We are proud to announce a new collaboration with CO (www.commonobjective.co), which will support the next generation of fashion professionals to build a more sustainable industry.
The CO platform gives thousands of fashion professionals the tools and connections to build their businesses in the most sustainable way. At LCF we are dedicated to achieving greater transparency in sustainability for fashion and like CO, we’re working towards an industry which creates jobs, prosperity, and great products that do not damage the environment. When education and business work together it can be a powerful force for change – which is why this partnership is such a natural fit.
CO’s free-to-join platform provides sustainable business intelligence, resources, and training alongside a global network of pioneering suppliers, brands, professionals and experts. Over 5,000 LCF staff and students will be encouraged to create profiles, catalysing their ability to integrate sustainability into all areas of their University work and as they move into their professional careers; with the long term goal to offer to all 20,000 UAL students across its six world renowned arts colleges. MA Fashion Futures students will also be given full access to all premium content on CO – data driven research that highlights the solutions and innovations at the forefront of sustainable fashion business.
CO was launched this year, building on 12 years of work by the Ethical Fashion Forum, founded by CEO Tamsin Lejeune and Chaired by Harold Tillman CBE, an LCF alumnus, and committed supporter and champion of LCF and the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF) since its inception in 2008.
Harold Tillman at the LCF Kering Award
The CO site already has over 7,500 fashion industry members from more than 100 countries and is growing rapidly. Founding partners and backers include leading brands such as Vivienne Westwood and Roland Mouret, and leading organisations such as the Global Organic Textile Standard, Fashion Revolution, and the World Fair Trade Organisation.
This partnership has been developed to coincide with the ten year anniversary of the CSF, which was founded to explore vital elements of Better Lives, LCF’s commitment to using fashion to drive change, build a sustainable future and improve the way we live. Over ten years it has become a leading voice for change in sustainability – lobbying government and embedding sustainability within the curriculum at LCF.
As well as supporting us through the CO initiative, Harold Tillman CBE will also be supporting the CSF through a generous five year commitment in which he will personally be funding an annual student research project whose outcomes will be shared with industry, students and media. Harold will also be speaking at the forthcoming ‘What’s Going On? A Discourse on Fashion, Design and Sustainability’ conference – which will explore the dynamics, challenges and propositions of fashion and sustainability through the lens of design thinking and practice. He has also supported a brand new publication which marks the ten years since CSF was formed, which will articulate some of the CSF’s change-making practices and projects as well as highlighting the ongoing and increasingly pressing need to continue to build a transformed fashion system – each delegate will receive an exclusive copy.
- Common Objective: Smarter Fashion Business. Without Trashing the Planet
- Centre for Sustainable Fashion