Even with the success of the organic cotton program at Sam's Club, sustainable fashion has seen slow adoption among main street consumers. How can we change this?
As an educator, I see education as one answer. Many colleges and universities are starting to include sustainable practices and principles in their curriculum. Summer Rayne Oaks, thinks we should start even earlier. In Selling Eco-Fashion on Main Street, published in Future Fashion White Papers, 2007, she briefly mentions her 13 lesson sustainable fashion curriculum that can be incorporated into traditional K-12 school subjects.
Being from Philadelphia, I was pleased to read about a pilot program that was introduced into the curriculum in select schools in Philadelphia in late 2005. Rayne hoped to encourage the next generation of designers and consumers to think about sustainability early on. EcoFashion 101 included the incorporation of sustainability issues in the areas of: geography, biology, chemistry, family and consumer sciences, history, social studies, world cultures, economics, english, mathematics, and more. I applaud Rayne for her work in this area. I would like to see some follow up on program. Visits to Rayne's web sites and google searches find very little information on this important contribution. Sadly, a click on EcoFashion 101 leads to a suspended page message.
We lag behind our European counterparts in these efforts. At a conference I attended in Northern Ireland in June 2006, I met representatives of the Consumer Council who have developed curricula (lesson plans available for download) to develop educated consumers from childhood on including shopping, fair trade and sustainability. In addition, they sponsor youth competitions and provide resources for youth on their website.
Teaching children about fashion production from fiber to finished product is certainly one way to raise awareness about many of the issues involved - environmental destruction, human health and fair trade practices. If these issues are consistently presented to children, they may be better equipped to make more environmentally sound choices and perhaps influence the purchasing decisions of their parents.
till next week --Restore, Refresh, Recycle and Renew
12 comments:
I agree that sustainability and eco-friendly practices should be taught earlier in our school programs. I think education has definitely increased in just the past few years, but there is still not enough emphasis on it. I know that just in the last few years at Drexel, my instructors and courses have been including green education more and more since I began. Knowing that I will be going into the workforce in less than a year, I know that this is an issue that is going to greatly affect my generation and the way we practice business forever. If a business ignores this movement or doesn't have employees that are educated about sustainability, the employer and employee will both lose and not adapt while others do. I feel that it's vital for future generations to be educated about this in relation to all subjects, so as they grow up and when they begin working, they are up to date with environment concerns and solutions just as my generation is beginning to learn. This will educate and affect older generations in return, which is a win-win for all. I think it's great that people like Rayne are making attempts to increase this education, this is a concern that affects the entire world and we should working together globally to educate our youth.
This is a great idea! I absolutely agree that teaching children the importance of sustainability at young age will make them better equipped to design and make decisions that will benefit and help save our environment. The media and other sources make the information about environmentally friendly products, services and issue readily available but, it is hard to determine what is really good for our environment and what could be a marketing scheme. To have a teacher explain these ideas correctly will be very informative and could open up ideas for new career possibilities for students. My generation is just learning about these issues so all the info out there is like overload and many of us either don't take the issues seriously, or find it hard to incorporate all these ideas in our lives. Older generations may have a similar issue where they are set in their ways already and are not interested in changing the way they have been doing things for years. For younger generations, being taught all the environmental issues going on today and how they can change things will be easy fro them to adjust to and they will have it instilled in them from an early age. They can then teach future generations and hopefully make the world much better.
I think that lessons of sustainability should be taught starting at a very young age so that this concept is better understood and practiced. If these ‘green’ lessons including environmental footprints and fair-trade are taught early on in education and throughout the learning process, then I think we all have a better chance of living a sustainable life. Not only is this practice good for the upcoming generation but also for those who can catch on by their example. Concepts of sustainability are slowly coming into focus throughout universities as well. For example, I have noticed that Drexel University raises awareness and concern about conserving water, energy, and recycling. Although these changes are great, I think there needs to be more emphasis on consumerism. I appreciate that this post mentions how both the designer and consumer are working together to create and buy clothes in a more sustainable fashion. I like to think that “it takes two to tango” and without the designer’s own concern about producing eco-friendly clothing, then what options do they consumers really have? Other than clothing, consumers need to be aware of other products such as food, electronics, furniture, etc. All of these products have an impact on our environment these factors should be known to everyone. If we are educated, we will learn to ask questions before impulsively buying products so that we may make better decisions for ourselves and the environment.
