Weighing up sustainable fashion

Sustainability in fashion is a highly complex issue in which students must grapple with ethical considerations such as workers' rights, as well as environmental issues such as waste and pollution of air, water and soil. In the past decade, although many fashion companies have worked to alleviate their environmental and social impact, there are still intractable problems to overcome. In this exercise, students are asked to engage in a role-playing task around the topic of fashion and sustainability. The aim of the exercise is not to merely classify garments as more or less 'sustainable,' but rather for students to rigorously examine and debate the many dimensions of fashion and sustainability that can be applied to the discussion.