News Archive
Ecodesign position paper: Textiles and footwear
In a position paper from the Change and Wasted Textile projects, authors Kate Fletcher, Irene Maldini, Ingun Grimstad Klepp, Kirsi Laitala, Jens Måge and Tone Skårdal Tobiasson have addressed the background document from EU’s Joint Research Centre on Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). The main theme in the position paper, is that the JRC…
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Sufficiency on the agenda
Sufficiency advocates from different sectors came together on May 4th at the Sufficiency Summit. Co-organised by Sciences Po (France) and University of South Australia, and chaired by Dr. Yamina Saheb and Professor David Ness, the Summit brought together governments, NGOs, and academics advocating for sufficiency in transport, the built environment, food, and clothing from different…
A full PLATE with a 7-course SIFO menu
Holding on or letting go? Why don’t consumers complain more? Why do we hang on to stuff that is flawed? How to make fast fashion out of fashion and actually degrow the textile sector? All these questions will be answered at the PLATE conference at Aalto University, in Espoo, Finland. At the end of May…
Microplastics or microfibers: Does anyone really get what this is about?
OPINION: What we do know, is that all synthetic clothing and materials, sooner or later, will become microplastics, a «time-delayed» pollution bomb. And thus, they will ultimately become a problem for seabirds, and us. A new report on microfibers in waterways is gaining attention, as it claims the results show more natural fibers than synthetic ones,…
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Winter wheat + wool pellets work well
It turns out that Polish mountain sheep wool can be successfully used as a nitrogen-rich, organic fertilizer in organic farming. This enables utilization of coarse wool, which is not suitable for textile processing, to be used and lead to zero-waste from wool shearing. “Utilisation of waste wool from mountain sheep as fertiliser in winter wheat…
A conversation with Kate Fletcher
First of all, we would like to welcome you as a colleague! This is a very happy development for Consumption Research Norway (SIFO) and our clothing research group, alongside of course, the work in the projects you have the lead of work packages. So firstly: welcome! For such a long time, we have associated you…
Critical background paper on PEF for apparel and footwear
This week saw the publication of a critical background paper on concerns surrounding the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules for Apparel and Footwear from a consortium representing the collaborative international research project Wasted Textiles at Consumption Research Norway SIFO at Oslo Metropolitan University. The consortium were asked to supply more background information to the EU Commission after a knowledge sharing meeting January 25 hosted by…
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Double whammy for Clothing Research
Two articles from Clothing Research at Consumption Research Norway have been accepted by the journal Fibers and are accessible online. The two articles are entitled Reducing plastic: Opportunities and obstacles for coarser wool in consumer goods and Natural and sustainable? Consumers’ textile fiber preferences. More than half of the team in the Clothing Research group…
A functioning ‘functional unit’
For LCA-based tools and category rules, there is a central idea of a “functional unit”. How this will function in the ongoing work with EU’s PEFCR (Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules), is based on the number of days of “usability”. A “functional unit” is most often described for paint. It is not the liter of…
New Research Centre in Copenhagen based on wardrobe research
The CHANGE masterclass seminar held at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen September 30th 2022 hosted another interesting occasion. This was the launch of KLOTHING – Centre for Apparel, Textiles & Ecology Research. The first Danish research center on fashion, textiles and sustainability lead by me, Associate Professor, PhD, Else Skjold, who has been central…
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We throw away clothes with the price tags on them
We throw away enormous amounts of clothing, and most of it contains polyester and other plastics. We need more knowledge to be able to meet the new EU requirement for separate textile collection by 2025, say researchers. Text Kjersti Lassen/Consumption Research Norway (SIFO) After cleaning out your wardrobe, you might be left with a pair…
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VikingGold: Weaving History and Fashion together
Fashion met cultural history in the project VikingGold, and the two were woven together into a beautiful wool fabric, that found its way to museum exhibits and Norwegian national tv as the most sustainable fabric of the future. During the annual event Oslo Runway, the Norwegian actress Iselin Shumba debuted as a catwalk model on a…
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Mapping of the industry’s design tools
Lisbeth Løvbak Berg, Tone Skårdal Tobiasson, Ingun Grimstad Klepp One of NF&TA’s tasks in Wasted Textiles is to map what tools are being used by businesses, academia and organisations in the design and product development processes to ensure more environmentally friendly and circular production, and how these relate to the central questions in the project.…
Travel letter Uruguay December 2022
In the middle of Advent 2022, Vilde, Kirsi and Ingun traveled to Uruguay. Irene was already there with her family, and the trip was well planned in collaboration with Irene, who lives in Portugal, but is from Uruguay, and Lucrecia who works in Montevideo. Part of the background for the trip was the testing of…
A real CHANGE
Casual and formal on a trajectory to merge? This question is emerging both in research and when looking at consumer trends for clothing and fashion. As part of the CHANGE project, one trajectory being explored is a return to clothing that is more versatile and less defined by occasion. In this exploration, a “mix and…
Report from IWTO’s Round Table 2022
There seems to be renewed hope for strong wool and local production. Especially with a focus on regenerative grazing and looking at wool’s possible new (and perhaps old, but forgotten) applications. Regenerative agriculture was a major topic at the IWTO’s Round Table in Nuremberg, Germany, and the possibility of natural fibers to make a positive…
Clothing Research contributes to new report on over-consumption
The Clothing Research Group, SIFO at OsloMet, has contributed to the recent Hot or Cool Institute report Unfit, Unfair, Unfashionable: Resizing Fashion for a Fair Consumption Space (download the report from Hot or Cool here). The contribution is in the form of a critique of EU’s textile strategy which was launched in March 2022. The…
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The core challenge: Overproduction and growtharchy
During the Fashion & Sustainability (lusafona.pt) conference in Cascais, Portugal, Irene Maldini gave the key note speech entitled Overcoming growtharchy: why we need limits to (clothing) production volumes, concluded three days of exhibitions, parallel sessions, project presentations and keynote speeches in the first edition of this biannual event.
