Category Archives: Product Design

Paul Raybin presents ‘Lifecycle Assessments – Water & Textiles’ // ECO Fashion Week Vancouver

ECO Fashion Week Vancouver, September 29th, 2010 // Day two: Paul Raybin  

Paul Raybin –  Lifecycle Assessments  – Water & Textiles 
 

 

BIO //
Paul Raybin is Chief Sustainability Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Colorep, which created the revolutionary AirDye® technology. AirDye technolgoy manages the application of color to synthetic textiles without the use of water, providing a sustainable alternative to traditional dyeing processes. The process does not pollute water, greatly reduces energy use, lowers costs, and satisfies the strictest standards of global responsibility. It is a world-changing technology for both business and consumers. Paul has over 30 years experience in the printing industry. At Colorep, Paul managed a comparative Life Cycle Assessment project to understand and document the impact of AirDye technology on the printing and coloration of textiles.  
NOTES //
–          Textile industry is the worlds 3rd largest consumer and polluter of the worlds water

  • Growing and processing, dyeing and then after sale care
  • For example, Levi Strauss did a study that found that 919 gallons of water is used per pair of jeans – ie, flusing the toilet 575 times.
    • With this, Levi is starting to cut their water use in growing, dyeing and post consumer use.

–          Traditional dye Process:

  • Water based dyeing + dye setting + hydro washing = textile + Water treatment
  • Many of the chemicals used can never be removed from the water, making it unusable industrious water.
  • It takes on average 125 to 250x the weight of the fabric worth of water to dye a garment.
  • More than 3.5 trillion gallons used each year for dyeing. Enough to provide 111.4 billion days of water for the average urban dweller. And this pales in comparison to water needs for growing crops and post consumer use (ie, washing, drying)
  • Aral Sea in Russia used to be world’s 4th largest lake. Today it almost doesn’t exist due to water being diverted for use of the area to grow cotton. The water that remains is poisonous; the land left over is highly contaminated from heavy fertilization and over production.
  • The textile industry is the 2nd largest polluter in China
  • Every year 1.5 million children under 5 die due to lack of clean drinking water. More than 1 Billion people do not have access to clean drinking water.
  • Textile Industry Risks:
    • Rising costs. Right now water is heavily subsidized, particularly for business.
    • Resource allocation choices. For example, in California a few years ago water scarcity led to a choice that had many of the agricultural areas being deprived of water as urban dwellers were chosen to receive the scarce resources.
    • Government action
    • Business risk. In India Coke and Pepsi both temporarily lost their licenses to extract ground water due to overproduction. Communities boycotted the brands.

–          Industry Progress

  • Conventional Methods:
    • Reverse osmosis
    • Reusing water – using the same water from batch to batch
    • Reduce dye liquor ratio
    • Recycled water – using industrial non-potable water
  • Waterless Processes
    • AirDye – the protected technology of Colorep
    • DryDye (Yeg (spelling?) group out of Bangkok, using supercritical CO2 to transfer the dye into the fabric while capturing remaining dye and CO2 to be reused on future garments).

–          AirDye LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)

  • Comparative LCA
    • ENEA: Toward Effluent Zero
      • 10 dyeing and printing plants in Europe that did a study on their environmental impact. This study was used by AirDye as a benchmark against which they could measure their own environmental impact, helping them complete their LCA.
  • Their LCA was conducted by Five Winds International & PE Americas.

–          What can we all do:

  • Leadership
  • Raise Awareness
    • Consumer
    • Retailers (ie, Wal Mart and H&M making commitments to reducing their environmental impacts in China last week at Clinton Global Initiative)
    • Supply Chain – create a point of reference for consumers (such as Bluesign or a 3rd party reviewed LCA)
  • Ask Questions
    • LCA from your supply chain
  • Demand improvements in farming and manufacturing
  • Policy consideration – ie, is water a human right? How should it be priced?
    • We need to understand these initiatives and move towards them in our own ways.

Carly Stojsic presents ‘Eco as Movement, Not Trend’ // ECO Fashion Week Vancouver

ECO Fashion Week Vancouver, September 28th, 2010 // Day one: Carly Stojsic, WGSN.

