MODO Fashion Society: Head of Sustainability

Hello everyone! 

My name is Anouk and I would like to be head of sustainability.

Sustainability is a key topic for our society; and one for which we must all take responsibility. In addition to my personal interest in sustainability issues, as a geography student, it is a core part of my academic career.

The role allows me to unite my studies and my personal interest in fashion. I would see my role as making sure the magazine focuses on its own impact, but also develop the magazine’s own branding as a driver of positive change.

In my academic career, I have been involved in running various events. I will use these organisational skills to increase next year's sustainability. My goals are:

- organising workshops where we learn to re-design and re-purpose and old clothing

- ensuring that events such as the fashion show are more sustainable, e.g. reducing the amount of materials used and/or using sustainable materials; selling food and beverages in eco-friendly cups/containers

- bringing in guest speakers who talk about fashion and sustainability

- creating displays within UCL to raise awareness of the importance of sustainability in the fashion industry

- organising more sustainability-based events, e.g. more second-hand shopping trips

These initiatives will provide members and other students with the concept of sustainability and its growing importance in the fashion industry. I would be delighted to organise these events next year. Thank you for your time!

Sustainability has always been important to me. From writing blog posts for a sustainable start up company to writing a successful grant funding proposal for a Green Journalism project, I dedicated my gap year to expanding my knowledge of sustainability. Needless to say, the fashion industry is a key contributor to almost all key environmental challenged, from climate change, to water use, toxicity, plastic pollution, and more. The lack of sustainability in the fashion world is also heavily linked to unsustainable practices in other industries. I'd love to bring my knowledge about climate change and sustainability in into MODO, particularly focusing on how fast fashion not only contributes to the climate crisis, but is also enabled by other unsustainable systems. 

I'm also a huge advocate for idea that being sustainable isn't something that you can just achieve instantly; learning to be sustainable is a skill that is developed through practice, research, and experimentation. This is exactly why I'd love to be MODO's sustainability officer. To me, this is a perfect opportunity to learn more about sustainability in the fashion world, whilst also contributing to a society that has already offered me so many amazing opportunities.