Sustainable Living Week 2024
January 29 to February 2 2024
Did you know that in the UK we buy more than 2 tonnes of clothing each minute? And that a million tonnes of textiles are discarded per year?
Introducing our new themed week of lessons, this year’s Sustainable Living Week will focus on circular economy, the impacts of fashion and many ideas on how to turn the tide towards a more sustainable relationship with our clothing.
We are grateful to our partners from the Scottish Government, Scottish Book Trust, Scottish Fair Trade Forum, and The Or Foundation for their support in making this week of lessons happen.
Activity for the week:
We will invite classes to develop their stitching skills that can one day help them repairing their clothes or create wonderful projects. Watch this spaces for resources!
Lessons during the week:
We will continue to update this page. This far we can confirm the following guests and organisations as part of our week of lessons:
-
Monday: Circular Economy lesson with Zero Waste Scotland. This lesson will cover linear economy (the way in which we have historically functioned so far, thinking it was right and endless, and the problems that this has), circular economy (where we should be moving towards), and how would circular economy look in the world of fashion and the exciting opportunities of this.
-
Tuesday: Lesson on Fair Trade and fashion with Scottish Fair Trade Forum. This lesson will cover how fairtrade protects workers, and pushes the textile industry to be more sustainable, from seed cotton to the finished garments. They will be presenting alongside Koolskools, who will be sharing their experience as an ethical, sustainable school uniform manufacture business that works with fairtrade certified cotton and recycled polyester.
-
Tuesday late morning: Lesson to the younger audience with author Emily Gravett and her book ‘Too Much Stuff’. Although the book doesn't focus on clothing and fashion, it is a great lesson towards the overall aim of re-educating our relationship with things, clothing included, and the impact that our love for stuff can have on the planet.
-
Wednesday: Lesson on the impacts of discarded and donated clothing, with The OR Foundation. This lesson will be delivered from Ghana, the top importer of unwanted/second hand clothing in the world, and will particularly look at the impact that our unused clothing is having on their people and environment.
-
Thursday: Lesson on moving towards a sustainable relationship with fashion/clothing, with ACS Clothing Solutions. The lesson will showcase ACS’s model of circular economy and sustainability, and focus on ideas of actions that pupils and schools can do as a first step towards a more sustainable and caring future.
-
Friday: assembly organised by us, where we will revisit the main learnings of each lesson, play a quiz with pupils, answer any questions sent throughout the week, and showcase any work carried out by pupils.
Please note that all lessons will start at 9.30am (except for the lesson to the younger audience which starts at 11.00), and we will have a sound and video check 10 minutes prior each lesson.