Carly Stojsic – Eco as Movement, Not Trend

Photo Credit: Kris Krüg, www.staticphotography, via Flickr.com

BIO //
Carly Stojsic is Canada’s Market Editor for Worth Global Style Network and is a freelance trend forecaster for an array of clients. She joined WGSN, the world’s leading online service for global trend analysis, as a Market Editor in December 2007. Her extensive background in sourcing, trend forecasting and as a color specialist greatly augments WGSN’s customized consultancy services in creative intelligence. Click here to read more
NOTES //
  • WGSN predicts fashion internationally… based on their knowledge, Carly tells us about eco movements. Consumers are moving towards a eco friendly lifestyle – home grown food, sustainable power sources.
  • WGSN think tank sees society having less of an identity now. Detroit is considering turning unused city lots into farmland.
  • The majority of designers target 10% of richest consumers. Revolution is required to reach other 90%.
  • Designers as activists.
  • Zero waste designs cut from fabric using all of it; no waste. Recycled denim can be used as insulation in buildings.
  • 2007 London – dissolvable dress showcased so no landfill destination.
  • Denim dye process traditionally uses toxic chemicals, movement towards natural dyes, less harmful chemicals. Natural indigo and fruit dyes used for other fabrics.
  • Many companies creating their own ‘green star’ system to monitor internal greening.
  • True sustainability may be more about recycling synthetics, not using newly produced organic natural fibres. These wear better, wash easier.
  • Bamboo fibres used in Japan. Decomposes harmlessly. Paper fibres used also for lace, knits, unique pressed fabrics.
  • China will ban plastic bags handed out in stores June 2011.
  • Mattel is producing eco accessories for Barbie. !
  • Recycling used by artists, interior design, home fittings.
  • Swaparama clothing swap parties popular. Repair also encouraged.  
  • Bicycling communities popping up internationally. Underground communities hold repair workshops, portable sound systems for bike parties.
  • George from California kayaks to work after years of traffic jams. WGSN asks, ‘Where does he put his coffee?!’

Fashioning the Future 2011 Award // Fashion’s Campaign for Unique

Attention tutors, students, and recent graduates! The Centre for Sustainable Fashion has launched the 2011 Fashioning the Future Award brief.

  • What kind of world are you designing for?
  • What is your motivation as a designer?
  • What is your unique contribution to our collective futures?

To participate, you must register your interest online: www.sustainable-fashion.com from1 October 2010 where you will have access to resources and ideas to stimulate your work.

Here are the submission dates and deadlines:

Round 1 of submission: you will be required to submit your work online by 15 June 2011.

Candidates who are shortlisted from Round 1 will be invited to Round 2!

Round 2 submission deadline: July 2011.

Good luck!

Source: Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion

Yves Bèhar // 1st Puma.Safe Sustainability Lecture, London

If you find yourself in London near the end of October (the 24th @ 4:00pm), be sure to check out the first Puma.Safe Sustainability lecture at the Design Museum, where Yves Bèhar will delve into his design practice.

Yves Bèhar is the founder of design studio fuseproject and the winner of Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2008 for the One Laptop Per Child.

Tickets £15 / £7.50 Members: Includes entry to all current exhibitions before the talk.
T 020 7904 8783
E tickets@designmuseum.org
W Ticketweb (booking fee applies)

Listen in on a three part series on the designer (back in 2008) via Designing Minds:

Source: Design Museum, and Sustainable Futures

READ // ECO Fashion, Sass Brown

Well, a new semester is underway! What better way to pump your fashion design/marketing students up on responsible practices in the apparel industry than with a new resource? Check out ECO Fashion by Sass Brown, Resident Director for the Fashion Institute of Technology’s study abroad program in Florence.

Here is the abstract and contents, via Laurence King Publishing:

One of the strongest trends in fashion is the expression of ecological, social and community consciousness through for-profit fashion design corporations, which most recently have moved upscale from organic cotton T-shirts and hippy-ish drawstring pants to high fashion. There is now a wide range of companies offering well designed merchandise, from one-off art, recycled and redesigned clothing, organic and sustainable textiles and garment production, to a range of community and indigenous support cooperatives bridging the gap between traditional craft and high fashion.

This book shows the range of companies making a difference in the area of sustainable design in fashion, exploding the myth that sustainable design is bad design, or at best basic design, by highlighting the range of companies producing desirable and well-designed apparel and accessories with a conscience. It not only demonstrates the range of products available around the globe, but explains the stories behind them and the communities they support, as well as showing how and where they make a difference.

