ABSTRACT
Sustainability as a locus of innovation and practice is maturing, expanding and diversifying. It has always been a broad church of ideas, an opportunity for radical positivity and a licence to care. It is opportune to dig into our psyches and look beyond ‘I’ and ‘my’ in philosophy and industrial endeavour, and ask questions. As a design academic, I have asked questions and advocated internationally for ethics and sustainability in education, design practice and the supply chain. Furthermore, working in Australia – geographically and politically close to South East Asia, the location of a high percentage of global offshore production – I am keenly aware of the lack of understanding of the potential of applied ethics. Consequently, the personal and professional ethical decisions made by industry practitioners will change fashion manufacture and disposal in the next 20 years, but also the viability of the planet and its inhabitants, because, in spite of changes in practice and consumer awareness within the supply chain, they are too little and too late. Long-term, permanent damage is being done because of our practice and industry.
