Criterion A: Sustainable Design |​ Sewciety 

Name:Eric  Class:   
 

 
Image: FashionRevolution.org  
 
Key Concept​:  Systems 
Related Concepts​:  Sustainability, Resources 
Global Context​:  Globalization and Sustainability 
 
Statement of Inquiry 

 
“Designers have a responsibility to seek sustainable solutions.” 
 
 
Inquiry Questions 
Factual:  What is fast fashion?​ ​What is planned obsolescence? 
Conceptual:  What does sustainability really mean? What is the circular economy?  
Debatable:  How close are we to a sustainable society? 
Debatable:  Who is responsible for sustainability? 
 
Design situation 
Millions of tons of textiles end up in landfills and incinerators around the world every year. This is a problem as the textile industry 
uses huge amounts of raw materials, water, energy and chemicals for the production of their products. It is often claimed that this 
industry is a prime example of an industry that is not sustainable. As designers (and world-citizens), we have a responsibility to 
design and create with sustainability in mind. Governments, industry and consumers ask us to come up with better solutions to the 
life-cycle of textiles.  
 
Your challenge is to recycle a fabric or textile garment into another product that 
will be useful for your intended client. This upcycled product will effectively help 
to extend the life of your garment.   
Task A1 | ​The Problem 

🔎 What? 
 
❗Why? 
 
Explain and justify the need for a solution to a problem.  You need to fully understand the ‘problem’ and identify where 
you can make a meaningful contribution to solving this. 
 

⚙ How? 
Design situation 
● Explain​ what you are challenged with to create in this unit and why it is important i​ n your own words. 

I think the clothes are made of silk and cotton. Cotton comes from the plant and the silk comes 
from the silkworm. Every year the cotton is used for 29 million tons. It is equal to 1 person 
having 29 t-shirts. To produce one pound of silk around 2000-3000 silkworm cocoons are 
used. Therefore I think if this continues then the resources will be decreasing fast. Also, I believe 
that it is endangering our environment by increasing the landfill area. Thus I think recycling 
fabrics and garments is important. This project will deliver a new product to my client in which 
it has been recycled with garments. 

● Identify​ the fabric your project will focus on and which garment(s) you will retrieve this from. You should have a 
college (and ​possible gif​ of you wearing the garment) with an explanation of the material properties. Example ​HERE​. 
Insert the annotated collage below. 

I just made this in 

slides;​https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1a2RqVcR-bvGLwPU2JLboaPZBBx
Bj8xm7ERVLvoLRRDE/edit#slide=id.p

Project justification 
● Explain​ what fast fashion is and why it is problematic. 
● Present​ photographic evidence of different aspects of the problem. Caption the photos explaining what the image is 
 showing. 
● You must use in-text citation OR footnotes to indicate what source you have used! 

Fast fashion is a word that describes the fashion companies producing clothes in a fast manner to follow
the latest trend. As the company has to produce the clothes very fast, they tend to use cheap and toxic
textile dyes which are not environmentally-friendly. As the trend changes, people would discard or throw
away the clothes. Thus, the fashion industry is known to be the second largest polluter of the water which
is after agriculture. In Canada alone, the average person throws out 81 pounds of textiles annually. This
also increases the size of the landfill.

Fast fashion also gives a problem in labour and human rights. On April 24, 2013, the Rana Plaza clothing
manufacturing complex in Bangladesh collapsed and it killed over 1,000 workers and injured over 2,500.
Like Bangladesh, there are a lot of garments workers who do not have rights or proper protections.
Furthermore, their pay is not really high and roughly 85% of workers are women.

The woman is working in the factory and they are getting little money. Bangladesh workers are
making clothes in a small place as shown in this picture. In the picture, there are so many
women and we cannot see any boy or man.

 
 This photo shows that so many people keep trashing the clothes a lot. This landfill is literally filled 
with clothes alone. 
 

 
This photo shows the infographic of minimum wage of the garment workers. Clearly, some 
countries like Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Bangladesh are getting paid much lower than other 
countries. 

Works cited (in MLA format using NoodleTools) 

● List​ any sources of information used in this section. That includes s​ ources of photos​ used in the project justification. 

Silk. www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Silk, Silk.

www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/consumption/clothing/
world-cotton-production-statistics tt.
are-Bangladesh-clothing-factories-safer/.
​Silk New World​. 2 Feb. 2017, www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Silk, Accessed
17 Feb. 2020.
Silk​. 3 Mar. 2016, www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/consumption/clothing/
world-cotton-production-statistics. Accessed 17 Feb. 2020.
Silk​. 4 May 2014, ps://www.textileschool.com/164/
cotton-fibers-and-its-properties/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2020.
Where Pay Is Lowest for Cheap Clothing Production​. 7 May 2019, www.statista.com/
chart/17903/monthly-minimum-wage-in-the-global-garment-industry/. Accessed
23 Feb. 2020.
 
 

Assessment 
Level  Descriptor  Typical features of student work 

0  The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors below. 
 1-2  The student ​states  You have copied and pasted the challenge from above. You should show your 
the need for a  understanding of the challenge by explaining it and its importance in your own 
solution to a  words. 
problem.  You did not provide multiple photos nor explain the properties of your fabric. An 
annotated collage with this information was required. Reviewing the provided 
example would help you with this. 
You provided a limited justification of the problems with fast fashion with no 
photographic evidence. More explanation with evidence is needed. 
You did not list your sources nor provide citations. Reviewing expectations for 
citations are needed. 

3-4  The student  ❏ You have simply identified the challenge of the project. You should show your deeper 
outlines​ the need  understanding of the challenge by also explaining its importance in your own words. 
for a solution to a  ❏ A number of required elements of the college were not included. An analysis of the 
problem.  material was needed. Reviewing the example would help you with this. 
❏ You provided an adequate justification of the problems with fast fashion with no 
photographic evidence. More explanation with evidence is needed. 
❏ You list your sources but did not provide citations and did not use proper MLA format. 
Please use Noodletools to ensure proper formatting. 

5-6  The student  ❏ You have paraphrased the challenge of the project. You should show your deeper 
explains​ the need  understanding of the challenge by also explaining its importance in your own words. 
for a solution to a  ❏ A few of the required elements of your collage were not included. An analysis of the 
problem.  material was needed. Reviewing the example would help you with this. 
❏ You provided an adequate justification of the problems with fast fashion with 
photographic evidence. You needed to provide a caption that explained the photo. 
❏ You list your sources in MLA format but did not provide citations in your writing. 
Please use Noodletools to ensure proper formatting. 

7-​8  The student  ❏ You effectively showed your understanding of the challenge by also explaining its 
explains​ and  importance in your own words. 
justifies​ the need  ❏ You provide an annotated collage with all of the required elements including multiple 
for a solution to a  labelled photos of your garment and explanation of the properties of your fabric.  
problem.  ❏ You provided a detailed justification of the problems with fast fashion with captioned 
photographic evidence.  
❏ You list your sources in MLA format and provided appropriate citations in your 
writing.