Contents

1 Community and Fair Trade
Alabama Chanin / Amana / El Naturalista / Elena Garcia / Leila Hafzi / Les Fees de Bengale / ModaFusion / Mona Mohanna / Noir / Royah / sense-organics / Shoto Banerji / Taller Flora / Van Markoviec

2 Ecological and Slow Design
Alexandra Faro / Camila Norrback / Celine Faizant / Christine Birkle / Ciel / Emily Katz / Enamore / FIN / Francoise Hoffmann / Linda Loudermilk / Magdalena Schaffrin / RoyalBLUSH / Samant Chauhan / U Roads / YOJ

3 Recycle Reuse
Angela Johnson / Costumisee par Liza / Demano / E2 / Frau Wagner / From Somewhere / Geoffrey B Small / Josh Jakus / Preloved / Rebound Designs / Riedizioni / Stephan Hann / Suitcase / TRAIDremade

4 New Models
aforest-design / Andrea Zittel / Bless / Collection of Hope / Holly McQuillan / Mark Liu
Nau / Rebecca Earley & Kate Goldsworthy / Redesign the World

5 Design Initiatives
Agatha Ruiz de la Prada / Barney’s New York / H&M and DAA – Designers Against Aids / Katharine Hamnett / Zara / Miguel Adrover / Philippe Starck / Salvatore Ferragamo / Vivienne Westwood / Yeohlee Teng / Yves Saint Laurent

Source: Laurence King Publishing

WATCH// Otto von Busch Hacking Design

Earlier this year, the SA team had the chance to watch Otto von Busch speak at the FEI conference in London.  We were so inspired by him and his passion.  Mary wrote about his presentation that same night saying that it “was absolutely fabulous, and when it came time for Otto to close his presentation, nobody wanted it to end!”

Today, I came across a video of his presentation at the RSA.  Enjoy!

Wind Powered Knitting Machine, by Merel Karhof

Check out this Wind Knitting Factory by RCA grad Merel Karhof.

But don’t just stop there—also check out Karhof’s Energy Harvesters: broaches that are worn to illustrate the amount of personal wind power harvested as you walk around!

The knitted material is harvested from time to time and rounded-off in individually packaged scarves. Each scarf has its own label which tells you in how much time it has been knitted and on which date.” (Merel Karhof)

 

Click here to visit Core77, where Lisa Smith has more details. According to Smith, this is “quite a smart way to think about all the ways we can harvest the potential around us. especially if applied at the scale of a factory.”

We agree! This is a brilliant project–and the images and videos are wonderful!

Source: Core77

VIDEO//Parsons School of Fashion sits down with Mary Hanlon to talk Social Alterations and Responsible Design

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of sitting down with Tamara Albu, Director of the A.A.S. Fashion Design Program at Parsons School of Fashion in New York to discuss Social Alterations, and the work we’ve been doing in developing free, open-source curricula for students and educators.
Tamara asked me to sit down with her more formally and explain the project so that students and faculty at Parsons might get to know who we are and the work that we are doing.
 
Speaking with Tamara in this virtual space was a complete honour, and I am so happy to share this edited video with you here, along with the interview transcript. 

Parsons School of Fashion talks Responsible Fashion with Mary Hanlon from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

Interview Transcript

Tamara Albu (TA): Hello. My name is Tamara Albu, I direct the Fashion Design A.A.S. Program, at Parsons School of Fashion here in New York. We are here today, in a virtual space, creating a bridge between New York and Vancouver, so we can talk a bit about the Social Alterations online lab developed by Mary Hanlon, after completing her Graduate thesis.   

Mary Hanlon is the Founder, Editor and Lead Contributor of Social Alterations, and the winner of this year’s Fashioning the Future Award for “Systems for a Sustainable Fashion Industry” through the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion.

Before beginning our conversation, I would like to thank David Goldsmith, one of our senior faculty, for introducing me to Mary.

It was fortunate that Mary Hanlon and David Goldsmith met recently at the Fashioning an Ethical Industry conference, in London. At the end of the event he talked about his strong belief that Mary’s website team and his research are a wonderful example of building the infrastructure for a “Fully-Fair” clothing and fashion industry.  As he explained, Fully-Fair means being fair–not only in the limited sense of fair-trade,–but fair environmentally, economically, culturally, and socially.

Soon after this, I visited your website to learn more about your online lab, Mary. I was so taken by this project that I started thinking how can I make your ideas known to our students and faculty, here at Parsons, as quickly and efficiently as possible.

What came to my mind, was we already had a lot of conversations online via Skype, so

I simply wanted to record our Skype discussions as quickly as possible and have them published on the Parsons’ School of Fashion blogazine.   

So, Mary, before we begin our main discussion—I would like you to perhaps say a few words about yourself. 

Mary Hanlon (MH): Hi Tamara! Thank you for speaking with me. It’s wonderful to talk with you here. Yes, I’d like to thank David Goldsmith for introducing us, first and foremost. I met David in early March, back at the Fashioning an Ethical Industry Conference in London. We got to talking there, and, you know, we were speaking the same language. So, I just want to thank him for putting us in contact, and also thank you, both of you, for taking an interest in Social Alterations.