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Selbu spinning mill’s pivotal role in wool projects
12 years ago, Selbu spinning mill was established, focusing on wool from traditional, Norwegian heritage sheep breeds. From the beginning, cooperation in projects has been important. Let’s do a deep dive! Why do Selbu work on projects? Well…. Exchange of competence and skills, development of own competence and skills, new challenges for the employees and…
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CHANGE in Denmark
The CHANGE researchers met in Copenhagen the last week of September.
Clothing research at the ESA Sociology of Consumption Conference
Last week SIFO hosted a conference for The European Sociological Association (ESA)’s Research Network of Sociology of Consumption. The theme for the conference was “Consumption, justice and futures: Where do we go from here? (oslomet.no)”. 146 participants from all over Europe gathered for the event and most of SIFO’s clothing researchers were among them. The…
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Deep diving into wardrobes provides important knowledge on clothes and their environmental impact
Authors: Vilde Haugrønning, Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Anna Schytte Sigaard Norway leads the way in methods for studying the use of clothing. This is knowledge that is important in sustainability studies of apparel. How many clothes are there in our wardrobes? What is used a lot and what do you seldom wear, and why? Which…
Visit to Poland
Ingvild and Lisbeth visited Poland the last week of June. The goal of the trip was knowledge transfer and during it, they held three workshops/seminars. At the University of Bielsko-Biala, teachers and pedagogy students were invited to a workshop about teaching wool to children, emphasising the creative potential as well as cultural aspects of wool.…
Feedback on the Sustainable Products Initiative (EU)
Kirsi Laitala and Ingun Grimstad Klepp have submitted feedback on the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation proposal on behalf of Consumption Research Norway. In the following, you can read the introduction. Click this link to read the whole feedback document (eu.com). The clothing research group also sent feedback on the Sustainable textiles strategy to Miljødirektoratet…
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New Make the Label Count White paper outlines important shortcomings for PEF
The report, that Ingun and Kirsi have contributed to, identifies key areas that are not aligned with other EU environmental strategies and that will have detrimental environmental effects if not amended. Key whitepaper findings: Issue #1: The PEF system does not currently take into account microplasticsOmitting microplastics as an indicator effectively assigns zero impacts to this…
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Local as a fashion change-maker
Hybrid event, 8th June 2022, 17:30-19:30 CET Online and at Sentralen, Oslo
Say hello (and goodbye) to our student intern Lea!
For the past three months Lea Gleisberg, a student from the Master in System Design program at HTW Berlin has been a part of our team. For her master’s project, she is developing a clothing swap concept for Berlin, to increase re-use and make it attractive to more people. While working with us and participating…
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Hit them where it hurts: Producers of fast fashion should pay the most
OPINION: How best to deal with the negative environmental impact of the clothing industry? The writers behind this opinion suggest a system in which those who sell large volumes of clothes that don’t last pay the most.
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Feedback to the EU Textile Strategy
The input is based on knowledge from these ongoing research projects on clothing and its environmental impact, supported by the Norwegian Research Council: Lasting: Sustainable prosperity through product durability CHANGE: Environmental system shift in clothing consumption Wasted Textiles: Reduced synthetic textile waste through the development of resource-efficient value chains Amazing Grazing: Sustainable products from rangeland-grazing…
What does the Minister of the Environment think about apparel and the environment?
This is not easy to ascertain from two answers sent to Conservative Member of Parliament Liv Kari Eskeland in response to her questions about the EU’s new Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) scheme, which is in danger of labeling natural fibers as the least environmentally friendly.
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New book on local and sustainable clothes
Explores the importance of local practices in achieving global sustainability. This is a book about one fibre, wool, its role in the future of a more sustainable global textile industry, and a new approach to how we can organize how we use local resources in a better way. Why is this important? Because of the…
Make the Label Count
Wednesday the 13th October, Ingun Grimstad Klepp participated in the panel discussion at the launch of the Make the Label Count campaign – an international coalition of organisations that want to ensure that the EU’s new labelling system for sustainable clothing is credible and valid. They are critical of the EU commission’s proposed use of…
Design process: research tools for CHANGE
During the first week of September 2021, CHANGE researchers collaborated with the Master Digital Design of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, in the context of its Design Processes Track. You can read about the course here (masterdigitaldesign.com). Guided by Angella Mackey, a diverse group of 48 international students proposed 12 research tools that could…
Product lifetime in European and Norwegian policies
The objective in this report is to better understand how the increased product lifetime option has been positioned in policies over the past twenty years. By means of policy document analysis, we explore product lifetime positioning in the EU’s circular economy policies, Norwegian political party programs and official documents, environmental NGO documents, consumer organisation policies…
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WOOLUME: Mapping the market for acoustic and sound absorbing products made of wool
This report is the first deliverable from work package 2 of the WOOLUME project. The main goal of WOOLUME is to explore different ways of using wool from Polish Mountain Sheep to achieve better utilisation of resources and value creation. The aim of the report has been to map the market for acoustic and sound…
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