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sustaInaBlE FashIon : a handBooK For Educators
For examples of social and environmental policies and
reports see:
- Oxford Brookes University
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/brookesnet/environment/policy - Michigan State University
http://www.ecofoot.msu.edu/c.s.report.htm - Gap
http://www.gapinc.com/public/SocialResponsibility/socialres.
shtml - Develop priorities, targets and a time-frame, and
commit resources
The school/college/university’s sustainability policy may
include:- Standards and targets relating to:
- Teaching sustainable fashion.
- The environmental impact of buildings, resource
use, and staff and student practices. - Impact of the college’s activities on stakeholders.
- Community involvement.
- Health and safety within the college.
- Employees (terms and conditions of
employment, etc.). - Procurement and impact on people and the
environment along the supply chain of products
and services bought by the college. - Socially responsible investment.
- Information technology.
- Management systems for implementation of,
communicating on, reporting about and reviewing the
policy. - Core organisational values such as trust or integrity
to provide an overarching framework for the
sustainability policy. - Mission statement outlining the college’s commitment
to its sustainability policy.- Useful links
There are a number of companies and organisations
offering information and assistance to companies wishing
to develop and implement a sustainability policy. FEI cannot
endorse any of the services offered by these organisations,
but we hope they will prove to be useful in your research: - Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges
http://www.eauc.org.uk/home - Oxford Brookes University
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/eie/qfuture.htm - Ethical Property Foundation
http://www.ethicalproperty.org.uk/ - Green the building
There are a large number of resources available from the
government and other environmental advisory bodies
concerning how to make buildings more environmentally
sound. These can include: - Auditing use/waste of electricity, gas and water.
- Developing a staff/student transport system for
sustainability (e.g. secure and safe bicycle parks and
car-share schemes), including for transport to and from
exhibitions (i.e. full coach loads). - Encouraging staff to utilise information technology to
reduce travel (e.g. video conferencing). - Introducing a recycling, low waste and reducing policy.
- Encouraging re-use by putting out requests for other
people’s ‘waste’ (fabrics, trims) on Freecycle^4 (http://www.
freecycle.org/). - Developing a sustainable procurement policy and
carefully selecting resources (particularly textile
chemicals) and considering the sustainability value of
these goods.
- Useful links
- Standards and targets relating to:
(^4) Freecycle is a grassroots and entirely non-profit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Membership is free.