Adopting a design thinking approach to embedding sustainability practices into fashion supply chain education.

Bremner, Pauline A.M.

Abstract

How many times do you press the lift button? More than once? Have you ever asked yourself why? For some of us it will be impatience, for others the lift 'will be broken' and for others, the 'lift will come sometime'. This is a 'need for speed' which mirrors the fast fashion industry where consumption has developed into instant gratification and the sector has grown exponentially to meet consumers' needs. However, consumers are driven to consume by many things; social media (Kowalewicz, 2022) and the fear of missing out (Gupta and Sharma, 2021) to name but a few. Many fashion companies strive to get products through supply chains at breakneck speed using long complex value chains and ensuring low overhead costs, leading to a depletion of finite resources and sustainability challenges. Fast fashion consumption continues to grow, driven in part by the fashion companies and the speed at which consumers can access products to fulfil the 'want-it-now' cultural phenomenon. This level and speed of consumption is not sustainable, and change has to stem from educating the next generation. Accessing supply chain information is hard to do, so emulating some of the problems via case studies can be of assistance.

Citation

BREMNER, P.A.M. [2025]. Adopting a design thinking approach to embedding sustainability practices into fashion supply chain education. In Hannibal, C., Perry, P. and Benstead, A.V. Handbook of fashion supply chains and operations. Berlin: De Gruyter [online], (forthcoming).

• Deposit Date: Jul 24, 2025
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: Handbook of fashion supply chains and operations.
• Chapter Number: chapter 21
• ISBN: 9783111383880
• Keywords: Overconsumption; Sustainability; Logistics; Fashion; Design thinking
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2935186
• Related Public URLs: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2923159 (The book in which this has been published)
• Contract Date: Nov 9, 2023