Excerpt: The Flourish Approach Business Model

By Danielle Sponder The Flourish Approach: Abstract

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BUSINESS MODEL

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A Resource for Strategic Planning within the Fashion Knitwear Industry

By Danielle Sponder

Text and Design, Copyright Š 2011 by Danielle Sponder Testa. All rights reserved. http://daniellesponder.com No parts of this publication my be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means without prior permission from the author.

Printed and bound by DoxDirect, Inc., doxdirect.com All graphics created by Danielle Sponder Testa, Copyright Š 2011 All Flourish Approach Experience collection images photographed by Alejandro Cavallo. Editor: Danielle Sponder, Fashion Assistant: Sarah Dixon, Hair and Makeup Artist: Katie England, Models: Alex Fenzl and Temi of Oxygen Model Management.

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to thank my research partner Sarah Dixon for her constant input and advice. Neither of us would have been able to succeed at this project alone and I appreciate her willingness to be in the Flourish Approach mindset 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the last 9 months.

Thank you to Dilys Williams, Susan Postlethwaite, Kate Fletcher and the other staff at London College of Fashion who have guided my development through the MA Fashion and the Environment course. Thank you to Sandy Black and Amanda Johnston for supervising the development of the Flourish Approach and helping me to identify the best way to share the idea with a diverse audience. Thank you to Chris Coudron and Katherine Van Oort for their help in developing the visual elements of the Flourish Approach.

A special thanks to Nick Testa for giving constistent critical feedback and particularly for the assistance in legal and financial development within the Flourish Approach partnership.

I would also like to recognise and thank the wonderful team behind the Flourish Approach: Experience photos, Alejandro Cavallo, Katie England, Alexandra Fenzl and Temi from Oxygen Model Management. Not only did the photographers turn out amazing but it was a great experience and spoke to the true purpose of the Flourish Approach.

Thanks to my family for their support and participation in developing the Flourish Approach Experience brand and for editing and reviewing my many written pieces along the way.

LEFT: Illustration by Sarah Dixon RIGHT: Adaptation by Danielle Sponder

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CHAPTER 1 CREATING A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL

What is sustainability anyway?

Sustainability is everywhere these days. We read about it in the paper, in books, on tv, it spans every topic from what car you drive to what food you eat. In a world where climate change is inevitable and depleting resources are a constant worry people are exploring every possibility for the future. In the last several years I have read and participated in a variety of sustainable future scenarios, most notably DesignCamp: New Ways of Transportation at Kolding Design School in Denmark and Fashion Futures at London College of Fashion. Both of these experiences were set up in order to design products for a new more sustainable generation.

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PART 1 INTRODUCTION

Sustainability is the possibility that human and other life will flourish on the planet forever.”1 Fashion Futures looked ahead to 2025 in four possible scenarios where the world moves either fast or slow, and is connected or separated (Forum for the Future, 2010). The task presented to myself and other Fashion Futures students was to create a product that we couldn’t create today, but may need in 2025 to help people live happily and sustainably (Forum for the Future and Levi Strauss and Co., 2010b).

Kolding DesignCamp: New Ways of Transportation took design students from around the world and brought them together to solve common problems of public transportation in order to make people less dependant on cars or private transport and more engaged with public transport (Design School Kolding, 2010). It looked to make sustainable transport enjoyable right here and now.

DesignCamp and Fashion Futures both looked to an inevitable change in the world, and that is that, whether we like it or not, we need to live more sustainably. Unfortunately, in the upheaval of environmentalism, localism and craft industries, many individuals and corporations feel the need to roll their eyes with a sigh of discontent because sustainability seems to put freedom of choice and capitalism under siege. The term sustainability is now packed full with meanings beyond simply sustaining our world and ourselves for the future. It is no longer just an idea about nourishment but is also a political movement.

