6 ways to make your design team to love sustainability as much as trends
You can dream as big as you want, when it comes to sustainability, but if you don’t get your design team on board, your products are going to stay the same.
But how do you make your design team love sustainability as much as trends?
We have gathered six tips for you right here:
1. Involve them in the decision making
If you include your designers from the beginning, they will have a say in the direction you’re choosing.
Not only will that make them feel more included, it will also ensure that you don’t develop a material strategy that is impossible to follow in real life.
2. Set up personal sustainability KPIs
Measure designers' better vs. conventional fiber ratio and set up an ambitious (but realistic) goal they should reach for each collection.
For one designer you might measure recycled vs. virgin polyester and another viscose vs. lyocell. Pick one that fits your designer's product area.
3. Talk trends vs. longevity
Encourage your designers to think about the longevity as a factor of success.
So instead of creating an item with trending prints, they can create someone’s go-to dress or shirt.
4. Encourage new ways of integrating sustainability
Designers know their field. And they know what their colleagues at other brands are up to.
So, they might have some good and unconventional sustainability ideas.
5. Put better styles in the spotlight
When a collection is finished, most brands select a group of key styles.
We propose that you decide, in collaboration with sales and marketing, that a collection’s key styles will always be picked from the better styles.
6. Educate your design team in fibers and sustainability
Give your designers a copy of our material guide, the perfect tool for developing a more sustainability minded collection.
In the guide, each fiber is rated in terms of water usage, chemical usage, animal welfare, environmental issues, social issues, price and availability.
Read more about the material guide right here
If they want to really get their hands dirty with sustainability and CSR, a membership to our e-learning platform, Sustainawear Community, is just the thing for them.