Fashion Takes Action

“Fast fashion” has changed how people buy clothing by encouraging consumers to replace clothing constantly. This trend has had devastating environmental and social impacts, especially in countries that produce cheap textiles. Public and consumer awareness about these impacts, and alternatives to this model of disposability, is lagging. Young people – especially girls and women – are key for changing this, since they are disproportionately targeted as fashion consumers. Whether they adopt fast fashion, or lead sustainable alternatives, matters. 

Our solution is a program of educational workshops for students aged 8-17 called My Clothes, My World that empowers students to reduce the environmental impacts of the fashion industry by transitioning to a circular economy. This program is locally successful, but we want to digitize our educational modules to expand internationally. Scaling up our key demographic of North American youth will have global ramifications in the economy of fashion, potentially affecting millions.

The global fashion industry is one the primary drivers behind the climate crisis. Approximately 85% of all consumer owned textiles go directly into
landfills despite 95% being recyclable or reusable. The frenzied consumption of fast fashion has contributed to massive increases of textile waste in North American landfills, which is now one of the fastest growing waste streams and only expected to increase.

Between 5% and 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and methane) now come from the production,transportation and consumption of clothing. For every 1 kg of textiles discarded in landfills, approximately 4 kg of CO2 is produced. And given that the average person contributes approximately 36 kg of textile waste to landfills each year, the total amount of CO2 produced by consumer textile waste in North America alone is around 10.5 billion tonnes (based on a population of 526 million).

My Clothes, My World is a learning module directed at students aged 8-17, educating youth on the social and environmental impacts of their apparel habits, while also giving them opportunities to take on leadership roles in their community to organize events that minimize textile waste. My Clothes, My World aims to create the climate leaders of tomorrow and spark the transition to a circular economy. 

The fashion industry relies on global structures of trade that exponentially creates unfair living conditions and environmental degradation in countries that produce “low cost” clothing; it is also on of the top 5 polluting industries in the world. Because textiles are typically produced in impoverished countries with underpaid workers and insufficient or non-existent environmental protections, this program is also directed at the millions of overseas workers who are exploited by the fashion industry. By creating cultural resistance to fast fashion and exploitative textile trade in North America, we hope to reduce the social and environmental impact of fashion in those countries that produce apparel.

My Clothes, My World is an existing education module that provides workshops tailored to support existing curricula to teachers. Currently, facilitators support teachers to host several workshops throughout the school year that educate students on the social and environmental impacts of the fast fashion industry and how their consumer choices affect this production. These workshops culminate in student-led events like second-hand fashion shows, clothing swaps, and other events that give students practice organizing around environmental issues and advocating for a cultural shift to circular consumer habits.

My Clothes, My World is currently wildly successful locally, but by making a digital e-learning module of the workshop we can deploy it across North America, letting teachers across Canada and the United States run our workshops without the use of local facilitators. The more students we can engage with our message of environmental responsibility and leadership, the more we can lessen the harmful impacts of the global fast fashion industry and streamline the transition to a circular economy. 

My Clothes, My World is a proven tool that has changed how roughly 14,000 students see their relationship to clothing, the environment, and social responsibility. Creating an e-learning module will help scale that success internationally. Changing the fashion industry requires a critical mass of consumers who refuse to buy cheap clothing produced in unfair, environmentally harmful contexts, instead participating in circular economies; if we can meaningfully affect demand, supply will decrease. 

One tool that we have already developed for My Clothes, My World is the “Impact Dashboard,” an interactive tool that students can use to measure their global carbon impact and the reduced emissions that follow from adopting “The 7R's of Fashion Climate Change Action Program.” FCCAP aims to inspire seven concrete actions that contribute to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions: reducing consumption and laundry habits; reusing clothing through donations, swaps, and creative styling; recycling fabrics into new materials; repurposing garments into new items; researching brands to become wise consumers; repairing clothes to extend their life and renting (or borrowing) outfits for single use events as part of the circular economy. By giving students a chance to actively measure the CO2 and methane they are preventing from being released into the atmosphere, we empower them to adopt habits that depend upon circularity.

My Clothes, My World innovates by targeting an emerging but underappreciated issue at its most crucial demographic. 