It’s not enough to create great fashion, you have to understand why, what’s going to happen to that fashion later on, and what are the implications of what you’ve done (Simon Collins, Dean of Parsons School of Fashion)

TA: I’m certainly very interested in Social Alterations, and that’s why we are here today. So, let me begin by asking you my first question:  What exactly is Social Alterations?

MH: Social Alterations (SA) is an online lab built to educate fashion design instructors and students on the social, cultural, environmental and economic impact of their design choices.

It is an interactive website that, you know, hopes to create a space that will begin the conversation to bridge the gap between responsible design in theory and then responsible design in practice. So it’s a learning space, essentially, that wants to facilitate transformative design education.

I founded Social Alterations because my graduate research investigated the role of fashion design educators in teaching responsible fashion design. And, what I learned from that…you know, my research really showed that there was a knowledge gap within the industry, and I realized that there was an opportunity there to take the research I had done and put it outside of just the walls of my academia.

My passion for open-source learning guided me toward wanting to create an educational system that would be accessible to as many people as possible.

The Social Alterations Team is made up of myself, Nadira Lamrad, who is both a collaborator on this project as well as a contributing writer, and Katrine Karlsen, who is a contributor. It’s an international initiative. You know, while Nadira is based in Hong Kong, Katrine is writing from Norway, and I’m currently based in Vancouver, Canada.

TA: My goodness, this is a wonderful thing, they certainly are from all over the world; very interesting and exciting. Mary, let me ask you one other question, what do you mean by ‘transformative design education’ if you could develop a little bit more about that?

MH: Sure. I mean, we believe that interdisciplinary education is key to tackling these issues, because these are interdisciplinary issues. So our theme ‘Accessibility for Accountability,’ really shows that we want to help learners understand these issues by breaking down educational barriers: we want to provide them with the necessary tools to take on the challenge of responsible design, give them proper resources, create platforms for discussion, and build open-source curricula, within the interdisciplinary context. So when we talk about “responsible design,” we are talking about design that is educated on all of these issues.

TA: So, that leads me to a subject that is very close to me, but I’d like you to talk about it in relation to your project. Could you elaborate on what you mean by ‘open-source’ learning?

Mary: Sure. So, open-source learning for us is really about breaking down educational barriers. There is so much amazing research being done, that if we can harness this knowledge and aggregate the resources to deliver this through open-source systems. I mean, It’s exciting for us to imagine educators from across the globe coming together to discuss these issues. For example the open-source nature of Social Alterations allows educators and thought leaders from various disciplines (not just fashion design) to share their research in best practices for responsible design, but they can do so  in real-time, online. You know, so it doesn’t matter if you’re in Hong Kong, or if you’re in Toronto, if you’re in Vancouver, or if you’re in South America, it’s not the point. Location isn’t the matter, it’s a matter of getting access to the information that you need as quickly as possible, because the consequences of not having that information are very large.  

TA: You’re absolutely right, Mary. Can you tell us, what do you mean by ‘responsible design’?

MH: When we talk about “responsible design” on Social Alterations, we are talking about design that has considered, again, so environment, culture, society and economy to the absolute best of its abilities, at each stage of the design process.

Research has shown that so much of the consequences of design (you know, positive or negative) is actually known at the design stage. So while consumer education plays a huge role, of course, in shaping socially responsible fashion design, signals of deception, greenwashing for example, and unintelligent design, hidden ingredients….consumers basically are left to um, in many cases (of course not all cases), but in many cases, are left with no real choice—to pick from the best of the worst

But we believe the designer always has a choice at that design stage.

Material selection, for example is an obvious starting point. We have a “Fibre Analysis” that outlines the potential social and environmental consequences of commonly used fibres (that’s available online). And it’s this resource that we developed by aggregating resources that already exist, by pulling them together in one package so people have the answers they need right away.

Of course, the list of fibres in the analysis is no where near exhaustive, and so we’ll be working on further developing the content as we move forward. It’s an ongoing process.

TA: I’m so glad you mentioned all these, and I certainly hope that your project is going to continue and flourish and become, not only a source of inspiration but actually a source of information for so many designers interested in responsible design. Let’s go a little bit farther, and talk a little bit about the fact that you have argued that design educators have a responsibility to teach these issues. Could you explain?

MH: At the end of the day, the responsibility falls on the shoulder of the designer, primarily, because the designer is the creator of that product—of that garment

But if we go back and we think about the fashion design educator as having a responsibility—if we think of fashion design education as the point of intervention then the responsibility is lifted slightly off the shoulders of the designer and placed on the shoulders of the fashion/textile/apparel design educator.

