Student provides younger generation with opportunity to make material difference
A GCU student has shown her passion for fashion by helping introduce more than 1000 young people to the world of sustainable clothing.
Fourth year International Tourism and Events Management student Siobhan Duff has been balancing her academic studies at GCU alongside her job with rental and renewal specialists,Advanced Clothing Solutions (ACS) – with the two eventually merging to create a unique opportunity during COP26.
Keen to gain practical experience while studying, Siobhan landed the role at ACS after one of her LinkedIn posts was noticed by the organisation’s Chief Operating Officer.
She explained: “I had always wanted to work in sustainability and events but over lockdown I developed a real interest in sustainable fashion and attended a number of Sustainable Fashion Scotland calls. I was talking about how I was keen to move away from bartending to gain more experience and one of the girls suggested posting on social media to look for opportunities. That’s really what got everything started.
I now work at ACS twice a week in my role as the organisation’s Sustainable Events Coordinator. Over summer, I was based in the sustainability department, which was a great experience for me at this point in my career.”
Siobhan added: “ACS is basically a circular business. So we’re responsible for everything that comes in and out of our facility, with partners ranging from Moss Brothers to Marks and Spencer. They own the clothes and they get stored with us and go through the process of getting cleaned and repaired. It’s all done in a way that reduces the amount of energy used and waste put out. For example, we have ozone cleaning, which reduces the amount of water used.
It’s been amazing because ACS literally don’t cut any corners with their commitment to sustainability. We live in a time where there’s so much greenwashing going on by companies, so it’s really nice to see.”
Siobhan saw COP26 as an opportunity to share her experience with the younger generation – while simultaneously combining her work at ACS with her studies at GCU.
November saw events take place the length and breadth of Glasgow and Siobhan played her part in ensuring the glitz and glamour didn’t simply pass by the University campus on Cowcaddens Road.
She explained: “Myself and Michael, my boss at ACS, were speaking with Glasgow City Chamber of Commerce and they’ve got a programme called, ‘My Climate Path’, which basically involves having a representative that’s responsible for climate education in every school. We’ve done work with them on the fashion aspect of it and this all tied in to our event.We felt like there was a bit of a gap with young people and sustainable fashion in regards to COP26, because it wasn’t mentioned that much to them.
We looked at four phases to help deliver our event. To get everything going, a few of us went into schools and taught them about what the fashion industry has to do with climate change and why it’s important.
The next phase took place at the ACS logistics centre, which is based at Eurocentral. We brought 60 young people along each day,with eight conference days being held in total. We gave them real life experience and provided them with the opportunity to see inside the factory – while also showing them things like how to mend clothes. There were five different workshops in total, which led to me losing my voice due to shouting over machines! It was amazing though because they were all leaving saying ‘I want to work in sustainable fashion’. It was all about showing them the range of opportunities available, because we work with many different disciplines, including engineers and scientists. Technology is a massive part of what we do - it’s not just about designing clothes, it’s about what we do with them afterwards.
Phase three was the big event held at GCU, which had 500 young people over two sessions. We had school pupils there in the morning and then students in the afternoon. We also had a business event in the evening.
There was actually lecturers within the fashion department at GCU that were involved, as well as the GCU Alumni team. They helped us track down graduates, who displayed the sustainable clothes they made, while also showcasing catwalk videos that they had created.”
Siobhan added: “It was important that we didn’t just have this during COP26 and then let it all fizzle out. We’re going to be holding legacy events early this year with students and young people – this will be fourth phase.”
Now that the hype of COP26 has just about vacated Scotland and the focus of pupils and world leaders alike is back to their regular agenda, Siobhan was keen to pass on some words of wisdom to help us continue to play our part – despite obvious challenges.
She explained: “The fashion trend cycle is so fast now and people try to keep up with that instead of thinking about things like the actual quality of the clothing.The statistic that always stays in my head is that we have enough clothing already produced to last us six generations. We can use this material instead of continuously making more and more.
We don’t really have a structure in Scotland and the UK for what we do with our fashion waste - we just give it to second-hand shops and think we’ve done something good for charity, when it’s actually just getting dumped in other countries and ending up in landfill. In saying that, it’s also important not to make people feel guilty because a lot of us don’t have the time and certain clothes sizes may not be accessible to those looking to purchase second-hand or rent.
There’s definitely nothing wrong with buying new but it’s just important to be mindful when you’re doing it. There’s a saying ‘are you going to wear it thirty times?’ and I think that’s a good one to keep in mind.”
You can find out more about ACS clothing and the work they do through this video.
By Ross Clark
Got an SHLS or GSBS story? Email me at Ross.Clark@gcu.ac.uk or message me on Twitter