By working with students, My Clothes, My World is educating those who are most likely to engage in fast fashion about the impacts of this incredibly harmful trend. Young people – especially girls and women – are a key market demographic for the fashion industry. They are disproportionately targeted and courted as fashion consumers. Also, it is comparatively easier to change the consumption habits of young people compared with older cohorts. Students are more likely to care about growing and interlinked environmental and social problems. We can help them connect the dots between the livable futures they want, the consequences of fast fashion, and the everyday ways they relate to clothing. By changing how young people perceive and use clothing, our innovation is to tackle the problem of fast fashion by disrupting and changing the culture that trend relies on.

Educational e-learning modules are an existing technology, but we are creating one that engages young people in innovative ways; for example through the use of tools like the Impact Dashboard, which help bridge the disconnect between large, global problems and the individual actions of students. Using this and other teaching approaches in our modules, My Clothes, My World educates students on the impacts of their decisions and encourages them to create a culture incorporating the circular economy, and is thus directed at the problems of both today and tomorrow.

Our solution is to create an e-learning module that will allow teachers in schools across North America to autonomously run My Clothes, My World workshops with remote support from Fashion Takes Action. 

My Clothes, My World consists of a number of day workshops, proposed projects and teacher resource kits that participating schools can opt into for a nominal fee. Currently those workshops are run by contract facilitators, but by creating online modules and multimedia resources we can minimize the amount of hands-on facilitation while maximizing the reach of this already successful educational effort. 

One technological tool that we have already developed is the Impact Dashboard. This dashboard aggregates the cumulative weight of diverted clothes and the corresponding mitigation of CO2 emissions. To date, 70 schools have used the Impact Dashboard, diverting more than 17,000 kg of clothes from landfill, which equates to the diversion of approximately 68,000 kg of CO2 emissions. This interactive dashboard gives students the opportunity to measure their class’s success against other schools, giving them a tangible sense of their own impact while creating a feeling of friendly competition and community effort.

North American consumption is the driving force behind fast fashion and the global environmental and labor justice impacts of the fashion industry. This continues to be the case because it is easy to remain ignorant of the impacts of how one shops for clothing. 

Our project is to educate children and young people are commonly targeted by the fashion industry as consumers of fast fashion in order to make them aware of their own impact and empower them to become active climate leaders and advocates for the circular economy themselves. 

In other words, our theory of change is that if young people are made more aware of the harmful consequences of fast fashion, shown how alternatives are possible, and enabled to measure the impacts of their own choices, then they will change their behavior and what they think is possible in how they relate to clothing. If a critical mass is reached, this will create a shift in culture and therefore also market demand within a key demographic, thereby creating incentives for the fashion industry to adjust its practices. 

However, reaching this critical mass would also mean creating a cohort of North Americans who are themselves already doing things differently and more sustainably by participating in a circular economy. Their own leadership, which we are investing in developing, could in turn create new and unforeseen innovations, exponentially magnifying the impact of this movement.

In the last five years, the My Clothes, My World program has currently reached more than 14,000 students in Ontario, Canada through our in-class workshops. With digitization, we can scale our reach much wider and quicker. We don’t expect our reach to greatly increase in the first year because it will be in this time that we develop the e-learning module. However, over the next 5 years we intend to educate more than 25,000 elementary, middle, and high school students throughout North America. And our ten year plan aims to reach 1,000,000 students.

Our long-term goal aims to empower and educate a generation of students who are conscious of the social and environmental impact of their apparel choices. This groundswell will have an exponential effect on the transition to circular economies, mitigate against the toxic environmental impact of fast fashion, while also decreasing our dependency on the widespread exploitation of global textile workers. Our Fashion is global. We believe our compassion must be too.

Our goal within the next year is to create a digital, e-learning module version of our successful in-class educational workshop My Clothes, My World. Over the last five years this workshop has taught 14,000 students in Ontario about the social and environmental impacts of the fashion industry and how they can change that. By digitizing the module we can bring this proven strategy to classrooms across Canada and the US, including in under-served urban, rural, and indigenous communities. 

Our long-term goal is to help create a culture where fast fashion and similarly destructive economic models are unthinkable. fast fashion flourishes in part because consumers are broadly unaware of just how harmful these practices are, and how easy it is to participate in alternatives. My Clothes, My World addresses this ignorance by giving young people the tools to generate a culture that rejects disposable apparel and the global structures of inequality that it creates.

The impacts of the global textile industry are driven by consumption in wealthy countries but have manifold impacts across the world. Educating consumers on the impacts of fast fashion and encouraging them to participate in sustainable alternatives has an incredible impact across global structures of labor and environmental degradation.

