Sustainability is the business model of tomorrow

Pioneering: The Sustainable Textile School, September 18 till 20, 2017, of Chemnitz University of Technology supports the ecological textile production

Dyeing factories contaminating rivers, usage of pesticides in the cotton production, or pathogenic chemicals in clothes – there are many reasons for the production of ecological textiles. And incentives for rethinking and taking action as well. Numerous well-known clothing companies already committed to the goals of the Greenpeace campaign “Detox” and comply with the consciousness of the consumer and users. Sustainability becomes a competitive advantage.

Chemnitz University of Technology takes up the trend and initiates in cooperation with the Swiss Advisory Group Gherzi a Sustainable Textile School. The School will take place in the Julius-Stöckhardt auditorium building of the University site Straße der Nationen of Chemnitz University from 18^th till 20^th September, 2017. Company representatives and researchers can register online. Ten students with a major field of study in textiles can participate via a student’s program. The application papers can be submitted online.

In the framework of the Sustainable Textile School, outstanding innovations on the field of sustainable textile production will be honored. For this purpose, the Environmental Innovation Prize was established that will be awarded for the first time this September. The focus of the jury in the evaluation criteria lies on the aspect of cost reduction as well as environmental friendliness. And last but not least the final consumer shall receive a high-quality textile product. The prize is endowed with 500 euros and sponsored by the Confederation of the German Textile and Fashion Industry textil+mode.

In the course of the Textile School primarily employees of professionals in the textile branch are further sensitized and schooled by experts: “Our global network of researchers from various universities as well as industrial companies want to actively participate in the change of the world”, illustrates Prof. Holger Cebulla, Head of the Professorship Textile Technologies at Chemnitz University, the course of the School. Prof. Marlen Arnold, Head of the Professorship of Corporate Environmental Management, adds: “Main objective is to support the producers, to create transparency within their textile production chain, and to change this chain towards sustainability. Because sustainability is the business model of tomorrow.” Furthermore, Cebullas colleagues Dr. André Matthes, Division Manager Natural Textiles and Sustainability, as well as Katja Schneider, research associate at the Professorship of Corporate Environmental Management, support the project.

“Presentations and workshops during the conference are supposed to help retailers and industrial companies to understand the complexity of the textile chain and its possibilities of change in order to become more sustainable”, explains Prof. Cebulla. Therefore, the order of the conference is structured in a coherent way from the starting product to the end product. Day one will focus on everything around the fiber, while day two targets applied chemical processes in textile industry. On the last day, the finished article of clothing and the transformation to more sustainability are in the center of attention. With spokespersons from inter alia the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Switzerland, the United States of America, and India, the Sustainable Textile School is clearly international.

Further information on the event are available online at: http://sustainable-textile-school.com/

Video channel for the Sustainable Textile School: https://vimeo.com/sustex

(Author: Lars Meese, Translation: Alissa Hölzel)

Mario Steinebach
25.07.2017

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