Product Circularity, Fashion, Clothing and Textiles (PC4Fashion)
29th July 2024
2.00 – 3.00 BST
Online via Zoom
Introduction
The fashion industry accounts for 10% of CO2 emissions, 25% of chemical emissions and is second only to agriculture, as a consumer of water (Charter and Cheng 2021). It is also largely in its infancy in terms of sustainability and circularity policy development, despite being considered one of the most polluting industries with 1.92 million tonnes of textile waste produced every year. Fast fashion is increasingly coming under the policy spotlight and has been specifically highlighted in the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles with a stated goal of taking “fast fashion out of fashion”. However, previous research shows that companies in the fashion, clothing, and textiles (FCT) are at a basic level of awareness in relation to product circularity (PC). In addition, the research highlighted most PC tools are designed for advanced users and are not product specific, thus requiring adaptations to meet industry needs.
To support companies consider the increasing Circular Economy (CE) agenda in the FCT industry, The Centre for Sustainable Design ® at UCA and Trevor Davis & Associates Ltd have developed a PC starter tool – PC4Fashion tool – to support companies to start their product circularity journey. The tool also aims to support designers and other relevant stakeholders to design and develop products that are aligned to CE principles. The tool provides expert guidance for all stakeholders in the fashion life cycle and a benchmarking questionnaire to help companies identify their level of understanding in relation to PC and provides tailored guidance on how to improve.
This webinar will disseminate the findings and challenges related to the development of the PC4Fashion tool and provide a demonstration over how to use the tool. This will be followed by a Q&A session for further discussion.
Agenda
2:00-2:10: Introduction/Background to the circular economy for the fashion and clothing industry
2:10-2:25: PC4Fashion tool development
2:25-2:40: Tool demonstration
2:40-3:00: Q&A/discussion
Audience
The webinar is targeted fashion and clothing designers, suppliers, merchandisers, retailers, fashion students, researchers, and policy makers, but also may be useful to other stakeholders interested in product circularity.
Registration
The event is free of charge, but you will need to register by sending your name, job title and organisation to lilian.sanchezmoreno@uca.ac.uk On receipt, you will be sent confirmation and directions to the event.
Funding
PC4Fashion is funded by the University for the Creative Arts UKRI/AHRC Impact Accelerator award.