By digitizing our wildly successful education program we aim to disrupt and transform the negative social and environmental impacts of the fast fashion industry and create the climate leaders of tomorrow. Fashion is the point of departure. The circular economy is our solution.

The primary challenge for the next year is the process of digitizing the My Clothes, My World workshop in the first place. 

Part of the success of My Clothes, My World in Ontario has been our ability to research and adapt the program to the Ontario curriculum, making it easy for teachers to incorporate the unit into their classes.

The research we have already done on the Ontario curriculum is an excellent starting point in crafting a unit that will be broadly applicable throughout North America, but additional research is necessary to create a module to fit the needs of our users. 

Another point that we will need to address is user experience. Shifting our facilitator-led, in-classroom model to a digital e-learning module requires creating a product that is easy-to-use, intuitive and stable. Creating a great UX for a digital My Clothes, My World is absolutely possible but will require working with great designers and collecting important user data. 

We will also need to actively market My Clothes, My World to teachers throughout North America. There are a plethora of e-learning modules on the market, but we have the advantage of addressing a very pressing, contemporary issue from an angle that many students will find engaging; the fashion industry has devastating social and environmental impacts but it is also a topic that many young people are personally invested in. We have a competitive product that does great work; we need to make teachers and school administrations aware of it.

We have been collecting surveys from participants in My Clothes, My World since the beginning of the program in order to better understand and serve their user experiences and create quantifiable data for the workshop’s improvement. This will give us an excellent starting point for developing an e-learning version of My Clothes, My World. 

Once we are able to secure funds for the development of the e-learning module, we will contract UX and web developers who will help to translate our existing classroom activities and resources into digital assets. 

We will collect user data and surveys on the use of the workshops in order to further develop and improve the e-learning module by incorporating surveys into the assets themselves. 

Of course, marketing is an on-going problem that the Fashion Takes Action team will continually address and improve, but by working closely with educators and administrators we hope to continue the success and positive word-of-mouth we’ve seen in Ontario throughout North America.

Fashion Takes Action operates on a contract basis, including for our Executive Director. We have two regular staff and seven individuals on the board of directors, as well as a team of 9 freelancers and 8 volunteers who are personally invested in minimizing the global social and environmental injustice of the fashion industry. 

The team that would specifically have charge of the My Clothes, My World program would consist of three people: our Executive Director Kelly Drennan, our Education Outreach Coordinator Jennifer Petursson and our Lead Researcher Michael Fraser.

Kelly Drennan, the Executive Director and founder of Fashion Takes Action, will lead this project. Determined to make fashion circular, Kelly is responsible for convening the Ontario Textile Diversion Collaborative, with more than 40 stakeholders committed to increasing the rate of textile diversion, while unlocking local solutions for reuse and recycling. A recognized leader for environmentalism in the fashion industry, Kelly has a background in PR, Communications and Events. She produces the annual World Ethical Apparel Roundtable (WEAR) which began in 2014, and is a sought-after consultant for fashion designers and brands who want to embrace sustainability and environmentalism.

Jennifer Petursson is our Education Outreach Coordinator and will be responsible for helping develop the e-learning modules according to the needs of new curricula. Having overseen the delivery of My Clothes, My World Jennifer is especially suited to advance its digitization.

Michael Fraser, who will be the lead researcher for this project, has a graduate education from the University of Victoria in political science. He has 10+ years working with ENGO’s as a researcher, and has particular expertise in the politics of climate change.

Lauren B Fay is the founder and Executive Director of The New Fashion Initiative (TNFI), a US-based non-profit 501c3 that influences policy to reduce fast fashion's environmental harms and improve its social impact. With the passion to push for change and an ability to build partnerships with other non-profits and organizations, Lauren and TNFI are changing the fashion industry for the better.

Fashion Takes Action has worked with more than 600 brands, designers, and retailers in an effort to shift the way our clothes are made, and raise the awareness of consumers through events, campaigns, educational programs, and social media. 

My Clothes, My World has been developed in conjunction with Ontario Schools and funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation who have offered us material support and guidance in maximizing our impact. 

Fashion Takes Action also convenes the Ontario Textile Diversion Collaborative (OTDC), an independent network of 40 stakeholders who bring together municipalities, academics, brand owners, retailers and industry organizations, NGOs, textile collectors, and charities who are committed to reducing the amount of textiles going into landfill by making sure textiles are appropriately recycled, upcycled, reused, and repurposed. The digitization of My Clothes, My World continues FTA and OTDC’s history of creative cross-sector collaboration and engaging projects to reduce waste, implement circular economies, and create sustainable cities and communities.