What about people who want to be sustainable without becoming part of a movement though? In order to successfully design products and systems for a sustainable future, whether through things such as DesignCamp and Fashion Futures or as a part of a multi-national corporation, individuals must realise that there are multiple consumer segments when selling the idea of sustainability.

John Ehrenfeld, a sustainable development expert from MIT discussed the meaning of sustainability in his book Sustainability By Design (2009).

In which he describes sustainability as “the possibility for humans and other life to flourish on the planet forever” (Ehrenfeld, 2009, p. 6). See, sustainability doesn’t need to be an argument over local or global, organic or synthetic, community farms or corporations; sustainability can be the ability to flourish in whatever way an individual interprets it.

Given the political arguments surrounding sustainability I realised that most individuals and corporations were missing the true opportunity presented to them by sustainable development. Sustainability doesn’t need to be a task of the CSR department or philanthropy, it can be a model for business success. The Flourish Approach has been developed to show retailers that sustainability can be a successful and profitable business model that allows the company and individuals to flourish. The Flourish Approach is not the end-all be-all of sustainable development but rather proof that designing

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1 John Ehrenfeld, Sustainability by Design, 2009 ABOVE RIGHT: Slow is Beautiful CAL Carbon Monitor, Concept for 2025.

SOURCE: Katriona Lea, 2010 BELOW RIGHT: Images from CAL Carbon Monitor video.

SOURCE: Danielle Sponder, 2010 All developed by Danielle Sponder, Renee Lacroix and Katriona Lea, 2010

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SIDE NOTE The Flourish Approach

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SIDE NOTE 4

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sustainable fashion futures and new ways of transportation that support corporate initiatives is not only available, but a largely untapped market. A recent profile on CNN featuring a juice manufacturer taking advantage of a largely untapped market in Sierra Leone is an example of how the Flourish Approach already exists in other industries (2011). Sierra Leone has an abundance of fresh fruits that typically rot because they have no use as well as a weak economy surrounding a largely un-employed labour base (CNN, 2011). A juice company was able to tap the fruit and labour market of Sierra Leone to create a profitable business, and beyond that they were able to work with the country of Sierra Leone to make business operations smooth and mutually beneficial because business investments such as this can turn around the economic situation of small developing nations (CNN, 2011).

The individuals who set up the juice-making facilities in Sierra Leone as well as the individuals behind Fashion Futures and DesignCamp understand the opportunities of sustainability in terms of creating shared value. The larger apparel industry has only been affected in select departments or divisions though, so the Flourish Approach targets an entire sector, the knitwear industry, to show how taking the approach of flourishing can create business success (and a competitive advantage).

“Companies must take the lead in bringing business and society back together... Promising elements of a new model are emerging, yet we still lack an overall framework for guiding these efforts, and most companies remain stuck in a ‘social responsibility’ mindset in which societal issues are at the periphery, not the core.”2

2 Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, Creating Shared Value, January 2011 LEFT AND ABOVE: Kolding DesignCamp New Ways of Transportation, SOURCE: Kolding Design School.

ABOVE LEFT: DesignCamp ‘Buskit’. Developed by Danielle Sponder, Tim Anderson and Victoria Kusk SOURCE: Danielle Sponder The Flourish Approach

The Flourish Approach was tested through the creation of a branded knitwear collection, The Flourish Approach: Experience. This collection integrated sustainability into every stage of its creation merging local and global sustainable initiatives. This was done by creating knitted component pieces in communities around the world that were then sent to a central location to be assembled and retailed. The business model was designed for the knitwear sector of the fashion industry to show that we can sustain, or create the opportunity to flourish, throughout the supply chain. I recognize the opportunity to adapt and edit this concept for other sectors though and for that reason am sharing the entire business model, from ideation to retail, with you. I do this in hopes that individuals within the fashion industry will continue to explore the meaning of sustainability and the opportunities they can create to allow their companies to flourish together with individuals throughout the system.

