands and retailers are now taking
some responsibility for their impact, for example:
“At Gap Inc., we believe we should go beyond the basics of
ethical business practices and embrace our responsibility to
people and to the planet. We believe this brings sustained,
collective value to our shareholders, our employees, our
customers and society”^2.
How can fashion schools, colleges and universities respond
to these global challenges and a changing industry?
What role does the fashion education system have in
bringing about a sustainable industry, one that respects
the people and planet involved, meets the multiplicity
of needs consumers have from clothes, whilst remaining
economically viable?
The first section is aimed at educational institutions wishing
to respond to these questions by integrating sustainability
issues into the teaching of fashion education to enable
students to develop skills, knowledge and values they can
take forward into industry. The second section relates to
the development of a sustainability policy in a more wide
reaching sense, beyond the teaching of sustainability issues.
There isn’t a fixed formula; we hope that each educational
institution will be able to draw an appropriate approach
from these suggestions.
IntEgratIng sustaInaBIlIty IssuEs Into thE tEachIng
oF FashIon EducatIon- Get buy-in from top-level management or
administration
Having commitment from top-level management will
be essential for accessing resources and ensuring full
integration of sustainable fashion education. Management
should indicate how they intend to support this work and
integrate sustainability issues into school/college/university
policies. - Create the case for sustainable fashion education to
stakeholders
Stakeholders could include students, admin staff, support
staff, teaching staff, university management team, business
school, the environment, future generations and alumni.
The case could:- Draw on a school/college/university’s sustainability policy^3.
- Outline the opportunities to develop the school/college/
university’s profile in sustainability fashion and attract
more investment, students and high profile expertise. - Build interdisciplinary collaboration between the other
departments (e.g. business) and fashion-related courses. - Respond to the evidence that many major brands and
retailers now acknowledge the responsibilities they have
towards workers in their supply chains and the impact
their operations have on the environment. - Build on the notion that part of the role of the
educational institution is to prepare students for their
individual lives and to act with responsibility within
their communities. At the beginning of the 21st century,
sustainability is no longer seen as a niche issue but one that
pervades all areas of students’ future lives, and therefore
educational institutions have a responsibility to ensure
students build the relevant skills, values and knowledge. - Reference the Higher Education Funding Council for
England’s vision “that, within the next 10 years, the higher
education sector in England will be recognised as a major
contributor to society’s efforts to achieve sustainability -
through the skills and knowledge that its graduates learn
and put into practice, and through its own strategies
and operations”.
(^1) The terms ethical, sustainable, eco and others can mean very different things depending on who is asked. In this contribution, we have used the term sustainability to embrace the social,
environmental, ecological, animal welfare and economic viability issues that affect our industry in their most general sense. 2
3 http://www.gapinc.com/public/Socialresponsibility/socialres.shtml Accessed 24th November 2008.
See final section on developing an sustainability policy.