Project investigates sustainability innovation

STUDENTS from MMU’s Hollings faculty will be taking part in an international project looking at sustainable innovation.

The Department of Apparel is teaming up with Buffalo State College, the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology for the Connect Project, which takes a global perspective on sustainability.

A student and a member of staff from each institution will travel to England, the US, China and Australia to take part in a three day series of industry visits and discussion with experts on sustainable innovation in each location.

From MMU, the participants will be lecturer Nick Hall and student Anna Smolovyk.

“Style in my city”

Anna will be presenting an overview of “style in my city”, while Nick will be discussing fashion consumption in the UK.

The project website, http://connect.hollings.mmu.ac.uk, will go live when the project is launched in Buffalo on March 5th 2015. During the project, information about sustainable innovation will be uploaded onto the Connect web page by all four universities, creating a great resource for all students.

The UK leg of the project will take place from March 9 to March 11, ending the day after Hollings’ Big Issue 3 – What’s Next? Conference, which will feature top experts from industry and academia around the world, including Industry Head of Retail at Google Neil Dulake and sustainability expert Sass Brown, Associate Dean of Fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.

Nick and Anna will then continue on to Beijing and Melbourne to give their presentations there.

Inspiring students

Jane Ledbury, Principal Lecturer in the Department of Apparel, said: “The Connect Project aims to inspire student enquiry and generate lasting concern about the current and future impacts of our global apparel industry.

“The project will enable students to conduct research and, in an international forum, share and develop ideas for innovative solutions to the social and environmental challenges which drive the need for change towards a more sustainable industry.

“Students will communicate with their peers across borders and cultures in order to experience and appreciate diversity in cross-cultural perspectives on social, environmental and economic concern.

“The Connect Forum will accumulate a rich global perspective on sustainable innovation. The real-time development of this unique archive of information and resources will be available to all partner universities and provide a platform for ongoing collaboration.”

Question Time

Designer Orsola de Castro, the founder of recycled clothing line From Somewhere, was so impressed when she heard about the project that she invited another MMU lecturer, Zoe Hitchen, to take part in Fashion Question Time at the Houses of Parliament on February 26.

The event will be chaired by renowned sustainability journalist Lucy Siegel, and will look at how the industry can move forward on key issues around fashion sustainability