Category Archives: Landfill

VOTE// Fashion Takes Action, Design Forward Award

Who’s your favourite responsible Canadian designer?

Fashion Takes Action (FTA) has officially launched Canada’s 1st annual eco design award, Design Forward.

I had the pleasure of working on this project, and I am so excited that Social Alterations could support this important initiative in Canada,  and I will explain the extent of our participation in an upcoming post, so stay tuned!

Here are the nominees:

All the information you need has been made available to you, the public, and you are invited to vote online for the designer you believe best represents ‘eco design’ in Canada. Once you have cast your vote, the decision will be left in the hands of the jury, who will select their winning choice from the top three finalists.

The criterion for voting is based on production, material, design, and special features. Take your time getting to know each designer: you only get one vote, so make it count!

Check out the prize, valued at approximately $50,000!

  • A free membership in Fashion Takes Action
  • A three-month national PR campaign, provided by Third Eye Media
  • Feature in EcoSalon – the number one green fashion blog!
  • Participation at Nolcha Fashion Week’s Ethical Fashion Preview in NYC in September 2010
  • Travel and accommodations for two, provided by Air Miles Reward Program
  • 75 meters of eco-friendly fabric, supplied by Telio (to make a sample collection to show in NYC)
  • Look book photo shoot with full creative team including photographer, models, hair & makeup and stylist
  • Look book graphic design by pencil design
  • $1,000 towards Fair trade and Organic certification, provided by Ecocert.

The voting will close @ midnight on Friday, April 16th.

To all the designers, we wish you luck!

Bring David Suzuki to Work

The David Suzuki Foundation has launched a FREE downloadable toolkit to help businesses and organizations tread a little more lightly on the planet.

 

“Work life isn’t just about punching a clock with a bunch of strangers. Smart employers know that their people are happiest and most productive when workplace culture matches their personal values. Companies who are in it for the long run know that reducing waste and increasing efficiency makes them more profitable and competitive.” (David Suzuki)

Here’s the pitch:

Does this sound like you?

Then David Suzuki at Work is for you!

This toolkit will help you build a cleaner, greener workplace and save your organization time and money. You’ll build stronger relationships with the people you work with, and help the planet and your organization in the process.

“I am encouraged by the many people I’ve met who tell me they want to find ways to reduce their impact where they spend most of their time – at work. This toolkit is for them. It’s good for employees. It’s good for business. And it’s good for the planet.” (David Suzuki)

Click here to download a copy for your organization today.

Social Alterations// Slides

Nadira and I both promised to make the slides from our presentations at the FEI conference available online, and here they are, along with a slideshow of some of the images we captured from the event. I’ve reposted the videos of the presentations for convenience.

Thanks to everyone who offered feedback, we were so grateful for your considerations. Please, keep let’s keep the conversation going!

Be sure to contact us with any questions!

Social Alterations: An Education Lab for Socially Responsible Fashion Design

Social Alterations @ FEI from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

CSR Trends in China’s Apparel Supply Chain

CSR Trends in China’s Apparel Supply Chain from Social Alterations on Vimeo.


Find more photos like this on Social Alterations

Lunamano

Carolina Gomez-Aubert is the Creative Director behind Lunamano : material rescue and re-design.

Presenting both her company and academic research at the FEI conference earlier this month, Carolina passionately described the desperate situation of the women she works with in El Salvador: one woman had been turned away from working at the Maquila for getting pregnant; another was left without income when her husband, away at work in America, suddenly stopped sending money when he found someone else. Lunamano offers these women an opportunity for empowerment and the chance at financial security through socially, culturally, economically and environmentally sensitive, fair labour practices.

Partnering with local suppliers in El Salvador, the resources used to create each design have been taken from reclaimed materials such as discarded foam and the old tubing from air-conditioning units, for example.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Carolina for a long chat last week and learned so much more about the project. Now living in London, and inspired by both her El Salvadorian culture and the birth or her daughter, Carolina describes her work as the “vessel that keeps her heritage alive in a foreign land”.

To place an order, or to learn more about this exciting project, contact Carolina, here.

WATCH// Social Alterations @ FEI

Here are just two of the videos we took at the conference. We have more videos to come, so stay tuned for those.

The first video is of my Pecha Kucha talk. I’ll be posting the slides and my notes a little later on. Please contact us if you have any questions on the works cited in the presentation.

Social Alterations @ FEI from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) held the table next to ours during the Market Place on day two of the conference. We asked them what exactly responsible fashion meant to the EJF, and for their thoughts on why designers should care.

FEI Conference 006 from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

Pesticide Action Network (PAN) was also there, asking participants “what organic cotton means…..to me”. Pictured above is Nadira Lamrad (right) with her answer.