I really like the idea of teaching sustainability at a young age. I think it would be more than appropriate to even start lessons and fun projects as young as Pre School and day care aged programs. There is no reason not to educate the younger generations because it will only help the ongoing issues that we are all dealing with currently. Reading this article immediately triggered a mental note of all the recycling programs that they do offer in public schools. However I feel that I only hear about these programs around Earth Day. I am sure that they teach classes and do projects around the school year, but I do not hear about them. If a school was to start small and just do a fashion sustainability project around Earth Day I would say that it would help. Every little bit helps! Especially when it’s a topic that can be brought home to discuss with parents and to tell their friends about. This is a subject that can be taught by very young children on their age level. I say it’s an excellent idea and program which will hopefully be full blast in all schools soon!
Restore, Refresh, Recycle and Renew
I like that!
I agree that teaching sustainability at a younger age is a great idea. I think that this type of education needs to really expand its reach into more suburban and rural areas. The green notion is much more apparent here in Philadelphia, and definitely in New York when I was there, however I think we may be failing to see it in areas that I am originally from. Obviously green products are out there, but it is not stressed nearly as much as it is here. Almost everyday there is something in the city local newspapers dealing with this issue, but when I go home I would have to really put on a search for it. I know for a fact it carbon imprinting or environmental issues are not being taught to my younger sisters at school. I think we're doing a lot to get the word out there, but I think it definitely needs to be taken further than the city lines.
Teaching students about lifestyle changes during early childhood is very important. Growing up I was taught about recycling in school, but learned nothing beyond the concept. Recycling is something that was engrained in me from my teachers and leaders in various sports and clubs. This was important for me because I just grew up learning the concept. Recycling comes naturally to my family and me. Teaching kids about the eco-friendly lifestyle now, will allow them to address the problems of our futures.
I first recognized the connection between fashion and the environment last year at Heather Iwanow’s presentation. As part of the new generation in the fashion industry I found her talk to be extremely inspirational. However it is sad that it took eighteen years for me to learn about environmental and social detriment stimulated by the industry. I agree that this is significant when thinking about my future occupation in the field but I think it is also critically important for consumers to beware of the concept of eco-fashion. The priorities when shopping need to encompass more than the typical price, color and size. Now consumers need to learn the importance of environmentally and socially just products as well as the proper way to find these products. I agree that this should start in elementary school programs and should be incorporated in the Family Consumer Sciences classes (Home Economics) in middle and high schools. Hopefully as our generation ages we will be able to teach our children from the perspective of parents. Teaching conscience consumption at a young age will allow the extra effort to become second nature, and shopping ethically will become a habit.
Teaching sustainability at a young age is a great way to get kids into the routine of considering these benefits while they shop. This will change the way people shop for clothes as the years go on, and will change the way companies decide to make and market their clothes. Its true, when we started our education at Drexel, sustainability was hardly the topic of conversation in class. Now, within the past year it seems to come up in every class, and is considered a lot more in decisions and conversations. Even after the recent talkings of eco-friendliness, I still feel like I have only touched the surface on what can be done to help the environment. I would like to learn more about it and I'm sure I will as my education continues.
Sustainability and the concept of being eco-friendly should absolutely be taught to children while in their youth! Children desire for knowledge more than any other age level. This is the most crucial time to teach them about the most important things in life. If taught green education at a young age, they will have at least a background knowledge in keeping environmentally friendly in their futures. My younger brother, who is now in 6th grade, knows to recycle, but he has no idea why or what that means--he just knows to put certain items in a blue bin instead of the other ones. I think that they should be taught about the production of just about anything and everything in life. Why not know where things come from? They should be taught about, like you said, the production of fabric and garments and the destruction of the environment through that process, the production of hard materials, the production of chemically produced products, etc. This is relative to the rest of their lives and will affect their health and lives overall. It is absolutely a great idea to teach children these concepts as education is always the key to knowing what can affect or will affect the future.
Our youth is the future, so I feel it is cruicial to inform our children of the many possibilities and alternatives to the clothing industry. If things are taught at an early age, they become mainstream and a part of their lives. To this day I know to recycle and still know that earth day is on April 22 every year. The only thing I can remember being taught as a child involving fibers was when we learned about the 1700’s and how they made their own clothes. If they only they related it to present day issues and the process of starting with fibers and growing into a finished product. While it should be incorporated into the school systems, it also should be encouraged by the parents. By integrating this issue into many aspects of a child’s life, it would prove to stick with the child as they grow up.
I love how this ties real-world impact to school subjects. I remember zoning out in high school science, but if we were talking about sustainable fashion or practical applications like this, I might have cared more. Honestly, balancing meaningful education and workload is hard—sometimes I wish someone could take my online class for me so I could focus more on passion projects like sustainable design.
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