What is the Role of Schools in Pushing the Fashion Industry to Be More Sustainable?

With six more weeks untilpolice 26, the pending 2020 United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, many people are considering how their personal and professional behavior can help address theclimate crisis. This includes rethinking the extent to which we are defined by our consumption or our citizenship. Many academics, for example, recognize the broad consensus demonstrated through a global commitment to the United NationsSustainable Development Goals(SDGs) that universal action is needed to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030, and that includes embedding sustainability principles and practices into academia.

But if the university continues to teach in timecommodified education model, how will they provide education for sustainable development? England, for example, hashighest tuition feesin developed countries and the value for money narrative has created a culture of students as consumers. And where better to start than to see how fashion students are taught to think about sustainability. The fashion industry has a well-documented historyunsustainable practices, including intensive and excessive textile production and waste, lack of transparency, and poor labor conditions.

Demanding a sustainable curriculum

Educating tomorrow’s leaders is critical to achieving sustainability targets, and those working in fashion are no different. Graduates increasingly want to work with goals, but do we equip them with sustainability literacy including the information, skills and talent to challenge existing systems and structures, including the university where they study?

year 2021 Deloitte Survey emphasized that young people are increasingly concerned with issues, such as income inequality and climate change. Many see company goals as more than a pay measure when it comes to weighing job opportunities. A survey focused on social change and accountability reported that 44 percent of millennials and 49 percent of Gen Z based their choices on personal ethics in terms of the type of job or organization they would consider joining.

But it’s not just employers who need to change attitudes to create a more responsible workplace when it comes to climate change. Other latest survey of prospective international students found that the university’s reputation and commitment to sustainability ranked higher than its location. Based on Student Organizing for UK Sustainability, 60 percent of students said they wanted to learn more about sustainability, and 80 percent of students said they wanted their institution to do more about it.

Focus on students

Only by diving deep into sustainability can we help fashion students understand how all the elements of the fashion business model and supply chain affect people and the planet. This is greatly helped by the new guide on Education for Sustainable Development published in early 2021.

Annual Green Dress Award provides an overview of the outstanding sustainability initiatives undertaken by UK universities and colleges. In 2020, University College Londons Positive Climate Campaign won the 2030 Climate Action category. The University of Plymouth is highly commended for its cooperation Net Zero Line, and Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) student Emma Kidd is highly commended for her Detox Mode Challenge.

GCU was also recently hailed by the United Nations as an example SDG best practices for his commitment to fully integrated sustainability goals into all its activities. This includes developing research, teaching materials and assessment assignments and collaborating with outside organizations at the forefront of sustainability including The Ellen MacArthur Yayasan Foundation and his work promoting the circular fashion industry.

GCU British School of Fashion also produces a teaching case study collection, as part of Bloomsburys digital resources, on sustainable clothing pioneers, such as Patagonia and Stella McCartney. Both businesses have an environmental mission and are using creative ways to educate consumers about the climate crisis.

Patagonia published as reversible poetry on Black Friday 2020 and Stella McCartney releases Spring/Summer 2021 collection AZ Manifesto to start a conversation about values, By studying this business, students are encouraged to think about the negative social and environmental impacts of fashion, to debate the pros and cons of fabric and production choices and to actively promote more sustainable alternatives according to their own values -score.

Are we there yet?

UN Sustainable Development Goals 4.7 The target states that by 2030: All learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, citizenship global economy, and an appreciation of cultural diversity and the contribution of culture to sustainable development.

The more we learn about sustainability, the clearer it becomes that many of our social and environmental challenges, including poverty, gender equality, climate change and quality education, are interrelated as exemplified by the United Nations 17 SDGs framework. And despite the growing commitment to sustainability from educational institutions, student bodies and individual academics, there is a widening attitude-behavior gap when it comes to the sector as a whole.

So, in addition to research and teaching for climate solutions, we must ask universities how they are leading in environmental and social sustainability measures.

In highlighting lack of representation of women at COP26, author and co-founder All We Can Save Projects, Katharine Wilkinson, argues that the climate crisis should be considered a leadership crisis. This theme was developed by Caledonian student Luna Sanchez in her short film Manifesto for Women as Sustainability Leaders.

The coronavirus has caused the biggest disruption in higher education in a generation. As London Fashion Week recently resumed after the pandemic, now is a great time for reflection and planning. Welcoming the new academic year, we must stop considering students only as consumers of higher education, but as fellow citizens in seeking solutions to the urgent world climate crisis.

Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas is Professor of Marketing and Sustainable Business at the British School of Fashion (GCU London), Glasgow Caledonian University. (This article was originally published by The Conversation.)