Trash of Your Society (T.O.Y.S.), an art project of theSYNdicate, is on tour investigating the after-life-cycle of products, or artefacts (a.k.a. trash). Do you know what happens to your products once you’ve tossed them?
Here is part of ‘The Concept’:
You can buy stock in the project for 35Euro, and receive a piece of upcycled art.
Follow along their journey through the TOYS Blog. The images and stories may surprise you!
Source: psfk
Images via the TOYSTOUR
Meet Design Affairs’ ‘Swirl’!
Here is the product description:
The design resembles Project H’s Hippo Roller. Speaking of Project H… they are in the running to win an amazing prize that would help them to:
Start a high school design/build program in rural North Carolina….
Sounds pretty amazing to us! Education is the key point of intervention for responsible design. Click here to vote for their idea. As I type this they are ranked 15th and they must get to at least 10th place to qualify! You can vote everyday until the end of the month.
Source: Inhabitots, Core77 and Design Affairs
In 2009, SA’s Katrine Karlsen reported on CSR Asia’s 7th summit “Sustainable Business as the Road to Recovery” in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Click here to read Katrine’s synopsis of last year’s summit.
This year’s summit will take place September 14-15 in Hong Kong, and will offer cutting edge workshops on the following topics:
-Community investment and cross-cultural engagement
-Measuring and reporting your carbon emissions
-Business strategies for adapting to a changing climate
-Water risks down your supply chain
-Asian companies going transnational
-What investors are looking for: Environmental, social, governance (ESG) issues
-A new agenda for human rights: Engaging governments
-The role of business in achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Asia
-ISO26000
-Disaster preparedness: The role of the private sector
-The 2010 Asian Sustainability Rating
-Measuring the impact of your community investment on business and the community
-Developing a sustainable development strategy in your organisation
Title: CSR Asia Summit 2010
Location: Hong Kong
Link out: Click here
Start Date: 2010-09-14
End Date: 2010-09-15
How might ‘social biomimicry’ influence design within the context of socially, culturally, environmentally, and economically responsible systems of fashion? While this conference may not directly focus on fashion at the stage of design conception, it does concentrate on other stages, such as manufacturing, communications, transportation, and green building. Indirectly, lessons learned at all stages of the lifecycle should influence the designer at the early phases of initial conception.
“A pioneering collaboration among biologists, designers, engineers, and businesspeople, Social Biomimicry: Insect Societies and Human Design is a conference organized by graduate students and supported by the Frontiers in Life Sciences program at Arizona State University. This conference will explore how the collective behavior and nest architecture of social insects can inspire more efficient and sustainable solutions to human challenges in areas such as manufacturing, communications, transportation, and green building. It will facilitate interdisciplinary exchange of concepts, perspectives, and tools that may enrich biology and advance biomimetic design. Finally, it will address fundamental issues in social biomimicry, including its ethical and psychological implications. We invite you to join us for this exciting event February 18 – 20, 2010 at the Memorial Union, Arizona State University, Tempe Campus.” (ASU)
Title: Social Biomimicry: Insect Societies and Human Design
Location: Arizona State University
Link out: Click here
Start Date: 2010-02-18
End Date: 2010-02-20
With the current spotlight on ‘green’ fashion over at Vogue U.K. via Livia Firth and the Green Carpet Challenge, we were surprised to see bamboo as designer Linda Loudermilk’s fibre of choice for Colin Firth’s suit at the premier of Tom Ford’s “A Single Man” in Paris.
Despite the comments out of Loudermilk’s office, we’re not quite convinced it was a responsible choice. Even if we were to believe that this bamboo was in fact not rayon, meaning that it was mechanically processed, not chemically processed, and that such mechanical processing was done without violating any human rights, we still think it’s an inappropriate fibre to showcase due to the global misconceptions on the use of bamboo as a responsible fibre both within and outside of the ecofashion movement.
Why not utilize the opportunity to showcase this design in linen, hemp or peace silk?
Here is a refresher on the potential social and environmental (not to mention cultural and economic) consequences of the use of Bamboo fibre, taken from our Fibre Analysis:
Still don’t believe us? Still not convinced? Read more on treehugger, the Competition Bureau of Canada, and Ecotextile News (re: FTC).
What do you think readers? When will the bamboo rayon train leave the ecofashion station?!?!
Source: treehugger and Vogue UK
The Ethical Sourcing Forum is a unique industry event that brings together members of the global sustainability community in order to address emerging sustainability and ethical supply chain challenges.
Here is the Agenda (subject to change):
Day 1: Thursday, March 18th, 2010.
7:45 AM – 8:30 AM: Registration & Breakfast
8:30 AM – 9:15 AM: Welcome Note and ESF Community Poll Findings
What are YOUR top sustainability issues and management challenges? (Kathrin Bohr, Director, ISS Advisory Services)
9:15 AM – 10:30 AM: ‘VISUALIZE’ Panel Discussion
The Arc of Sustainability Progress: What have we achieved, where are we going and where do we need to be?