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PART 1 INTRODUCTION

Innovating Knitwear Sarah Dixon, the designer for The Flourish Approach: Experience, established an innovative linking system that creates opportunities for cluster creation and well-being generation (Dixon, 2010). Sarah states, “This technique moves beyond accepted construction methods which include fully fashioning and linking and explores the use of trims, in particular double-ended sandwich trims, to bring together knitted components that may have been knitted by different people and in a variety of materials and gauges” (Dixon, 2010, p. 11).

“This technique moves beyond accepted construction methods to bring together knitted components that may have been knitted by different people and in a variety of materials and gauges.”3 This linking system is an innovative change to the fashion knitwear system and allows components from around the world to be combined into a single garment. The double-ended sandwich trim is shown in the image below.

More information on the seaming and advantages it creates are available in the accompanying report: The Flourish Approach: Experience. Using this double-ended sandwich seam, imperfect sizing can be adjusted and blended into a garment in a way that is not visible in the end garment. This concept creates the opportunity for the knitwear system to be re-examined. 3 Sarah Dixon, quoted from It is an example of small changes that can allow a traditional fashion sector the proposal document for to adapt to the changing world. the Flourish Approach

The concept of producing components of knitted garments has been done by a variety of companies, typically in order to get the lowest cost production or avoid tariffs or quotas (Birnbaum, 2005). This version of linking though allows more flexibility in seaming and has been developed in order to create value-added quality. Based on this idea to combine components from various places in a variety of ways the Flourish Approach was developed to create a system focused on well-being generation.

LEFT: Knitwear Seams. From left: Sandwich trim, normal seam and the double-ended sandwich trim used in the Flourish Approach system to function.

RIGHT: The Flourish Approach: Experience Sample Line Sheet showing a single design created using different patterns and colours based on specific producer skills.

SOURCE: Sarah Dixon

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The Flourish Approach: Experience Line Sheet Spring Summer 2012

Producing components of knitwear has been done through history, but the focus has always been on cost minimisation; the Flourish Approach produces components in order to optimise unique skills from around the world.

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Vision To create a design and business model that re-thinks established systems in the fashion industry in order to generate wellbeing for the producer and the environment, while engaging with the customer and creating economic value for the retailer.4 Mission To incorporate local communities throughout the world into a production system that provides aesthetically on-trend garments that compete with mainstream fashion in terms of both style and price while providing a unique selling proposition through the generation of well-being. 5 u For the consumer; through user-involvement and emotional attachment. u For the producer; through cultural skill sensitivity and utilisation, advancement opportunities, and flexibility. u For the environment; through local material utilisation and zero-waste production. u For the retailer; through economic viability in terms of costcompetitiveness and a unique selling point.

About the Business Model The Flourish Approach is a systems strategy for the knitwear sector of the fashion industry. The system was developed and tested through the creation of a knitwear collection. This collection is called the Flourish Approach: Experience and is often referred to simply as the Experience (in order to distinguish it from the Flourish Approach system). The Experience is referenced throughout this book in order to give example to how different stages of the system are applied to an actual product line.

As stated before, the Flourish Approach accepts the meaning of sustainability to refer to flourishing, but since flourishing is not a measurable state it has been broken down into the well-being of various stakeholders. Throughout the development of the system and collection The Stakeholder Well-being Mind Map on the following page has been refenced. This map has guided the design of both the Flourish Approach system and the Experience collection.

This book is a guide for creating a collection or brand using the Flourish Approach. In Part 1 this business model will go through how the Flourish Approach was developed, through the unique knitwear design strategy, then it will explain, based on the design strategy, how a full systems strategy came to be. It will identify why a supply chain that focuses on well-being should be utilised and how this fits into the global changes in the fashion industry. In Part 2 the book will go through the business model step by step, in order of the stages of the supply chain, from producer through consumer. Throughout Part 2 the Experience will be used as an example of how the Flourish Approach can be applied to a brand.

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4 - 5 The Flourish Approach Vision and Mission is referenced in several research documents including the research proposal and business plan.

