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SHORT COURSE

Intro to Fashion & Sustainability

The fashion industry needs a rapid transition toward sustainability. This course provides you with a foundational understanding of fashion’s impact on the planet and humanity and tools to actively improve the state of the industry. Hear from industry experts and leading researchers about the challenges and opportunities in creating a sustainable fashion future.

 

About this course

The course introduces the fundamentals of fashion sustainability, including considering the industry's ecological, social, cultural and economic impacts. This course has been co-designed by renowned academics and industry partners from the UTS's Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion + Textiles and TAFE NSW. By the end of the course, you will have fluency in the environmental impacts of materials and fashion production, human rights concerns within the supply chain, and the need to establish a quadruple bottom line within fashion businesses (people, planet, profit, culture). You also be introduced to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), circular fashion design and digital sampling.

This six-week course will be taught online. Each week there will be approximately 2 hours of self-paced online content, and 2 hours of a live webinar-style class. During the live online class you can expect:

  • Lectures from our expert instructors
  • Guest lectures from industry experts
  • Interactive discussions and activities with your peers
  • The opportunity to ask questions and seek advice

Key benefits of this course

This course has been designed to:

  • Equip you with the latest best-practice sustainability knowledge in the field of fashion and textiles
  • Provide you the tools to start tracing your supply chain
  • Give you an understanding of the impacts of common materials used in the fashion industry
  • Immerse you in the latest fashion and textile innovations supporting a rapid transition toward sustainability
  • Strengthen your understanding of local and international regulations pertaining to modern slavery and environmental communications

Price

Full price: $500 (GST-free)*
*Price subject to change. Please check price at time of purchase. 

Discounts are available for this course. For further details and to verify if you qualify, please check the Discounts section under Additional course information.

Enrolment conditions

COVID-19 response 

Additional course information

Course learning objectives

By the end of this course, participants will have an understanding of:

  • The business impact of sustainability including ESG practices, the quadruple bottom line, and alternative economic systems
  • Sustainable design and production practices such as circular and transition design
  • The impact of materials
  • Traceability in supply chains, including tracking labour rights and modern slavery
  • Some ways in which Industry 4.0, or technology and innovation, can aid sustainability in fashion.

Requirements

Mandatory requirements

To complete this online course, you will need a personal computer with adequate internet access and sufficient software and bandwidth to support web conferencing. You will also require an operating system with a web browser compatible with Canvas, Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

Desired requirements

This course is designed for participants with some knowledge of the fashion industry and the general processes in which clothing and textiles are designed and produced.

Discounts

Discounts are available for this course as follows: 

  • 10% discount for UTS staff
  • 10% discount for UTS alumni/students 
  • 15% discount for Australian Fashion Council members
  • 15% discount for group enrolments of 3 or more from the same organisation.
  • Scholarships are available – please contact SustFashCentre@uts.edu.au for details

Discounts cannot be combined and only one discount can be applied per person per course session. Discounts can only be applied to the full price. Discounts cannot be applied to any offered special price. 

How to obtain your discount voucher code (group enrolments)

  • Please contact the team at support@open.uts.edu.au with details of group enrolments, to obtain your discount voucher code. 

How to enrol and obtain your UTS staff discount (UTS staff)

How to apply your discount voucher  

  • If you are eligible for a UTS alumni or student discount, please ensure you have provided your UTS student number in your UTS Open Profile (under “A bit about you”). If you are an alumni and have forgotten your UTS student number, email support@utsopen.uts.edu.au with your full name, UTS degree and year of commencement.  
  • Add this course to your cart 
  • Click on "View Cart" (blue shopping trolley at top right of screen). You will need to sign in or sign up to UTS Open 
  • Enter your eligible code beneath the “Have a code?” prompt and click on the blue "Apply" button 
  • Verify your voucher code has been successfully applied before clicking on the blue "Checkout" button. 

Contact us

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for anyone in the fashion and textiles industry or sustainability professionals wanting to move into the fashion sector. Some examples include:

  • Fashion designer
  • Sourcing/supply chain specialist
  • Fashion business owner
  • Sustainability manager
  • Retail manager
  • Fashion marketing manager
  • Production manager
  • Textile designer
  • Buyer
  • Product Manager
$500.00

START DATE

24 April

MODE

Online

DURATION

6 wks

COMMITMENT

24 hrs

Make an enquiry

Have a question?

















Meet the Experts

Associate Professor Timo Rissanen

Associate Professor Timo Rissanen
Associate Professor, UTS School of Design

Associate Professor Timo Rissanen is a researcher and teacher in the School of Design, DAB, at UTS. His research focuses on design-led approaches to sustainability and social justice in fashion and textile systems. Timo completed a practice-based PhD in 2013 on zero waste fashion design.

He has published two books on fashion and sustainability: Zero Waste Fashion Design in 2016 with Holly McQuillan, and Shaping Sustainable Fashion in 2011 with Alison Gwilt. Timo has been teaching for 20 years, a decade each at UTS and Parsons School of Design in New York, and he takes a student-centered approach in his teaching. He is a founding member of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion.

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Laura Washington

Laura Washington
Head of School - Fashion Design Studio, Tafe NSW Course lead - degree program

Laura Washington is currently the course lead for the Bachelor of Fashion Design and the Head of School at the Fashion Design Studio, Tafe NSW. She was instrumental in developing and writing the degree; at its core are sustainable design strategies and considerations that cross the spectrum of social, ethical and economic sustainable fashion issues.

Her knowledge of sustainable education practice coupled with working in industry as a designer, and lecturing in both the vocational and higher education spaces over the last two decades, lends to a firm knowledge of the importance of sustainable considerations in both industry and education. Laura is undertaking her masters in Cross Disciplinary Art and Design.

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Book a session

Mon 24 Apr 2023 -
Fri 02 Jun 2023
Expert: Associate Professor Timo Rissanen, Laura Washington
  • This course runs on Wednesday evenings from 6-8pm and will be facilitated online via Zoom video sessions.
  • Online
  • 6 sessions, 12 hours total
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Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.

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