Proficiency and competence in sustainability and sustainable marketing in textiles and clothing – student and industry perspectives

Abstract

Globalisation has contributed to unsustainable clothing and textile industries because companies increasingly outsource production to developing countries to incur lower production costs. The abundance of cheap clothing in developed countries due to fast fashion has created a throwaway society where consumers purchase things because they are cheap and may not necessarily need them. Fast fashion consumers may choose to purchase fast fashion products to avoid feeling guilty of their clothing purchase because fast fashion tends to be inexpensive, which helps fast fashion consumers justify their expenditures on clothing (Fletcher 2014). As such, a more concise educational programme is necessary to increase consumer knowledge related to sustainability (Duong 2021). These consumer tendencies exacerbate sustainability issues and hence the need to involve the educational sector to improve knowledge on sustainability. To move the industry towards an ethical and sustainable future, there is need for a multi-disciplinary approach to ensure that our future is safe. Students have been identified as key in this effort and were included in this research. In this research, level of students’ understanding of the current sustainability drive and sustainable marketing by the stakeholders in the industry was explored. The research focused on determining students’ awareness of sustainability impacts from their clothing consumption, sustainability initiatives by industry stakeholders, and the willingness of students to engage in more sustainable clothing practices. The purpose of the research was to bring forth the concept of sustainability in engineering within the clothing and textiles discipline and lay foundation for advanced engineering around the theme mentioned above. The students’ project integrated various subjects taught in the programme at the second year level. A qualitative investigation was used employing two survey questionnaire instrument to administer students and another for other stakeholders in the industry. This was coupled with practical verification of some claims attached to some textile items as well as marketing. The investigation and tests of garments students had purchased, disposed of or labelled to be sustainable indicated that these were of unsustainable fibre composition. In focusing on students’ participation, the project integrated various themes and subjects taught in the clothing and textiles engineering discipline in the department. In the process of participating and interpreting the research data, the students gained a deeper mastery of the subject.