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PART 1 INTRODUCTION Mind map of key stakeholders and their areas of well-being generation. The stakeholders include the Producer, Retailer, Consumer and Environment. Their impacts are explained in the trianles attached to each stakeholder diamond.

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PART 1 INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2 SYSTEMS TO SYNERGY

Systems Rationale It has been forecasted that labour costs in China will rise 80% by 2016 (Oster, 2011). With time other developing nations will follow suit as infrastructures improve, draining the global pool of cheap labour. After all, it’s in the name – they are developing. Cheap products will become more expensive as raw materials costs and labour prices rise around the globe (Oster, 2011). The fashion industry must plan ahead for this move away from cheap labour and products characterised in the race to the bottom.

How is an industry built around cheap labour and materials, as the fashion industry has been since the industrial revolution, developed for a world without cheap labour?

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The Flourish Approach solution is to utilise skills and resources around the world in order to allow people and the planet to flourish through the changing economic climate. The Flourish Approach isn’t a system only for ethical and environmental organizations, it is for fashion companies that want to sustain their bottom line and build core competencies in order to prosper for the imaginable future. The Flourish Approach is an ethical and environmental approach to the global fashion system, but more importantly, it is a business approach to the future. The Flourish Approach believes that if a production system is developed to value the well-being of all stakeholders, companies can avoid complications that are common with developing producer nations because they will already be supporting appropriate infrastructure and a living wage.

ABOVE: Rising labour prices and growing ethics laws will force many companies to find selling points other than the race to the bottom.

SOURCE: chewhatyoucallyourpasa.blogspot. com

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The Flourish Approach solution is to utilise skills and resources around the world in order to allow people and the planet to flourish through the changing economic climate.

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Understanding the Supply Chain A typical industrial supply chain has linear stages where materials or products move along a global assembly line from raw material to fibre to fabric to product often moving between countries at each stage (Black, 2008). Although specifics vary from country to country, raw materials or components typically come from many different countries to be made into a garment in another country and then shipped to yet another country for retail (Glock and Kunz, 2005). This is illustrated in the Traditional Organisational Supply Chain Diagram below and also in the Traditional Materials Supply Chain Diagram on the following page. In each of the

images the rectangles outline a stage or a producer while the ovals represent a single country in which stages or producers exist.

Traditional Organisational Supply Chain Includes parties participating in the traditional fashion supply chain.

Circles represent locations, rectangles represent separate parties.

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The Flourish Approach Supply Chain

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The Flourish Approach Supply Chain In contrast with the traditional supply chain, the Flourish Approach supply chain takes advantage of local skills and materials to create components with minimal impact on the environment and a positive impact on the producers. These local clusters of producer/makers will see the benefits of shared value.

The components are sent to the location of retail for the final production and retail where the same benefits will be sought for shared value creation.

Rather than transporting from country to country in order to minimise costs, the Flourish Approach involves only cluster-groups that can combine multiple stages of production into one location. While multiple countries are still used in the production of garments it is a chain of value-creating communities that allows globalisation to become a value generating system for all stakeholders. The Flourish Approach is also visualised in The Flourish Approach Diagram. It can be seen by the circles in these diagrams that there are less nations involved in the Flourish Approach global system and each location carries out a variety of tasks increasing their involvement and decreasing damage to the environment.

Traditional Material Supply Chain

Includes parties participating in the traditional fashion supply chain, circles represent locations, rectangles represent separate parties.

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Why is the best avenue for flourishing is through business?6 Business has more power than any other institution, even government and religion, in determining where the future of our world goes (Ehrenfeld, 2009). Yet business is a topic of both thrill and disgust alike when environmentalism is discussed. Businesses are criticised for being disconnected from the supply chain and unaware or ignorant of their social and environmental impact but are simultaneously praised for using organic cotton or embracing new strategies such as the LEED model. One must ask oneself, what is the real relationship between the natural environment, social policy and business?