So, to teach design practices that are culturally, socially, environmentally and economically supportive— that’s the responsibility of the design educator, is essentially what we’re arguing.

TA: Very well put. Okay, that leads me to my next question: what’s next?

Mary: Well, we’ll be looking to partner with various international stakeholders within the community (corporations, non-governmental organizations, environmental and Human Rights groups, social enterprises and educational institutions), and we’ll continue the process of developing the curricula, and pulling the resources together, and trying to deliver them in an edited capacity that makes sense—that people can use and absorb the knowledge that we’re presenting. I mean, it’s a really exciting time, because we have had such positive feedback coming from all sectors. There is a real opportunity for change here. I think that that’s pretty clear, so if we do the work, and we aggregate the resources, develop this content, and really pull it together for people so that they understand not just what’s at stake, but the choice that they can make moving forward to have control—take back control—is really powerful.

TA: Mary, I’d like to thank you very much for sharing this with all of us. I will certainly make sure that this information will be available online. Either our faculty and students will watch this video or they might prefer to read through the transcript, but the end result should be that we raise awareness for this project, and hopefully your website will  be visited more and more, and that of course will mean that your project will become even more successful than it is now.

MH: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me about this project. I hope that your readers will find it interesting, and that they’ll come and support us. And I really look forward to continuing this conversation. Thank you again, very much for your time. Thank you. Thank you very much Tamara!

TA: Thank you so much for allowing me to enter your space and interview you, I just want to add that I have been talking today with Mary Hanlon who is the Founder, Editor and Lead Contributor of Social Alterations, and the winner of this year’s Fashioning the Future Award for “Systems for a Sustainable Fashion Industry” through the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion.  

I hope that you’re going to get a lot of followers—and I’m certainly already one of them! So, great talking to you!  

drc: Design Research Conference 2010// IIT Institute of Design + Competition

“The IIT Institute of Design’s 9th Annual Design Research Conference (DRC) will be held at the Spertus Institute in downtown Chicago on May 10-12th 2010. It will feature exceptional international speakers and opportunities to spend time with our brilliant community of designers, planners, researchers, educators, students, managers and executives concerned with understanding people.” (drc)

This year’s conference includes a design research competition. The deadline to apply is April 2nd, but hey…you still have 3 days! The winners will get to speak at the conference, and will be included in the program.

Click here to apply! Good Luck!

Check out this year’s speakers:

Tim Brown | IDEO

Martha Cotton | gravitytank

Erica Eden | Smart Design, Femme Den

Kim Erwin | IIT Institute of Design

Diane Fraley | D.S. Fraley Associates

Heather Fraser | Rotman Designworks

Usman Haque | Pachube

Cathy Huang | China Bridge International

Stokes Jones | Lodestar

Anjali Kelkar | Studio for Design Research

Diane Lee | Smart Design

Yvonne Lin | Smart Design, Femme Den

Gerald Lombardi | Hall & Partners

Doug Look | Autodesk

Bill Lucas | LUMA Institute, MAYA Design

Don Norman | Nielsen Norman Group

Sona Patadia | PDT

Ron Pierce | Stuart Karten Design

Heather Reavey | Continuum

Rick E. Robinson | Sideriver Ventures

Rob Tannen | Bresslergroup

Paula Wellings | Adaptive Path

Eric Wilmot | Wolff Olins

Lisa Yanz | PDT

Title: drc: Design Research Conference 2010// IIT Institute of Design
Location: Chicago
Link out: Click here
Start Date: 2010-05-10
End Date: 2010-05-12

Call for Entries// The Earth Awards

The Earth Awards is a global search for creative solutions designed for the 21st Century. The award represents six categories: Built Environment, Product, Future, Systems, Fashion, and Social Justice.

Dilys Williams, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion, has been included in the Selection Committee, and will be judging the Fashion category, along with other designers, architects, scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, writers, humanitarians, environmentalists and spiritual leaders.

Here is the mission of the awards:

Human imagination and ingenuity are the impetus of every good design. All across the world, people from every walk of life are generating good design ideas that offer groundbreaking solutions to the ecological and social challenges of the 21st century. The Earth Awards provides a platform for these visionary ideas, presenting a unique opportunity for individuals and organizations worldwide to expose their design innovations to a global audience. The Earth Awards is committed to the idea of popularizing the most viable of these innovations, and transforming them into market-ready solutions.

The submission period closes May 10th. Good Luck!

Check out this video of last year’s finalists!

Source: CSF