Category Archives: Environment

Digital Patterns: Downloading the Future of Design

This is a design concept that attempts to decrease waste on the manufacturing and transportation end of the lifecycle of a garment and eliminate mass production. In the process, SANS has encouraged a new way for consumers to relate to their clothing to develop a relationship with the garment itself. Means of production and transportation, as well as material selection, are in the hands of the consumer. The result: “extravagant” and “complex” clothing does not need to come at such a high price (social, environmental, or $$$).

Source: Core77 and SANS

Social Alterations is now on Ning!

You can use this space to share and upload curricula ideas, lesson plans, visual aids, research and projects, or to just discuss the current happenings in the industry with respect to social issues and environmental concerns, as well as the latest trends in socially responsible design.

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FIBERcast 3: Environmental Sustainability in the Apparel Industry

fiberlogo

The 3^rd installment of FIBERcast went live on July 31, 2009. This episodes theme? Environmental Sustainability in the Apparel Industry. Thought I might offer some notes that stood out from the 1st half of the broadcast.

Moderator: Marsha Dickson, Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies, University of Delaware

Guest Speakers: Will Phillips, Manager, Environmental Strategy, Under Armour Inc., Rick Horwitch, Vice President, Solutions Business Development and Marketing, for Bureau Veritas – Consumer Products Services, Dr. Suzanne Loker, Professor, Cornell University, Huantian Cao, Associate Professor, University of Delaware

The talk started off with Professor Huantian Cao breaking down the UDSAI Policy Guide (which mainly focuses on the environment).

Dr. Suzanne Loker defined sustainability broadly as “economic development, the environment, the impacts of people in their consumption choices, and technological advancement.” This signifies “improving, building upon and overall achieving responsible practices that are mentioned over the long term. Sustainability is at the foundation of social and environmental responsibility, yet it may not be achievable. Rather, we should strive for improvement” (Loker).

Loker cites a quote taken from Yvon Chouinard, the Founder and Chairman of Patagonia, as stated in the Preface of the book Sustainable Fashion: Why Now?

“To be sustainable means that you would take-out of a system the same amount of energy as put in, with no pollution or waste. A sustainable process is one you can do forever without exhausting resources or fouling the environment […] There has never yet been, nor is there now a sustainable business or sustainable fashion on this planet, and no one should ever pretend in setting out for a place that you’ve actually gotten there.”

Sustainability is a continuous goal, one that can never be achieved. Rather, it is something to strive towards. In this way, it needs to be larger than individual businesses.

Huantian Cao covered 3 equally important pillars of sustainability:

Economic
Environmental
Social

Speaking in detail on what companies can do today to get started on their environmental sustainability in terms of scope of business activities, both Loker and Rick Horwitch, Vice President, Solutions Business Development and Marketing, for Bureau Veritas – Consumer Products Services stressed their belief that every member of the supply chain has a contributing role in decreasing the environmental impact through input and matching production to consumption.

To get started immediately, Horwitch suggests companies tackle the issues through design, production, supply chain, and corporate perspective:

Design perspective

AFA: Restrictive Substance List (RSL) (all globally encompassing it covers the apparel and textile and footwear industry) get rid of the bad substances in your products.
Packaging: reduce ratios. Look for biodegradable content, energy efficient.

Production

Look at energy efficiency. Horwitch recommends companies check out The Footprint Chronicles over on the Patagonia site.

Supply chain

Look at transportation
Look at social compliance. Social compliance is critical. Ethical sourcing is critical to a sustainable supply chain.

Corporate perspective

Be a good citizen.
Communicate that the issues are important to you.
Do large scale changes, but do not ignore the small changes, such as changing the light bulbs.

What is the business case to engage in this shift?

Horwitch maintains that while the front end may be more expensive, “sustainability is about the triple bottom line and a for profit solution. Sustainable process is an efficient process.”

Triple bottom line? Remember those three pillars Huantian Cao mentioned:

Economic
Environmental
Social

For more information, you can listen in on this FIBERcast, as well as previous broadcasts, here.