The concept of the triple bottom line allows companies to say, ‘yes, we admit profitability comes first, but people and the planet matter as well.’ And this is exactly where we, as a western society, are. The green revolution and mass-education of developed countries has made it impossible for business to ignore sustainability, but the cultural addiction to consumerism has made it clear that low prices are still the most valuable offering they produce.

Costs of ethically produced garments will never be as low as sweatshop production though, meaning the value and quality must be increased without increasing material costs. Through collaborative systems sustainable fashion can create added value rather than simply compete on price. This idea of value creation is discussed in detail by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer in the article, Creating Shared Value (2011). They define shared value as “policies and operating practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in communities in which it operates” (2011, p. 66).

Looking at previous work done in the realm of sustainable supply chains and the actions taken by existing ethical and environmental companies, the focus is consistently on integrating environmental and ethical procedures into the existing business model (Porter and Kramer, 2011, p. 66). The existing model has always depended on unsustainable principle though.

The Flourish Approach starts from scratch with no standard practices in order to redefine the system. If we can build a modern industry that adds value in new ways while being reliant on sustainable practices the apparel industry can be economically viable, aesthetically satisfying, and sustainably sound.

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SIDE NOTE “Costs of ethically produced garments will never be as low as sweatshop production though, meaning the value and quality must be increased without increasing material costs. Through collaborative systems sustainable fashion can create added value rather than simply compete on price.�

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6 Excerpt from the Flourish Approach proposal, written

by Danielle Sponder, March 2011 ABOVE: Satirical cartoon illustrating the extreme power of corporate interests.

SOURCE: www.sodahead.com

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PART 2 PLANNING

CHAPTER 3 DESIGN STRATEGY

The Experience designer, Sarah Dixon, explains the Flourish Approach co-design strategy as the way in which we design is re-examined to prioritise the needs of the producers and encourage an extended product lifetime through personal attachment, user involvement or narrative in order to generate well-being for the consumer. Sarah states, “In a world of discerning consumers, transparency and provenance are key but customisation is also of importance as people look for a ‘unique’ product” (Sponder and Dixon, 2011, p. 5). The Flourish Approach uses elements of co-design, both with the consumer and the producer, to create well-being.

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Establish a Co-Design Strategy

“The purpose of (co-) design is the creation of new societal values to balance human happiness with ecological truths. In doing so design contests the notion of material and economic progress, and its inherent ecological untruths.”7 The World Skills Map shows some of the production opportunities that can be set up in nearly any area around the world and sets the scene for the design challenge of the Experience; creating a collection of garments that takes a participatory approach and aims to put the needs of the producer, the consumer the retailer and the environment on an equal playing field.

7 Alastair Fuad-Luke, Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World (2009, p. 20) RIGHT (TOP): Sarah Dixon, the Flourish Approach: Experience designer.

SOURCE: Sarah Dixon RIGHT (BOTTOM): Diagram of Design Descriptions SOURCE: Alastair Fuad-Luke’s book Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World.

Before even sketching a product design, the Experience designer considered the skills and capabilities of the producers chosen. This creates flexibility for end-retailers if one producer group encounters challenges with quality or deadlines and also allows for retailer or consumer customisation.

To establish a Flourish Approach system, connections with producers must be established before a garment or collection in developed. The World Skills Map shows unique and expert skills of various countries around the world that can be considered before developing design sketches. This map is not all-inclusive but rather a snapshot of the opportunities and skills available in the global marketplace.

The Flourish Approach can be utilised by identify a skill or tradition for use in most any fashion sector and designs and materials can then be built around those skilled producers. If local materials are used for product creation in skilled communities certain cost efficiencies and synergies can be realised. This is considered cluster creation with the implementation of local materials use, yarn spinning and full-service manufacturing all in the production community. These elements of producer skills and materials should be considered and options weighed before and during the design process. Additionally, if a customisation element is to be added to allow consumer participation the designer must determine the extent of customisation that will be integrated into the design.

