Designing for sustainability with Sara Kozlowski
Happy December, and welcome back to another edition of The Green Dress Report!
This week I spoke with Sara Kozlowski, Vice President of Education and Sustainability Initiatives for the Council of Fashion Designers of America, or the CFDA. She talked about her career in the fashion industry as well as her work at CFDA, including what the nonprofit is doing to raise awareness about sustainable practices. Last but not least, I asked her what she sees as the major challenges to sustainability in the industry, as well as where she finds hope for the future. Read on for more!
What does a career in fashion sustainability look like?
After graduating from Parsons School of Design in New York, Kozlowski first entered the fashion industry as a designer. She worked with Anna Sui before launching her own brand that produced garments locally in New York, but after 10 years she saw “the arrival of fast fashion eclipse [the] success of many independent brands.” She decided to become a full-time design educator, working in Shanghai and San Francisco, where she went back to school. Kozlowski was a member of the first cohort of students in the Design Strategy MBA (DMBA) program at California College of the Arts, “a multi-sector program that blended design strategy with sustainable business and systems thinking” and allowed her to integrate sustainability into her coursework.
In 2012 Kozlowski moved back to New York and worked at Parsons before coming to the CFDA in 2014; she has worked in her current role as head of the department since 2016, and 2023 will mark 30 years of her work in the fashion industry!
As the sustainability department head, Kozlowski oversees a team that provides professional development, scholarships, tools, resources and mentorship for designers at all stages, from students to CFDA members. She also works with other departments within CFDA in order to engage and partner with other stakeholders in the industry and to communicate with the public about CFDA’s sustainability efforts.
Speaking of CFDA’s sustainability efforts…
Kozlowski explained that as a nonprofit membership-based trade organization, the CFDA exists “to strengthen the success of American fashion in the global economy” and “to support all phases of the design talent lifecycle.” How can efforts aimed at growing the fashion industry be compatible with sustainable practices that many say should focus on circularity and degrowth?
Kozlowski said that through their education, mentorship and open knowledge-sharing initiatives, the CFDA aims to help “support the industry’s shift to adopting circularity by sharing information, increasing awareness” and cultivating a community of small-to-midsize businesses committed to “mindful design practices.” This support comes in the form of professional development workshops, webinars and office hours, Kozlowski says. Many of these events spotlight industry stakeholders featured in the CFDA’s Sustainability Resource Hub, “an open access knowledge-sharing platform designed for exploring fashion strategies-centered tools and storied information,” according to the website. Some past guests at these events have been B Corp, the Apparel Impact Institute and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Another effort Kozlowski mentioned are CFDA’s scholarships that include mentorship and support for students, such as the Swarovski Foundation Re:Generation Innovation Award and the Coach Dream It Real X CFDA Circular Design Award.
Next, I asked Kozlowski more about the CFDA’s Materials Index, having used it before for research. She began by underscoring the importance of materials when it comes to sustainability: nearly two thirds of the environmental impact of a garment comes from the raw materials used to make it. Materials also contribute to climate effects: according to Kozlowski, “up to 90% of a brand’s carbon footprint is traced to materials” when combined with related logistics.
Furthermore, many materials and textiles used in garments are “either directly made from plastics or are petroleum-based byproducts,” according to Kozlowski. In addition to contributing to climate change, these petroleum-based textiles also come with consequences such as microplastics and toxic landfill waste. However, even natural fibers come with their consequences: the cultivation of cotton uses immense amounts of water, exacerbating droughts caused by climate change.
Kozlowski points to circular materials made from recycled synthetic and natural fibers, as well as bio-innovative materials made from plants as the future of sustainable fashion design; information about these innovative materials can be found in the CFDA’s Materials Index.
Challenges
When asked about what challenges she deals with in her work at the CFDA, Kozlowski explained that as the CFDA is a nonprofit, “[t]ime, bandwidth, and people power-related constraints are the largest hurdles to actualizing our goals and strategy. But we are big when it comes to ingenuity and purpose-centered collaboration and because of this we can accomplish a lot in our efforts to help and support our constituents.”
When it comes to challenges facing brands wishing to incorporate more sustainable practices, Kozlowski said that since most brands that the CFDA works with are small-to-midsize businesses, their biggest obstacles are “often related to access, affordability, and resource constraints.” She explained that some innovations are not yet available at smaller scales, and that “integrating upcycling and re-use [or] re-manufacturing options can be a limitation as not all production facilities have expertise in working with deadstock materials, disassembly and re-construction techniques.”
Affordability and access are also challenges for consumers looking to purchase more sustainably, as we have already seen. According to Kozlowski, consumers often find it difficult to navigate between good, better and best options, as well as to see past companies’ greenwashing claims. These claims can come in the form of withholding information about the materials and full process used to produce a garment. For example, a brand might say an item is made from an organic textile, while not disclosing the fact that polluting dyes and finishing techniques were used.
Who’s doing it right?
Finally, I asked Kozlowski who or what gives her hope for the future. Her answer? “Students! And the next generation who are capable of captaining true change, pioneering safer creation, and designing better tomorrows,” meaning “a tomorrow that is more inclusive, equitable, and just for all.”
Some headlines from the past couple weeks:
👕 Could you commit to only buying five new items of clothing a year?
❄️ Why you should almost always wash your clothes on cold
🥫 Will we ever be able to recycle our clothes like an aluminum can?
🚨 This is the reality of America’s fast-fashion addiction
Interested in learning more about sustainable fashion careers? Check out these resources and events!
That’s all for this edition! Thanks so much to Sara for sharing her experience and insight. Feel free to drop any questions or comments down below, and make sure to check out the CFDA’s resources if you’re interested in learning more!