Tackling fashion with a passion for change
Sarah Gray, who鈥檚 studying at our Centre for Environment and Sustainability (CES), tells us how she鈥檚 trying to make fashion a more sustainable industry.
"The optimal way to move towards a more sustainable fashion industry is to get more use out of the clothes we own," says Sarah
Sarah says it was watching news reports on climate change as a teenager that first got her interested in sustainability. A role in resource efficiency at (Waste and Resources Action Programme) followed and this brought her to CES in 2019.
鈥Starting a Practitioner Doctorate in Sustainability (PDS) at 糖心Vlog wasn鈥檛 about jumping into a new career for me,鈥 explains Sarah, who works as a Senior Analyst in the Insights and Innovations Team at WRAP. 鈥淚 thoroughly enjoy my job. It was more about allowing my research career to develop.鈥
Clothing crisis
鈥淚n my PDS, I鈥檓 looking at a variety of different models to reduce the environmental impact of the clothing sector,鈥 says the Buckinghamshire-based student. 鈥淭he clothing and textiles industries are highly carbon and water-intensive.
Intensive cotton farming has a major environmental impact and, as this video from NASA shows, it is one factor linked to the loss of the Aral Sea
鈥淭he Aral Sea, for example, doesn鈥檛 exist any more and that鈥檚 mainly due to cotton production. But there are so many things going on in production systems around clothing that it鈥檚 quite a mammoth challenge to change it all.鈥
Hope on the horizon
Sarah says it鈥檚 not an unsolvable problem, though: 鈥淭here seems to be general agreement that one big step we can all take is to get more use out of the clothing we do have. This seems to be the optimal solution. There are all sorts of incremental improvements we can make to help industry with its supply chains and manufacture.
鈥淏ut the shopping habits we have in the developed world are one of the biggest problems, especially considering we don鈥檛 wear a lot of the clothes we buy and a large percentage of them end up stuck in the back of a cupboard.鈥
New business models
Sarah explains that her research is investigating several different models encouraging people to act more sustainably.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen fast growth in new businesses on digital platforms, like and , who resell clothes. We鈥檙e seeing new rental platforms where individuals or businesses rent clothes, too.
鈥淪ubscription leasing models exist, as well. You can lease a pair of jeans for a year, then return them and they can be refurbished and leased to somebody else if you don鈥檛 want to keep them.
鈥淎ll these models encourage users to get more wear out of garments and ensure we鈥檙e not buying an item, wearing it once, leaving it in the wardrobe, then eventually disposing of it.鈥
Research impact
鈥淢y research at CES will provide information to help keep clothing in circulation for longer," says Sarah Gray
Sarah says her research will contribute to a new campaign that her employer, WRAP, is about launch.
鈥 is a collaboration between retailers and brands, and recyclers and reuse organisations in the UK. We convene to get everyone to work together and find solutions to the sustainability and environmental problems they face.
鈥淢y research at CES will provide information on how the environmental savings related to this can help create more beneficial and circular business models to help keep clothing in circulation for longer.
鈥淚鈥檓 hoping my research will offer a reason 鈥 or at least advice 鈥 for adopting a more sustainable business model over their current one. It will also provide examples of things you can avoid doing if it increases impact.鈥
Learn more about studying for a Practitioner Doctorate in Sustainability our Centre for Environment and Sustainability.