Resources to walk away with:

University of Delaware’s Sustainable Apparel Initiative

Sustainable Fashion: Why Now?

Restricted Substance List (RSL)

Patagonia: The Footprint Chronicles

FIBERcast

Source: FIBERcast

Nike: Considered Design Ethos, Steve Nash and the “Sixty Million Dollar Man”

Nike's Considered Design shoebox

Nike has adopted an interesting approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR). As previously mentioned, the company has seemingly managed to connect its sustainability platform to its innovation platform. Trash Talk is one example, the packaging the shoe comes in is another:

The shoe will also be packaged in a new Considered Design shoebox. Like Nike’s first recycled content box in 1995, this new box is still made from 100 percent recycled fiber, but now features a new design which reduces the fiber content by approximately 30 percent. (CSRwire)

"Considered is not Compromising. It's rethinking." (Nike)

According to the company, “Nike’s Considered ethos challenges designers to use environmentally-preferred materials, reduce waste, create sustainable manufacturing processes and use innovation to help reduce our overall environmental impact.”

You can learn more about Nike’s Considered Design Ethos by visiting their Considered Design Index.

In terms of lifecycle analysis, however, Nike has set some goals that I believe are worth considering:

footwear to be Considered by 2011
apparel to be Considered by 2015
equipment to be Considered by 2020

All this will be done through the company’s Considered Design Ethos:

less toxics
less waste
more environmentally-preferred materials
sustainable product innovation

Are you up for the challenge? I’m not convinced the marketing campaign (below) will help motivate you…but hey, why not.

Source: CSR Wire, Nike, Nike and more Nike

Nike Talks Trash

Andrew Hartman, Design Director from Philips Design, Claudia Kotchka, Former Head of Design at Procter & Gamble, and Valerie Casey, Lead of Digital Experience Practice at IDEO and Founder of the Designers Accord, were among 20 star designer judges at the IDEA 2009: Designing a Better World competition that took place in May of this year.

Hartman stressed the importance for designers to deliver an experience to their client, rather than just an instance.
Kotchka expressed her belief that design thinking is a necessary tool for solving design challenges.
Casey spoke on the prioritization of sustainability as moving beyond trend. Casey referenced Nike’s success in marrying sustainability with innovation. This is not surprising considering the company won the International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) “Best in Show” for its Trash Talk shoes made from manufactured waste.

Nike Trash Talk

Gold Award/Best in Show
Category: Ecodesign
Design: Kasey Jarvis, Andreas Harlow, Fred Dojan, and Dan Johnson, Nike (U.S.)

This performance basketball shoe is made from manufacturing waste. It incorporates leftover materials—leather and synthetic leather, foam, and rubber—into new shoes without sacrificing any of the performance aspects that come from shoes made from virgin materials.

Source: BusinessWeek

Social Alterations: Forum

How can education foster sustainable change toward socially responsible fashion and apparel design and manufacturing practices?

Social Alterations hopes to foster socially responsible fashion design education through aggregating relevant material that will inspire fashion/textile and apparel instructors, researchers, designers and design enthusiasts to get on board with thinking about consequence in the industry.

Sign up to the Social Alterations Forum if you’re interested in sharing and contributing ideas on curriculum, research, projects, materials, design, etc. with this community.

Don’t Mess with Design Thinking…..?

This week, Michael Roller challenged young designers to reconsider saving the world.

Stop Saving the World

…Unless you actually are. Designers have identified that their skills can help people beyond the mass markets of the first world, but we’re far from making a big impact on our own. The truth is, some designers like talking about making a difference more than they like actually doing it. Raising awareness is only a small first step towards fixing one of the world’s many problems. If you really want to make a difference, think about volunteering at a soup kitchen…or moving to India.

Ramsey Ford is an industrial designer who recently took on this challenge by moving to India and starting the non-profit Design Impact. “Last year, I attended the ‘Design for a Better World’ conference at RISD. What struck me most about the conference was that the common thread was not design, but entrepreneurship. The mantra for the weekend seemed to be, ‘shut up and do it’.” Ramsey plans to make a real difference by gaining empathy for India’s true design needs. Admittedly, this is pretty bold, but what have you done lately to design a better future?