Social Alterations @ FEI

So here we are in London for the Fashioning an Ethical Industry Conference: Fast Forward. Today, Nadira and I will both be presenting at the conference, and with Katrine in attendance, this will mark the first time the SA team is all together in the same place at the same time!  

We will be doing lots of blogging and twitter (ing?) from the event, and will have our presentations uploaded later tonight for you to check out, so be sure to tune in.

Follow on twitter via @maryhanlon for that feed.

Wish us luck!

Tracing Trash

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’:

The footsteps or traces that refuse leaves internationally, are the subject of the art project of theSYNdicate: how countries deal with refuse in different parts of the world; the global cycle of refuse; the dimensions of European refuse in Africa.

Transport routes of primary products as well as of finished consumer goods cover long distances, in this globalised world, with many stages, and with goods passing through many hands: sometimes transported goods describe a cycle, other times goods travel in a more one-dimensional perspective.

At the end of a cycle, for example, a number of high quality goods from the southern parts of the world land in Europe, to be sold at high prices, with a hefty profit margin – which drives turnover and stock exchange assets. African countries (and other continents and countries with similar social and economic conditions) are the destination, the recipients, of refuse: the results of agrarian over-production, electronic junk, garments (often second hand clothes), and many similar goods. In this cycle, the places that are the countries of origin (right at the start of the cycle), are left mainly with refuse and package material. Africa – the First World‘s testing ground or laboratory, and self-service shop.

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

Ethical Sourcing Forum North America 2010

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?

  • David Schilling, Program Director for Human Rights at Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (Moderator)
  • Matt Kistler, SVP Sustainability, Walmart
  • Linda Yanz, Director, Maquila Solidarity Network
  • Stephen Howard, CEO, Business in The Community
  • Amy Hall, Director of Social Consciousness, Eileen Fisher
  • International Labor Affairs Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor

10:30 AM  –  10:45 AM: Spotlight on Innovation: Walmart’s Sustainability Index

  • Matt Kistler, SVP Sustainability, Walmart

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?

  • Moderator: NY Bureau Chief, major international magazine (To be confirmed)
  • Genevieve Taft, Global Workplace Rights, The Coca-Cola Company
  • Sherlyn Broderson, Ethical Sourcing and Sustainability Manager, Cadbury
  • Frank Rexach, VP and General Manager, Haworth
  • Judi Kovacs, VP EHS Programs, NBC Universal

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

Green Carpet Challenge

“We can’t celebrate good intentions, we have to celebrate beauty” (Dilys Williams, London College of Fashion)

We’ve really been enjoying watching Mr. Darcy actor Colin Firth’s wife Livia Firth challenge herself to take on ethical fashion this award season. Livia is no stranger to ethical style, however, considering she’s the owner of ethical shop Eco Age in London.

She’s been blogging about the Green Carpet Challenge over at Vogue UK, so that we can follow along with her on this incredible journey. Along the way, she’s been interviewing ethical fashion gurus like London College of Fashion Dilys Williams and ethical designer Christopher Raeburn.

Be sure to follow her as she takes on this challenge!

Vanished Bodies and Eternal Presence, Monumenta 2010

If you find yourself in Paris sometime before February 21st, make sure to check out Monumenta 2010: Christian Boltanski’s Personnes at the Grand Palais.

In Personnes, Boltanski asserts that relics have become “vestiges of anonymous people, traces of strangers, with which it seems to be a question of communicating.” He cites Rolland Barthes, in the context of photography to support this question: ““A photo is literally an emanation from the referent. From a real body which was there, proceed radiations which ultimately touch me, who am here; the duration of the transmission is insignificant; the photograph of the missing being will touch me like the delayed rays of a star.” What “happens” therefore escapes any rational reduction: it is a matter of structuring the vanished body and eternal presence around a certain idea of the exhibition, a way of making manifest which opens the door to emotion.”

I stumbled upon this exhibit via Style Bubble. Here is what fashion blogger Susie Bubble had to say: “I’m simultaneously bemused and slightly saddened though that the next time I’m in the Grand Palais in March, all of this will be gone and in its place will be whatever runway setup Chanel decides upon for their A/W 10-11 show…”

Allan Chochinov at Core77 is often quoted for this statement: “Designers think they are in the artifact business, but they’re not; they’re in the consequence business.” (You can read more on responsible design in Chochinov’s Manifesto, found in the SA Reading section.) Although for me, obviously subjective in the SA context, Personnes reminds me of both artifact and consequence. It has me asking “What is the relationship between artifact and consequence in Boltanski’s work?” Seen through the lens of social, cultural and environmental responsibility, the exhibit is perhaps even more striking—more appalling (again, subjectively speaking). So I’m interested readers, what are your thoughts?

Image Source: Flickr via Style Bubble