An Network Plus Funded Project

Navigating Environmental Indicators; Fashion Textiles Industry Perspective

This project aims to test the efficiency of mechanisms currently used to indicate environmental impact in the fashion and textile industry. Co-delivered with UKFT, it incorporates interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder engagement to explore the effectiveness of existing mechanisms and then co-design improvements to them. This includes legislative and commercial tools, guidelines, frameworks, and processes to improve the accessibility and accuracy of environmental indicators across the fashion garment life cycle, including beyond the point of sale.

Project findings will inform solutions to enable operational practices that catalyse sector-wide strategies for environmental indicators that reduce environmental impact and increase circularity within the fashion and textile industry.

VISION

Robust academic research has been undertaken to provide a comprehensive overview of the current, complex landscape of environmental impact within the fashion and textile industry. This has questioned the accuracy of data produced by established environmental indicators, while highlighting current challenges and issues arising from the significant quantity and variation of measures utilised.

This study proposes advancing and applying the knowledge developed to date, increasing reach, impact, and the scalability of implementation in an industry setting. This novel approach shifts the needs and requirements for environmental indicators from a top-down regulatory model to a bottom-up industry-driven framework, ensuring practical relevance and adoption.

Combined outputs will provide an informed model for environmental indicators in the fashion and textile industry. This model can inform not only UK industry practices but also wider global learnings on the need for user engagement and co-design within commercial and legislative mechanisms, towards adoptable, scalable change in sector practices.

APPROACH

The six-month project will be conducted across three key phases:

PHASE 1 – User Perspective: A large-scale survey will provide an original dataset to evidence the fashion and textile industry’s experience with current methods and system boundaries for representing environmental indicators.

PHASE 2 – Co-Design: Design-Labs will facilitate a review and co-design process to develop an outline of industry-driven mechanisms that will enable more accessible, accurate, and effective navigation of environmental indicators across UK-based Micro, SME, and large fashion and textile businesses.

PHASE 3 – Development: Sample mechanism(s) will be developed through an iterative process, testing and refining via small-scale, focused pilot activities. These activities will work with individual industry partners to test, develop, and evaluate from a practical, operational perspective.

Results will be presented and discussed at a final event open to the fashion and textile industry. The workshop will discuss the co-developed sample mechanisms and the steps required (commercial and legislative) to facilitate industry adoption.

IMPACT

Research activities undertaken within this project will contribute to overall project outcomes by producing the following deliverables:

Qualitative Data Sets – a large-scale UK-wide online survey with Micro, SME, and large-scale FTI firms will provide a key data set to evidence the experiences of UK-based FTI firms in navigating measurement and communication of the environmental impacts of apparel products.

Industry Review of Existing Environmental Indicator Landscape – Design-labs will provide a qualitative dataset to evidence FTI firms’ experiences navigating the current landscape of environmental indicators.

Co-Designed Mechanism(s) – Design-labs will provide an archive of mechanism ideas generated through co-design with FTI firms, which will be evaluated by the wider sector through an online activity providing key reflections on all ideas developed in the project.

Sample Mechanism(s) – Pilot Studies will provide further developed mechanism(s) that have been tested and evaluated from a practical, operational perspective.

An Approach to Industry-led Mechanisms for Textiles & Fashion Circularity – The methods & tools developed for user-led research & development through Design Labs & pilot studies will be collated into a transferable tool.

Dr Dawn Ellams

Senior Tutor, Royal College of Art

Dawn is a Senior Tutor within the School of Design at the Royal College of Art. Her current research focuses on using life-cycle data to inform critical decision-making and enable circular systems in Fashion and Textiles.