DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY - ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN TEXTILES
British designer Vivienne Westwood said: “Buy less, choose well, make it last. Quality, not quantity.”
Designers are the unsung heroes in the quest for a more sustainable textile industry. They are faced with the challenges of how to:
- create products which look great and which people will want to keep for a long time;
- make products which are easy to repair during use, and disassemble afterwards before discarding;
- minimise waste and pollution during the various stages of production;
- minimise waste and pollution throughout the product’s life and after disposal; and
- make the best use of recycled, recyclable and other materials which help to reduce the product’s impact on the environment.
And to a budget – which can constrain creativity and/or sustainability somewhat!
Durable by design
To create products which look great – well, that’s the traditional job of a designer. But, at the heart of sustainability is the need for people to become (almost emotionally) attached to their products, so that they want to keep them in use for a long time. As well as being beautiful and stylish, a sustainably designed product has to be made to last, which means it must be well-made from good quality materials.
Repair and reuse
But what happens when a product becomes damaged or soiled? This is where ease of repair and disassembly is crucial. Imagine that the damage occurs in one small section of your product, and the rest of it is unaffected. If the damaged or soiled section can easily be disassembled, then it can be repaired and reassembled. Otherwise, the whole product may need to be discarded into landfill.
Reduce resources
The industry has developed processes which minimise the use of water, energy and other resources. We see examples of waterless dyeing and finishing, and improvements in efficiency which result in reduced energy consumption, and recycling of post-industrial waste.
Reduce, reuse, recycle…