Green Gown Awards 2017 - University of the Arts London - London College of Fashion - Finalist

Balancing the Books: Creating a model of responsible fashion business education

The fashion industry has well-documented challenges in the areas of sustainability and business ethics. The ‘Balancing the Books’ project applied innovative pedagogies to the final year curriculum for a new BA (Hons) in Fashion Marketing at the London College of Fashion’s Fashion Business School.

Students in the Balancing the Books project enjoy an immersive final year experience that applies the lens of sustainability to the entire fashion business curriculum, developing a 360-degree understanding of sustainability and becoming socially responsible, sustainably literate graduates who embody the aims of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Management.

Exit surveys show the transformative impact of these curriculum interventions with students declaring their increased confidence and skill level when dealing with real-world sustainability challenges in the fashion industry. Industry partners have commended their commitment and graduates have launched social enterprise fashion businesses, commenced postgraduate study in Sustainable Business and pledged their careers to sustainable fashion.

Top 3 learnings:

1 Designing a curriculum to fully integrate sustainability and business ethics is a challenging and rewarding process.

2 New generations of business students have an appetite to create a better world through sustainable business.

3 We can positively impact our industry through educating its future workforce in sustainability and business ethics.

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