By: Ava H.
The Slow Factory Foundation is a 501c3 public service organisation aiming to achieve environmental and social justice by “building anti-racist community and growing climate-positive global movements.” With a focus in the fashion industry, the Slow Factory partners with “global brands, nonprofits, and academia” to bring the demand of corporate accountability to a global scale. They have identified through their efforts that long term solutions require long term commitment. In order to fully achieve environmental justice, intersectional environmentalism needs to happen, and the Slow Factory makes sure to include the involvement of all races and identities, which further ties to the standards of environmental justice.
Slow Factory’s Mission Showcased in a Venn Diagram.
Photo from: Slow Factory Foundation
“Landfills as Museums” is an environmental mission conducted by the Slow Factory in collaboration with Adidas, that showcases the horrifying realities of where waste goes combined with innovative designs that helps humans reconsider the end of life for materials. This environmental initiative helps to inspire the fashion designers of tomorrow to further analyze how their productions can reduce the burden on landfills with the minimization of waste.
Photo from: The Slow Factory
Slow Factory documents in a video some of the surprising environmental practices that Waste Management implements into landfills, such as a pipe capturing the landfill’s methane gas and converting it into energy. Students not only became intrigued, but are now more eager to develop their own sustainable practices within their own designs, whether that be fashion, or the environmental systems of tomorrow. Although Waste Management is trying to limit the environmental impact of landfills, there still remains lots of progress to achieve, which is why it is important to engage fashion designers in sustainability, as textile waste remains to be a major issue in the fashion industry. “Landfills as Museums'' reminds corporations of the immense waste their environmentally detrimental practices create, demanding them to adopt sustainable practices for effective waste mitigation.
Circular fashion design will help promote longevity within fashion pieces, aiming to keep clothing out of landfills, and these future designers now have the tools in their toolbox to passionately achieve such an endeavor. Thus, the Slow Factory has successfully achieved widened social recognition of sustainability through collaborating with Waste Management and Adidas to bring needed awareness to waste issues within the environmental justice agenda.
The Slow Factory has advocated for further sustainability literacy, which is the understanding of the principles of ecological and social ecosystems, in order to ensure that humanity will work with these systems instead of against them. Sustainability literacy allows humankind to dismantle the environmentally destructive practices historically implemented by colonial structures, and henceforth create an inclusive society that brings everyone into the environmental justice agenda, not just the privileged elite. In order to create a more inclusive environmental conversation, the Slow Factory centers focus on the voices of black, brown, and indigenous peoples in order to dismantle society’s traditional way of functioning. By taking a step back from humankind’s destructive habits, an opportunity to unlearn these harmful theories that contribute to an unsustainable ecosystem everyday. Since environmentalism encompasses a vast amount of disciplinaries, sustainability literacy allows humankind to take a holistic approach to improving systems. This ideology is quite applicable to several environmental justice frameworks, from legislatures striving to achieve systematic change to combat climate change, to environmental health efforts to reduce disease causes from toxic environments. If society can better understand the framework for sustainable practices, transparency in environmentally detrimental industries such as fashion will become a reality, and a more prosperous future will in fact be carried out.
Institutional education is inaccessible to many people, and The Slow Factory strives to bring In order to build a diverse community within sustainability with the Open Education Initiative. This program has Black, Brown, Indigenous and minority scholars teach Black, Brown, Indigenous and Minority communities to connect science and human rights, developing individuals' understanding of environmentally ethical practices in multiple frameworks. Some of the educators include historian and journalist Maytha Alhassen, fashion consultant Aja Barber, and several other credible environmental advocates. The educational goal of these workshops is to acknowledge power structures that prevent environmental justice from being an inclusive effort, which in turn helps shorten the gap between environmental and social issues in sustainability.
Photo from: The Slow Factory
To get involved with the Slow Factory’s environmental justice initiative, there are several ways you can contribute. Donations are always welcome on their website, and will go towards funding the Open Education Initiative, bridging the gap between corporate intention and action and more. The Slow Factory strives to further emphasize that donations are for long term investment into sustainability goals, and will effectively reach towards actual environmental justice for all, as they value the implementation of social justice within the climate agenda.
Discussion Questions:
How do you think initiatives like The Slow Factory can accelerate the mainstream awareness of the environment interconnections of fashion?
Why are fashion designers essential in the environmental justice movement?
Source:
Good for the Earth, Good for the People. Slow Factory Foundation. (n.d.). https://slowfactory.foundation/.