10:30 AM – 10:45 AM: Spotlight on Innovation: Walmart’s Sustainability Index
10:45 AM – 11:00 AM: Coffee Break/ Networking
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM: RE-THINK LABS
Mini-Lab 1: Social Networking for Effective Stakeholder Engagement
(Kevin Long, Co-Founder, JustMeans & Brian Walsh, Head of Global Social Engagement, Liquidnet for Good)
Mini Lab 2: Collaboration: Potential and Pitfalls
(Scot Sharland, Executive Director, Automotive Industry Action Group & Monique Oxender, Global Manager, Supply Chain Sustainability, Ford Motor Company)
Mini Lab 3: Role of investment in driving CSR progress
(Garry Bell, VP Global Marketing for Gildan Activewear & Curtis Ravenel, Analyst at Bloomberg)
Mini Lab 4: Measuring and Reporting Environmental & Social Impacts
(TBC)
1:00 PM – 2:15 PM: Lunch
Joe Sibilia, Chief Visionary Officer of CSRWire and David Mager, President, Major Environmental Solutions and Co-organizer of Earth Day preview their new book: Street Smart Sustainability – The Entrepreneurs Guide to Profitably Greening Your Organization’s DNA
2:15 PM – 4:15 PM: RE-THINK LABS
Mini-Lab 5: New Models for Sustainable Purchasing and Factory Compliance (Amy Hall, Director of Social Consciousness, Eileen Fisher & Julie Yan, Manager, Hudson Bay Company)
Mini Lab 6: New Approaches to Factory Compliance
(Marie David, Director, Corporate Strategy & Sustainability, Walmart)
Mini Lab 7: Transparency in Supply Chain (Chuck Goncalves, Director of Global Responsibility for the America’s Region, Gap)
Mini Lab 8: Managing Supply Chain Environmental Risk: ” Both Win” Tools and Approaches (Jia Liu, Intertek Sustainability Solutions with Supplier (TBC), moderated by The Home Depot)
4:15 PM – 4:30 PM: Coffee Break/ Networking
4:30 PM – 5:30 PM: Panel Disussion: What Combination of Strategy and Tactics Really Drives CSR Progress?
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM Cocktail Reception
Day 2: Friday, March 19th, 2010
8:00 AM – 8:30 AM: Breakfast
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM: Keynote Presentation
TBC
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM: Presentation: Child/Forced Labor Preview of New Anti-Child/Forced Labor Supply Chain Management Criteria
CREA (Center for Reflection, Education and Action) will preview its work on developing ethical supply chain management criteria (contracted by the U.S. Dept. of Labor)
10:00 AM – 10:15 AM: Coffee Break/ Networking
10:15 AM – 12:15 PM: SOLUTION LAB – Backcasting: Developing Your Sustainable Roadmap
A hands-on collaborative sustainability decision-making / solution session involving the technique of reframing – a model for examining challenges from multiple stakeholder vantage points in order to uncover previously unseen perspectives and decision paths.
12:15 PM – 1:45 PM: Lunch/ Closing Remarks
Source: Ethical Sourcing Forum Agenda
Title: Ethical Sourcing Forum North America 2010
Location: New York
Link out: Click here
Start Date: 2010-03-18
End Date: 2010-03-19
“We’ve lost our sense of outrage” (Chris Jordan, TEDtalk, June 23, 2008).
How do we change? We change through behaviour, says photographer Chris Jordan.
His book, Running the Numbers: An American Self Portrait, is available for direct purchase through his website, and also via Amazon, through the SA [reading list].
This short film speaks for itself:
Jordan presents his research and master imagery in TEDtalk: Picturing Excess:
Source: chris jordan photographic arts
Events:
25th February 2010: Fairwear Fashion Show at Bristol Cathedral featuring the premiere of the Emma Watson collection for People Tree as well as many more fair trade fashion brands. Booking essential to avoid disappointment
8th and 9th May 2010: The Slow Textiles Conference at the Stroud International Textiles Festival in Gloucestershire. This two day event aims to be a comprehensive introduction to the subject and to stimulate discussion in and around the various and overarching themes central to Slow. Speakers include Becky Earley, Emma Neuberg, Clara Vuletich and Philippa Brock. For further information and to book tickets.
14th May: Create Sustain Ability: The Art Design Media Subject Centre’s (ADM-HEA) 2010 Annual Forum will focus on the subject of Education for Sustainable Development. The Forum aims to support art design and media subjects to develop curricula and pedagogy that will help students develop the skills and knowledge to live and work sustainably. For information on submitting an abstract to the conference or registering to attend.
Resources:
Book: Clean Clothes: a global movement to end sweatshops. The worldwide anti-sweatshop Clean Clothes Campaign marked its twentieth year in 2009. To coincide with the anniversary a new book on the movement was launched, Clean Clothes, by Dutch writer and photographer Liesbeth Sluiter.
