Category Archives: Social Responsibility

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.

Organic Exchange/MADE-BY: ‘The Case for Sustainable Fashion’

“MADE-BY and Organic Exchange is delighted to invite you to a unique 2-day intensive seminar on sustainable fashion (clothing and textile) in Stockholm! This seminar is the perfect opportunity to assist textile and apparel professionals working in brands and retailers to come up to speed on changes and opportunities in the supply chain.

Speakers and several important topics covered include:

• Environmentally Friendly Fabrics – Understand the Definition, Sourcing and Production Issues,
• A Discussion on Recycled Materials – Polyester and Nylon,
• Responsible Processing – The Good The Bad & The Ugly of Dyeing and Finishing Industry,
• Product Integrity – Certification, Labeling, Transparency and Traceability,
• Social Compliance – Understand the Different Systems and Learn The Actual Work Done,
• Setting Sustainability Strategy – Learn from the Perspective of Leading Brands, Their Pitfalls, Triumphs and Lessons Learned,
• Communication Strategy – How Sustainability and Branding Strengthen Each Other?
• Fashion and Consumer Trends Towards Sustainability in Europe.

Participants will be encouraged to be critical, ask questions and share experiences during discussions. It would be an excellent place to actively share knowledge and information and to network at every possible level.” (MADE-BY)

Click here to download the latest version of the agenda.

Here are some testimonials from past events:

“Most valuable aspect was meeting with other people facing the same issues and discussing how we can work through to a solution together”

– Marks & Spencer, United Kingdom

“After the seminar, striking argument towards our top management on sustainable fashion production has been developed!”

– INTERSPORT International, Switzerland

“A real thorough approach to looking at all aspects of building and implementing a sustainable strategy, fantastically useful and incredibly interesting”

– Ted Baker, United Kingdom

“The most valuable aspect were the case studies of brands committed to sustainable fashion, good networking opportunities and the open atmosphere during interactive discussion”

– PUMA, Germany

Title: Organic Exchange/MADE-BY: ‘The Case for Sustainable Fasion’
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Link out: Click here
Start Date: 2010-05-26
End Date: 2010-05-27

American Reusable Textile Association (ARTA): Green Summit

“The seminar, to be held at the Chateau Frontenac Hotel, will include an overview of new life-cycle assessment research; information and tools designed to help market the benefits of reusable textiles; and information on how to enhance and measure the sustainability of a facility’s operations.

The Green Summit is open to ARTA members and non-members and as well as education and networking opportunities, will also feature supplier exhibits.

Announcing the event, ARTA president Steve Tinker said that to remain competitive, businesses would need to incorporate sustainable practices into operations and be able to verify those efforts. “Some might argue that ‘green’ is a trend, but legislative and consumer indicators show that the focus on sustainability is here to stay,” he said.

‘The green era offers a unique opportunity for the textile services industry. We’ve been providing and supporting a green product — reusable textiles — for more than a century! The immediate challenge lies in quantifying the green benefits of reusable textiles and of our operations, and then marketing those benefits to our customers.’” (Ecotextile News)

Source: Ecotextile News

Title: American Reusable Textile Association (ARTA): Green Summit
Location: Quebec City, Canada
Link out: Click here
Start Date: 2010-07-22
End Date: 2010-07-23

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.

Responsible Design: Why should design students care?

Earlier this month SA had the pleasure of interviewing David Goldsmith from The Swedish School of Textiles and Parsons, Eleanor Dorrien-Smith from PARTIMI, Kat Ross and Larissa Clark from the Environmental Justice Foundation, Carolina Gomez-Aubert from Lunamano, and Sophie Koers from the Fair Wear Foundation.

We asked them for their take on responsible design, and why they think design students should care.

Responsible Design: Why should design students care? from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

What does responsible design mean to you, and why do you think design students should care?

READ// Kate Fletcher, Matilda Lee, and Sandy Black

 

The ‘Open Space’ at the FEI conference featured celebrated authors Kate Fletcher, Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys, Matilda Lee, Eco-Chic: The Savvy Shoppers Guide to Ethical Fashion, and Sandy Black, Eco-Chic: The Fashion Paradox. You can find these texts and others in our reading section.

 

FEI set the stage for the Open Space format as an opportunity for conference participants to network, strategise, learn, share, challenge, be inspired and stimulate one another in a supportive environment. Fletcher, Lee and Black each presented their own discussion question, and participants were also given the chance to create posed further questions and create discussion groups.

Here is what they came up with:

1. How can we communicate providence to consumers?

2. International cooperation on ethical fashion

3. Raising awareness of organic cotton, and the impact on farmers

4. How do we get youth more involved?

5. How do we encourage behaviour change amongst consumers?

6. Scale-how big, how much? (Kate Fletcher)

7. How to get the media to be a driver for sustainable fashion? (Matilda Lee)

8. Design education-encouraging designers (Sandy Black)

9. How to bring ethics into fashion education internationally

Participants could move around and exchange ideas for a period of over two hours. To close the Open Space, a representative from each ‘talk’ presented key insights.

For those of you that weren’t following along on twitter, here are a few edited highlights that came out of the discussions.

  • What would happen if we could control scale in fashion?

             What about considering ‘Post-fashion stress disorder’?

             Fast fashion, can we raise awareness, similar to smoking bans?

             Can we change the discourse of fast fashion?

  • How can we communicate providence to consumers??

             Changing the discourse depending on who you’re speaking with:

             In some circles fashion is a bad word, so talk garment and apparel and clothing etc…

  • How to connect consumers to the cotton farmer?

             Spread the word, tell stories and stay focused.

  • Design educators encouraging designers:

             Make the experience real

             Connect the designer to the factory

             Make it exciting w/ different design strategies: design for disassembly, for example

What are your thoughts on these issues and questions? Feel free to leave a comment below!

WATCH// Nadira Lamrad on CSR in China’s Apparel Supply Chain

SA’s Nadira Lamrad presented her research, “CSR Trends in China’s Apparel Supply Chain,” at the FEI conference on March 2nd.

The workshop, titled “New Approaches in Education and Industry,” was chaired by industry consultant Maggie Burns, and speaking alongside Nadira was Dr. Matilda Tham, professor of fashion at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm. Tham’s presentation was titled “Lucky People Forecast Approach: How can education support engagement with systemic sustainable fashion futures?”

The workshop generated some interesting questions and concerns surrounding education in CSR, and we’re hoping we can keep the conversation going here, so be sure to leave any comments and questions below.

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

A Message from the NLC

Yesterday we posted a link on our Facebook Fan Page on the tragic factory fire in Bangladesh on Feb. 25th that killed 21 workers (mostly women) and injured 31 more.

Below is a message today from the National Labor Committee (NLC):

Urgent Action Alert

Please help.  No more needless and tragic deaths!

On the night of February 25, a fire broke out at the Garib & Garib sweater factory in Bangladesh, leaving 25 to 30 workers trapped in the pitch darkness on the 6th floor.  The emergency exit was locked and the other staircase was cluttered with bales of yarn and boxes.  The workers, 16 of them women, died of smoke inhalation.  Thirty-one workers on the lower floors were also injured.

The factory produces for H&M, Mark’s Work Wearhouse (Canada) and, according to H&M, Terenora of Italy and Zemman of Spain.

The workers are asking us to support their demands to the companies (attached) in order to guarantee the health and safety standards and labor rights will finally be respected.

For more information and photos go to the NLC’s website
   
Please help!  Send a letter to the companies

Source: NLC

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.