The Importance Of Sustainability
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Dr. Brown, why is it so important
00:08 to embed sustainability within the fashion and design
00:12 curriculum for this next generation of designers?
00:17 I think what's important about all the conversation today
00:21 is that we are educating and preparing
00:25 the next generation of the leaders of all these companies
00:30 and all these practices.
00:32 And we open the conversation, but they come to the table.
00:38 These young people today really have such a keen awareness.
00:43 It's a different moment in history.
00:47 I don't know that it's fair to say it's been slow,
00:53 because it's a process.
00:54 You see it in various ways that people
00:57 have to adjust their lives.
00:59 So what gives me hope is that we will take the enthusiasm
01:05 and the motivation and the interest
01:08 that these young people have, and we
01:11 will help them to understand the various levels of business
01:15 that we talked about earlier.
01:17 I mean, it really does have to be all part of a whole.
01:20 And it's got to be in our curriculum,
01:24 and it's got to be touching on both design and business
01:28 and the environment and the impact
01:30 and the overall sociocultural effect of design and fashion.
01:36 So we've talked about individuals and the power
01:42 at the community level.
01:43 Saad, how do you motivate big companies
01:47 with super large platforms to get
01:50 involved in this conversation around sustainability?
01:53 I also tell companies a lot that whether you want to change
01:56 or not, you have to, because the reality of the situation
02:00 is climate change is occurring.
02:03 And so there is the ability to prepare in advance
02:07 and to help communities, particularly communities
02:10 of color, all across the world and prevent them
02:13 from suffering immense loss and damage.
02:16 There is also a world in which we act retroactively.
02:20 We let people die.
02:22 We let land be lost.
02:23 We see people suffer.
02:27 And we are right now at a point where
02:29 we're able to make those choices.
02:30 What world do we want to enter?
02:33 And so I think that companies have a need to take action now,
02:40 as well as the fact that I think policies are already
02:43 being implemented.
02:44 They're already on the table, whether it be the Fashion
02:46 Act or Fabric Act here in the United States
02:49 or the new sustainability regulations that
02:51 are popping up in Europe.
02:53 Companies are going to have to change.
02:54 And so there either is the reality
02:56 that they can do it in advance and be seen as a leader
02:59 or be struggling to catch up and become irrelevant
03:03 to the new consumer dynamics and the new reality of our planet
03:06 that we're facing right now.
03:08 We also know, speaking of climate change,
03:11 that sustainability and climate change are linked.
03:14 That's a fact.
03:16 Sometimes these communities are not speaking with one another.
03:20 How can we mentor these separate communities
03:25 to come together to really forge the way forward?
03:29 I think the key and the name of the game
03:31 here is intersectionality.
03:33 It is understanding that each of these things
03:35 don't exist in silos.
03:37 I think there's the reality that there are all these inputs
03:41 into fashion that directly impact our climate,
03:43 whether that be land use, whether that be agriculture,
03:46 as well as the outputs of the fashion industry,
03:49 including the physical waste of the whole system,
03:52 as well as the carbon outputs, et cetera, that we see.
03:56 So in many ways, I think that when
03:58 we're talking about fashion, we're also having
04:00 a conversation about climate.
04:02 It's just we have been taught to think of these things
04:05 as separate and that I think a climate activist versus a
04:10 fashion activist, to me, what's the difference?
04:12 Probably just the outfit.
04:16 And so I think that as we have these conversations
04:19 about how they're related, it's the reality
04:22 that the fashion industry is expected to grow
04:25 by about 63% by 2030.
04:29 Now for a company, that sounds great.
04:31 However, for a global reality of the climate crisis,
04:35 where the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel
04:38 on Climate Change, tells us that we need
04:40 to reduce our emissions in half in that same timeframe,
04:44 now you have a contradiction.
04:45 Now you have a conversation.
04:47 And now you have a need for these companies
04:49 to bring real solutions to the table
04:52 so as to not compromise the reality of the planet
04:56 that we're living in.