Develop Emotional and Experience Selling Points (ESP and XSP) A combination of technological advances as well as an appreciation for the age-old tradition of hand knitting means that customisation can become an integral part of a knitted collection. Designer Sarah Dixon says, “Previous findings have highlighted the importance of community building, emotional attachment and involvement with the garment in improving well-being. The eternal cycle of desire that ‘fast fashion’ encourages is seen as detrimental to the wearer who will be left feeling dissatisfied and frustrated. It would seem, therefore, that if we encourage personal attachment to a knitted 22

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SIDE NOTE

SARAH DIXON DESCRIBES THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CO-DESIGN WITHIN THE FLOURISH APPROACH: EXPERIENCE. Alastair Fuad-Luke’s book Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World has influenced the design concept of The Flourish Approach: Experience. In the book the benefits of designing to encourage participation and adopting a multi-stakeholder approach are explained. “[Co-design] as a design approach … can potentially generate new affordances and new values but demands a new skill set and underlying philosophical approach from designers” (FuadLuke, 2009, p. 45).

The link between co-design and well-being is also discussed in Sustainability by Design, by John Ehrenfeld, when he introduces the notion that through participatory design it is possible to change the context of a product and present choices (2009). Equipment after all, is only meaningful because we use it for something. If a user is involved in the development of a product they have a tacit knowledge of it and the cares and concerns they want it to satisfy. Participatory design creates awareness and a connection to the purpose of the product. By creating a stronger sense of attachment to the garment the lifetime of the garment can be extended.

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PART 2 PLANNING

garment we can extend the product lifetime” (Sponder and Dixon, 2011, p. 5). If the consumer is involved in the design or production of an item they may also feel inclined to cherish it for longer thereby extending the products lifetime. The ability of consumers to customise their garments by being given the choice of various components and trims not only allows for a deep emotional attachment (ESP) to be developed, but also creates an experience selling point (XSP). Developing an emotional selling point and experience selling point are critical stages in brand development that will lead to brand loyalty and top-of-mind memory of the brand.

The eternal cycle of desire that ‘fast fashion’ encourages is seen as detrimental to the wearer who will be left feeling dissatisfied and frustrated.

It would seem, therefore, that if we encourage personal attachment to a knitted garment we can extend the product lifetime.

Develop a Unique Selling Point (USP) One of the advantages of the Flourish Approach knitwear production system is the opportunity for zero-waste. Due to the nature of knitwear, yarns can be reused and components disassembled. The Flourish Approach takes this a step further as our components can be used in a variety of garments and will be used in different ways each season so that there is no excess stock at the end of the season, rather, remaining stock will be filtered into ongoing designs, individually customised pieces, and new design ideas. Such details that make a brand unique will stick out in the customers mind. When creating a brand using the Flourish Approach system one must identify what their unique selling point (USP) is.

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Brand Selling Propositions

The Flourish Approach: Experience USP, ESP, and XSP

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World Skills Map This map is a sampling of the array of textile skills existing around the world. These skills can be utilised in various ways in different Flourish Approach systems.

SOURCES: Listed in ‘World Skills Map Reference List’ The Flourish Approach

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CHAPTER 5 STAGES OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Once a design structure and brand identity has been established the stages of collection development may be followed each season without changing the core business values. This chapter includes no additional text beyond this paragraph but includes the week-to-week tasks that should be considered when following the Flourish Approach. The exact week in which each tasks happens may vary slightly, but should remain within the same few-week span as laid out here. This schedule was followed for the development of the Flourish Approach: Experience collection.

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PART 2 PLANNING

The Flourish Approach Week to Week Planning Model

How to utilise the Flourish Approach in any industry sector

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CHAPTER 6 IDENTIFYING PARTICIPATING PRODUCERS

“The Flourish Approach has identified knitwear as a potential generator of well-being for the producer and the environment. Research carried out by organisations such as Stitchlinks has shown the therapeutic capabilities of the activity of knitting. Furthermore, having worked with underprivileged women in Nepal, co-founder Sarah Dixon has seen first hand the importance of knitwear in terms of income generation and empowerment�

(Dixon, 2011, p. 5) LEFT: Cooperative knitter, Nepal SOURCE: Sarah Dixon The Flourish Approach

The Experience has worked with producers in Nepal, Peru, India, Africa, and England to plan component production and test global applicability.