Opportunities:
Competition: No Chains t-shirt design competition – a collaborative project undertaken by the two worker cooperatives La Alameda in Argentina and Dignity Returns in Thailand, seeks artists, designers, and activists to assist in creating images for a global sweat-free brand of t-shirts to be launched in April 2010. Deadline for applications is the 25th February 2010. For more information and to get involved.
Competition: Student Essay Competition – ADM-HEA invites students on UK-based art, design or media higher education courses to enter this year’s essay competition and answer the question; Learning to live sustainably – how can your subject area contribute? The overall winning submission will receive £250.
Internships: Himalayan Highlands Summer Exhibitions Ltd, currently the largest importer of Fair Trade products into Scotland, are looking for a Knitwear Design intern and a Fashion Designer/project manager to be based in Kathmandu Nepal. The deadline for application is the 10th February.
Competition: 2010 Green Gown Awards – this year’s awards are now open for submissions. The Green Gown Awards, now in their 6th year, recognise exceptional initiatives being taken by universities and colleges across the UK to become more sustainable.
News:
Improving factory conditions in Bangladesh: This month BBC Radio 4’s Just Business reported on the story of Windy Group, a supplier in Dhaka, which illustrates the power that fashion retailers have to bring about real change for workers.
With the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games just around the corner, the Play Fair Alliance are calling on sportswear brands, such as Nike, adidas, and Puma, to eliminate sweatshop abuses in their global supply chains. Find out what your favourite sportswear brand is, or is not doing, to ensure workers’ rights are respected.
For more on “Clearing the Hurdles,” click here.
Source: FEI
Timo Rissanen offers a great post with his notes on ‘The Sustainability Equation: Ethics and Aesthetics in Contemporary Fashion’ and on the ‘Ethics and Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion’ exhibit at Pratt on his personal blog “Timo Rissanen: Fashion Creation Without Fabric Waste Creation.”
Not to be confused with the Pratt exhibit, that runs until the 20th of February, the graduate students of the MA in Fashion and the Environment over at the London College of Fashion will host “[a]n informal evening called Ethics+Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion, […] on Friday 12th February at the HUB” for Go Green Week 2010, along with other awareness campaigns such as a fashion swapshop and workshops.
“Fashion is saving the world this week at the University of the Arts! The first UAL Go Green Week of 2010 at The University of the Arts is fast approaching, held the week of the 8th until the 12th February, and the students from the LCF course MA Fashion and the Environment, who are advocates of an ethical and sustainable fashion industry; based at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, are raising awareness throughout the University of the exciting and innovative developments of sustainable design within the fashion and textile industries.
We have a couple of, what promise to be, exciting and informative events organised for Go Green week, in order to increase public consciousness of environmental issues that are becoming increasingly prominent of late in the industry. Over the course of the week, the Fashion and the Environment students are out to spread the word about what you and I can do to make our wardrobes greener, so to speak! Green is the new black, darling!
A Fashion Swapshop is organised for Thursday the 11th Feb, at the HUB, at the Davies Street between 6pm and 9pm. We are invited to search our wardrobes for garments we never wear, bring them along, and swap them for ones we will wear and love. The Swapshop is not the only focus of the evening, as it will also include speakers from textile recycling company TRAID who aim to protect the environment by diverting clothes from landfill, clothing customising workshops, and, for one night only in London, a vintage clothing stall all the way from Italy–Mercatino Michela.
An informal evening called Ethics+Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion, will be held on Friday 12th February at the HUB, at the Davies Street between 7pm and 9pm (the bar will be open) introducing and exploring the diverse and innovative areas of sustainability within the Fashion and Textile Industry. This event will be personally hosted by MA Fashion and the Environment students from LCF in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. Open to all students from around the university , we are invited to come along to learn more and find out why this is such a vitally important area of contemporary design, ask questions and even get advice regarding sustainable design for our own projects. This evening promises a scintillating line up of from ethical clothing companies such as: People Tree, Ethical Fashion Forum and, Environmental Justice Foundation (also selling their t-shirts) who will be discussing the work they do to play an important role in a changing industry. The evening will also include a short film made by the MA Fashion and the Environment students, showcasing the variety of work and unique individual talents all working towards securing a more sustainable fashion future.”
More info at SU Arts University Student Union.
Source: CSF
Social Alterations has been following the FIBERcasts out of the University of Delaware, and we are very excited about the upcoming live event tomorrow. Make sure to pre-register! There will be opportunity to email in questions, live. Here are the details:
“The FIBERcast guests will explore these and other important topics:
Our Podcast section has links to past FIBERcasts. Check them out, and be sure to tune in with us tomorrow!
For a brief summary of the first half of the last FIBERcast, click here. We’ll post some notes on this 4th installment, so stay tuned.