Rolland is merely advising recent graduates to, in a sense, shut-up and get-started already. In the context of ‘self-promotion’, selling your personal brand as ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’ (or whatever buzz word you happen to run with) is really nothing above insult if you are not in fact taking this challenge seriously.

Matthew E. May wrote “Design Thinking 101” earlier this month and cited the Wikipedia definition of the process (taken from a 1969 book by Herbert Simon called The Sciences of the Artificial):

Design thinking is a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result. It is the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity and rationality to meet user needs and drive business success. Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking is a creative process based around the “building up” of ideas.

Pergaps the real challenge is for designers to stay away from Design Thinking as a brand image alone, and move creatively toward incorporating the process into every aspect of their work.

Source: Core 77, Open Forum

FEI Staff Training and Student Workshops

Ethics have a high profile in the fashion industry today. Are you equipped, as a tutor or student, with the knowledge and skills to engage with these issues?

Fashioning an Ethical Industry (FEI) runs staff training and student workshops at schools, colleges and universities on themes related to working conditions in garment manufacture. Through our training events we encourage staff and students to critically examine different perspectives on workers’ rights and initiatives to improve conditions.
FEI training combines our extensive knowledge with a participatory educational approach, building on participants’ existing knowledge and experience and using a range of activities and different media such as films, role-play and presentations.

More info: Fashioning an Ethical Industry

Source: FEI

Watch: FTA’s ” Sustainable Fashion 101″

Based out of Toronto, Canada, Fashion Takes Action is a member’s based organization dedicated to transforming the fashion industry. FTA helps businesses, as well as designers, students, consumers and researchers, become more aware of their social and environmental impact, while learning the benefits of operating a more sustainable business.

Up this week on the FTA site is video coverage of their recent event “Sustainable Fashion 101.” Presentations from FTA Founder, Kelly Drennan, Andrea Stairs, Head of Marketplace Development at eBay, Ellen Karp, President of Anerca, Elsa Poncet, ECOCERT Europe, and Lorraine Smith, an Independent Sustainability Consultant can be viewed here.

Also, stay tuned to FTA this Fall for the upcoming workshop “Eco Garble – Eco Garbage = Eco Garb” with Lorraine Smith.

Here is an overview of the workshop:

Many clothing retailers are offering eco-products in response to consumer demand for green. But it’s not always clear why products are eco-friendly; in some cases the environment may actually be the worse for wear in spite of the greenest of intentions.

There is a lot of information about environmentally sustainable fabric out there. Some of it is helpful and based on scientific, time-tested facts. Some of it is greenwash. And some of it is a confusing mix of both.

Why is bamboo more sustainable than cotton? Or is it?
Is the flame-retardant in babies’ sleepwear safe for the environment? Or for babies?
Why do some say wool is baaaad for the environment even though it’s renewable?

This half-day workshop will take a life cycle approach to garments and environmental sustainability. During the workshop participants will:

Experience a hands-on survey of raw materials in fabrics including wool, cotton, flax, cellulosics (rayon, bamboo, soy), and petrochemical-based fibres, providing an understanding of what these materials are in their simplest form, and how they are harvested/extracted and processed into cloth.
Review the environmental and social risks and opportunities associated with different fibre sources throughout the life cycle of textile products.
Identify through interactive discussion ways to measure, manage, and communicate environmental improvements, firmly instilling the “eco” in “eco-garb.”

Ethical Fashion Show Paris: Education For Sustainable Fashion

Title: Ethical Fashion Show Paris: Education For Sustainable Fashion
Location: Paris, France
Link out: Click here
Description: Fashioning an Ethical Industry will be hosting a round table on Education for Sustainable Fashion at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris from 1pm to 3:30pm on Sunday October 4th 2009. The event will take place at Tapis Rouge: 67, rue du fg St Martin 75010 Paris.

Speakers and themes are to be confirmed. The event is aimed at fashion tutors and students but everyone is welcome. Tickets will be available from the Ethical Fashion Show website nearer the time.

Source: FEI
Date: 2009-10-04