In practice though, brands should focus on utilising components from countries that can minimise the distance travelled and carbon footprint.

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SIDE NOTE

The Flourish Approach: Experience Producer Profile: Eco Valley Wildlife S.A.C., Peru Eco Valley Wildlife S.A.C. is a company based in Lima, Peru that was established in 2003 (Eco Valley Wildlife S.A.C., 2011). This cooperative works with women in different communities such as Huaral in the Highlands and Capa Chica in Puno. Not only do they produce for fashion brands, they also have their own brand, Qaytu (Trujillo, 2011a).

Eco Valley Wildlife was a great company to work with given their diverse abilities in knitting, which include cable knits, crochet, macramĂŠ, machine stitching and more.

While they do develop their own garments they are also able to work with various small- and medium-sized companies and individual producers.

Eco Valley Wildlife S.A.C. works with artisans and local materials making them a key manufacturing partner for the Flourish Approach (Trujillo, 2011b). Given the countries abundant production of raw materials they are able to use local organic cotton, pima cotton, and wool allowing for material diversity (Eco Valley Wildlife S.A.C., 2011).

Material diversity is one of the main ways the Flourish Approach measures well-being for the environment so this is an important to consider when finding producers and establishing production systems.

A great advantage of working with an established ethical production company such as Eco Valley Wildlife is their variety of skills and materials. Often, as is the case here, there will be women at various skill levels that produce different knits well and they will also have both local materials and mass-produced organic fibers available. A full evaluation of well-being opportunities for Eco Valley Wildlife S.A.C. is available in the appendix.

All photos from Eco Valley Wildlife S.A.C. SOURCE: Qaytu.com 46

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The Flourish Approach: Experience Producer Profile: The Association for Craft Producers (ACP), Nepal The Association for Craft Producers (ACP) is a not for profit fair-trade organization in Kathmandu, Nepal (ACP, 2009). ACP offers a variety of products including fashion goods, ceramics, carpentry and homeware.

The fabrics and designs blend traditional styles of craft with some modern production and making technologies (ACP, 2011).

ACP was founded in 1984 and has grown from 38 producers to 1200 artisans. It is an established ethical production company situated at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains (ACP, 2011). They undertake a variety of environmental actions from wastewater treatment to rainwater harvesting that not only utilizes and preserves natural systems, but creates an efficient production system (ACP, 2009). Due to the variety of product offerings, ACP believes it is necessary to pay attention to their various dyes and use water based pigments and hydrochloric acids (ACP, 2011).

While identifying Nepali producers we found a variety of local materials available, the most abundant of which is Asian cotton. Companies such as The Natural Fiber also offer Nepali bamboo, hemp, nettle and banana fabric that can be knitted by a variety of producer groups in the Kathmandu area.

The Experience designer Sarah Dixon is familiar with ACP from her time working with cooperative knitters in Nepal and recognized them as a company committed to well-being and satisfying market needs. As their website says, they are “a socially oriented and commercially viable enterprise� (ACP, 2011). Having worked in Nepal, Sarah is familiar with several producer groups in the Kathmandu area that would be well suited for a production system such as the Flourish Approach. We decided to work with ACP for the initial Flourish Approach study for multiple reasons including the wealth of information available on their website and their affiliation with the World Fair Trade Organization. Nepal may be a small country compared to many textile-producing countries, but its resources and skills are abundant. There is also a lot of opportunity to create shared value and opportunities for well-being. ACP is just one of the many groups in Nepal that has potential to develop into a synergistic system.