Fashion Takes Action is a non-profit organization and its business model reflects that. My Clothes, My World is designed to serve teachers and students, providing an engaging and informative educational workshop that can be easily adapted into existing curricula. We work closely with teachers to create educational and leadership opportunities for young students aged 8-17, and especially young women, in this workshop. We constantly seek input from participants and implement said feedback into the structure of our workshops to ensure that its structure is driven by the needs of youth, while also modelling circularity in our programming.

Currently, My Clothes, My World is a successful flagship workshop operating within Ontario school districts with contract facilitators aiding teachers to bring this experience to their students. By creating a digital e-learning module of My Clothes, My World we can expand the market for this product to include the rest of Canada, the United States, and under-served regions that would not otherwise have this kind of opportunity. 

Our funding model is based on a diverse set of grants; while we do charge a nominal fee to participate in the workshop, offering it at a price that would cover its costs would make it prohibitive for many classrooms.

In part, My Clothes, My World operates under a “fee for service” model, charging a nominal fee to schools that wish to use the workshop. However, because Fashion Takes Action in invested in providing opportunities to schools across socio-economic backgrounds this cannot be the only way that the project is funded; high fees would prove prohibitive for lower-income schools. For this reason Fashion Takes Action has sought funding for My Clothes, My World from various sources. 

Relying on grants does come with certain risks if funding from donors falls through. However, these risks are mitigated by financial planning, ENGO network support, a secure communications strategy, and by diversifying our granting portfolio. One way we are diversifying is by becoming a Tides Canada project, which means we will receive a charitable number, giving us the ability to apply for foundation grants. 

Another benefit to digitizing My Clothes, My World is that once the e-learning module is established it will actually reduce operating costs by obviating the need for contract facilitators. 

Fashion Takes Action is, and will remain, a non-profit. Our primary goal for My Clothes, My World is to educate students on their social and climate impacts and responsibilities while empowering them to become active climate leaders themselves. My Clothes, My World is one project among many for Fashion Takes Action, which means this unit does not have to provide the organization’s wages to remain financially stable.

Reducing the impact of the fashion industry is a major task that requires collaboration from many innovators. Our goal is to intervene in school systems and prepare the climate leaders of tomorrow by introducing them to the impacts of their garment consumption as well as the kinds of circular alternatives against supporting the devastating impacts of fast fashion. 

By becoming a Solve Team, Fashion Takes Action would be part of a broader network of innovators who are committed to tackling similar problems; the ability to bring solutions like BraLET and “Mine of Textiles,” (two notable Solve teams attempting to address the pollution and injustice of the fashion industry), we would be able to inspire students with the kind of disruptive thinking that fuels change. 

We are not interested in training students into a prescriptive methodology of how to “be green” - we want to give them opportunities to think about and transform their own impacts and bring about innovative circular solutions of their own. Being in touch with other Solve teams who could potentially bring their solutions to a new generation of innovators would be an exciting way to demonstrate that change requires commitment, creativity and a network of effort across the globe.

We are currently working to partner with the New Fashion Initiative in New York City, to break ground in the US, and are always looking to build relationships with other ethical fashion organizations across the world. 

As we mentioned above, there are several Solve teams that are taking active steps to reduce the impacts of the textile industry; we would be excited to partner with any such organization.

My Clothes, My World’s project of bringing social and environmental justice to the fashion industry is deeply entwined with women’s issues. 

Women are disproportionately represented in textile factories, comprising 90% of the garment workforce in some countries and the majority in all countries where textiles are a major export. Many of those factories operate under sweatshop conditions with 14-16 hour workdays, and many of those workers are also children or teenagers who cannot afford to go to school while barely making subsistence wages. These conditions will only continue if demand for low-cost, disposable clothing continues. 

Young women are also disproportionately targeted as fashion consumers. We therefore believe that framing the crisis of fashion as both a significant driver of the climate crisis and as a feminist cause will motivate young people to understand our program as a viable means to fight environmental destruction and gender inequality alike. Female students make the majority of participants in My Clothes, My World workshops, as well as taking on the vast majority of student leadership roles in our program.

By empowering students and young women to make more informed decisions when it comes to consuming fashion, My Clothes, My World creates leadership positions for young women here in North America with the long-term goal of changing conditions for young women in developing countries. We would use the Innovation for Women Prize to develop our digital e-learning workshop and market it to underprivileged school districts to empower young women.