04:58 Going off of that, how has education
05:02 evolved and changed in your years working
05:06 in the fashion sector?
05:08 I keep saying you shouldn't make any decisions anywhere
05:10 without a 20-something in the room
05:12 because I really do think the thought process is
05:15 different, the recognition, the awareness.
05:18 And we've started a whole new area
05:21 that we call biodesign, where you have
05:23 the scientists and the designers.
05:25 And for the most part, what they're doing
05:28 is they're developing new and natural kinds of textiles.
05:34 In the beauty and also the food world,
05:38 there's been a call for so much transparency.
05:40 I don't think fashion has really caught up so much yet.
05:44 How do you empower people to ask hard questions
05:48 about the clothes they're wearing
05:50 or what they're consuming and purchasing
05:53 as an activist and a mentor?
05:56 I think that when it comes to the industries of food
06:00 or beauty, it's something that I think we more directly
06:02 understand as I'm putting this on my body.
06:05 I'm putting this in my body.
06:06 And so there's this inherent desire
06:09 to be more aware about what chemicals
06:11 those things are composed of.
06:13 Clothes are the same thing.
06:15 And so when we are having these conversations in the fashion
06:19 industry, I think it's really important
06:21 that we recognize that paradigm.
06:24 And when we're talking about mentorship,
06:26 I think that it's so essential to have
06:28 sort of intergenerational dialogues,
06:30 because I think that there's so much wisdom that we stand
06:33 to gain from listening to older generations.
06:36 I think the whole notion of mentoring
06:39 and the mindset of mentoring--
06:43 I mean, what is it?
06:43 It's a collaboration.
06:45 It's not an instruction.
06:48 It's a respectful relationship where
06:52 everybody learns a little something from each other.
06:55 And the whole notion of teamwork,
06:58 you see it in successful businesses.
07:00 We try and develop that in the academic models,
07:03 because that's what we're sending students out into.
07:07 But I think there are two things.
07:10 One, I think the whole collaboration,
07:13 the team, the listening respectfully and incorporating
07:18 those ideas into what we put out as reflective of the times
07:24 we live in and what we think will be successful.
07:26 But the other thing I think I would like to say
07:28 is the whole notion of the speed with which these things can
07:32 happen.
07:34 If you think back, the whole farm to table,
07:37 the whole natural ingredients in food
07:42 and not having additives, if you think back
07:45 to beauty and the packaging and the ingredients,
07:48 these things all took time.
07:50 And we're talking about them now as if it's just
07:53 part of the norm.
07:54 I think the same thing is happening with fashion.
07:57 I think the whole awareness of the production,
08:02 the use of textile, the use of water, the use of dyes,
08:06 all of those things that are important to young people
08:09 are happening.
08:10 And they're happening at the pace
08:12 that we can produce something for that informed, empowered
08:16 consumer to purchase.
08:19 But it's all changing.
08:21 I think if we have this conversation,
08:23 somebody asked before about five years from now,
08:26 I think it's going to be a different conversation.
08:28 I have to ask you both.
08:29 What makes you optimistic about the future of fashion?
08:35 I think I'm someone who approaches these issues
08:38 knowing that they can change, because they have to,
08:41 but because I know that we can make them change.
08:44 Just the week before last week, I
08:46 was with thousands of climate strikers
08:48 marching through New York, taking over the Brooklyn Bridge
08:52 and demanding larger, substantial, structural
08:55 changes.
08:56 And when I see that type of energy and that type
09:00 of tenacity from people to actually get out
09:03 in the streets and organize and mobilize en masse,
09:06 I know change can happen.
09:07 I know change is coming.
09:09 And we're here to deliver it.
09:11 And every single institution, whether it
09:13 is a company, a government, a university,
09:17 I think they're all starting to understand--
09:20 and some have understood for a long time--
09:22 the need and ability and influence that they have.
09:26 And so that's what gives me hope,
09:28 is knowing that people are already on it
09:31 and change is on the way.
09:32 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:35 (upbeat music)
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