A 4-5 hour workshop designed for 3rd year fashion students at Falmouth Univesity to introduce them to sustainability concepts and their application in fashion and business. A very interactive session. Students were asked to bring examples of product heros – products, companies or designers that are doing something ‘sustainable’.

1. How to make a
difference in fashion?
October 2014
Nicola Millson
Falmouth University

2. Agenda
• Understand the landscape – So what?
• Useful creativity techniques - How do we think
differently?
• Mega challenges – How does this all apply?
• Reflection – Now what?

3. Challenge 1:
What makes these
garments special?

5. Patagonia
• We measured the environmental impacts of selected articles of
clothing and published them on The Footprint Chronicles®.
• We worked with an outside auditor and an in-house corporate
responsibility specialist to establish the working conditions and
pay for every person who sews a Patagonia garment.
• We learned how to make fleece jackets from recycled plastic
bottles and then how to make fleece jackets from fleece jackets.
• We examined our internal use of paper in catalogues, the sources
of our electricity, the amount of oil we consumed driving to work.
• We support employees with medical insurance, maternity and
paternity leave, subsidized child-care and paid internships with
non profit environmental groups.
• We gave one percent of sales to grassroots activists as part of our
effort to balance the impact we have on natural systems – and
to protect the world on which our business, employees, and
customers rely.
• Addressing the modern challenge of growth and consumption.
“Don’t Buy This Jacket.”

6. Rapanui
“Fashion is like no other medium, in that you
literally dress yourself in what you believe in.
Rapanui gives people a choice to vote with their
wallet for ethical fashion. We want to use the
power of fashion to make eco cool, and design
traceable, transparent products that let you
shop quickly with a conscience.”
• The business aims to make a genuine contribution to sustainability. Rapanui’s secret formula is in a question: “What if David Bowie
was an eco warrior?” After all, Bowie managed to convince millions of men to dye their hair, put on makeup and dress themselves in
high heels and tight trousers, It happened. That shows the power of fashion, its ability to change lifestyle, behaviour and buying actions.
Rapanui plans to use the same secret ingredient, the power of cool, to do some good.
• At Rapanui we design and make casualwear in line with the latest trends, but from more sustainable materials. We use ethically
accredited factories that are powered by wind and solar energy - and by using cutting edge 'eco-textiles' Rapanui creates products that
have a unique natural softness and feel when worn. The result is clothing that looks great, feels great and improves the world we live in.
• Whilst the organic, ethical and low carbon approach to our supply chain is important to us, our real contribution to sustainability has
come from our work towards traceability - basically making new ways to help consumers find out where clothing comes from, how it is
made, and therefore starting conversations between shoppers, brands and their suppliers. Using our trace mapping tool, at Rapanui
you can find out exactly where our products come from and how they were made: From the seed being sewn, picked, spun and
transported: It is traceability from seed to shop.
• We also realise that not everyone has time to trace the origins of every product they buy, so Rapanui is also working with UK MEPs to
develop a potentially industry-changing eco labelling system to summarise the detailed and often confusing information on clothes
packaging, and to make it easy for consumers to shop quickly with a conscience. This ability to make a quick informed choice is
something missing from, but entirely compatible with, the high street. It’s fast, easy and free – and it means that consumer buying
power works with sustainability. This work has gained national recognition in the press and at awards ceremonies.

7. Elvis and Kresse
• What can we do to prove value, change perception, and respect these resources?
• We must transform it, make it desirable or useful in and of itself; something you
would want even if it were not recycled, even without the ethics.
• We dream of a time without landfill, when everything is recycled or composted.
Between now and then we know there are far too many incredible materials that
will either languish under ground or suffer the indignity of incineration; when that
happens we lose, we lose quality, narrative, and the opportunity to do something
great. So we intercede, choosing story laden materials of incredible character, and
do everything we can to ensure their second life is as long as possible.

8. Who cares?
Why do we need to make a difference?
So what's wrong with fashion, anyway?

9. What can be done?

10. What is being done?

11. New Materials New Business Models New Mindsets
Puma Rice Husks
Fashion Rentals
From second
hand to
vintage
New Design New Social Consciousness New Consumerism
Ze o ze
modular shoes
Recycled and
special
employment
Built to last

12. Where do business
and sustainability
meet?

13. Business Model Canvas

14. Value Chain
Design Source Produce Distribute Retail Consume End of life
Design
Source
Produce
Retail Distribute
End of life
Consume

15. Challenge 2:
Arrange your product
heros against one of these
two frameworks:
What is missing?
What else could be done?
What are the limitations of each framework?

16. Where is the biggest impact?

17. Systems Change
• Numbers: Use less chemicals
• The size of buffers: Only produce where there is lots of
water
• Infrastructure: Divert polluted water to a cleaning plant
• Length of delays: Allow time for lake to recover from
pollution
• Information flow: Measure amount of pollution
• Rules of the system: Incentives, punishment, constraints
• Power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system
structure: New collaborations
• Goal of the system: Get rid of dye vs protect the lake
• Mindset: Business is more important that nature
• Transcend paradigms: Natural fabrics
*Example: Releasing chemical dyes into the lake

18. Challenge 3:
Arrange any 6
ideas in order of
impact

19. Examples
• System: Swishing, Re-use, Re-cycling, Up-cycling, Closed loop
• Organisation: Fashion revolution, Ethical Fashion Forum, Fair
Trade, Fashion Future Awards
• Measures: Materials Sustainability Index
• Process: Transparency, less washing, plusminusnoll (no pre-production),
people tree, who made my pants
• Materials: Organic, chemicals, catalytic clothing
• Business Models: Mud Jeans
• Mind-sets: Look behind the label, Who made your clothes,
London Fashion Week, Longevity (Stewart and Brown)
• Paradigm: Don’t buy this jacket, Viviene Westwood – law
against ecocide, reduce mass production

20. How do we think differently?

21. 4 creativity techniques
Steal
• Food packaging – potato starch
• Printer /car assembly - modular
Trends
• Wearable technology – powerful
clothing
• 3d printing – less waste
• Transparency – clear relationships
• Natural fibres
Look backwards
• Nettles used – natural fabrics
• No zips - dematerialisation
Think like nature
• Shark skin
• Cradle to cradle
• Longevity

22. Think like Nature
Closed loop supply chain
Cradle to cradle design
Renewable materials
No toxins
Collaborative models
Efficiencies built in

23. Mega-challenges!
Challenge1:
• A delivery company is getting rid of 10 000 uniforms to landfill. How
could you divert this waste and create something valuable?
Challenge 2:
• I’ve been invited to present at the global eco-fashion awards. I need
a dress. Please can you create one with consideration to the
environmental and social impact it may have throughout its total
life span
Challenge 3:
• You have been appointed to reform the fashion industry in the UK
to be more sustainable – what would you do?

24. 10 minute presentation
• Evaluate on:
– Holistic view of sustainability
– Use of four creativity techniques
– Impact

25. Reflections
• What did you find most interesting?
• Where was your thinking challenged?
• What have you learnt?
• What will you do differently?