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SIDE NOTE All photos from the Association for Craft Producers SOURCE: www.acp.org.np

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The Flourish Approach: Experience Producer Profile: Save Our Skills (SOS), Africa Based in the UK Save Our Skills is not a production company but rather an organization that aims to maintain cultural heritage in Africa.

The SOS website establishes their values clearly by stating, “Man has taken millennia to develop his manual skills.

Skills which allowed him to survive, evolve and progress even under adverse conditions, and which - in due course - also brought culture and civilization into his existence�

(SOS-Save Our Skills, 2011). The Flourish Approach met with SOS in order to seek out collaboration with a group with similar goals. Through SOS we were able to find African yarn producers who cultivate cotton in Africa as well as weavers and knitters who create their own unique designs. None of the components for the Flourish Approach: Experience were produced by SOS-related knitters, but the connection and opportunity remains important to the idea of synergetic systems. The SOS target market is in the luxury market in contrast to the mass-market appeal of the Flourish Approach: Experience. At the current time the market appeal and goals of SOS do not line up with the needs of the Experience, but organizations such as these are key partners to keep in mind for variations or collaborations in product lines (Phillips, 2011).

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SIDE NOTE All photos from the Save Our Skills Africa SOURCE: www.sossaveourskills.org

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CHAPTER 7 TRANSPORTATION FROM THE PRODUCER TO THE BRAND

How do you create environmental well-being in a global system? The

ABOVE LEFT: Cargo ship.

SOURCE: sustainabilityninja.com LEFT: Cargo airplane.

SOURCE: modelhelicoptersphoto.com

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earth is different from Africa to Asia to Europe to the Americas and in all the little places in between, so there can be no blanket statement to create environmental well-being through transportation. This is why the Flourish Approach looks at environmental well-being in each region individually.

This may seem complicated and time-consuming, but in fact, it is not.

Every sourcing company in the world already looks at each production location individually; they just may not look at it from the same perspective.

Awareness of transportation impacts can improve environmental well-being and also prepares a company for potential legislation on pollution and environmental impact (Hethorn and Ulawicz, 2008).

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Begin with Nearby Producers

PART 3 PRODUCTION

An opportunity within the Flourish Approach is for companies to utilise producers nearby in order to allow for quicker response but also to minimise transportation distances. While The Flourish Approach research examined producers in many far away parts of the world, showing that the system can be utilised globally, it would be ideal that as the system is integrated into a company structure key producers will be in relative proximity to the location of said company. As the Flourish Approach is not involved in the race to the bottom and is rather a concept to compete in the global marketplace as labour wages fluctuate and key apparel producing nations shift, finding collaborators in close countries has a lesser impact on the retail-ability of final garments. Also, as can be seen in the World Skills Map, the diversity of skills available around the globe makes any country a possible partner.

An opportunity within the Flourish Approach is for companies to utilise producers nearby in order to allow for quicker response but also to minimise transportation distances.

As the Flourish Approach is implemented into new businesses, a brand in Europe would be likely to use Eastern European, African, and Western Asian producers while brands in the United States would be likely to us Central and South American producers. This does not eliminate the carbon

Producer Clusters

Ideal clusters of producing nations coupled with retailer nations.

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footprint and impact of transportation on the environment, but it allows the brand to be kept in check and work towards a better system of global transportation. The most carbon-neutral approach to clothing production is to produce locally. Unfortunately, local production tends not to create financial well-being for retailers in the mass-market. The Flourish Approach is intended to improve the apparel systems by taking into account globalising trends though, not getting rid of them.

Minimise the Carbon Footprint On average, 75-80% of a garment’s lifecycle impact comes from the use phase of a garment (Dunn, 2009), but the Flourish Approach still believes it is important to try to minimise environmental impact at each stage. In general, airfreight emits five times as much carbon (per pound of material) as a lorry or standard freight truck and utilizing the railway is twice as efficient as trucking (A Response to Climate Change, 2009). A ship, on average, releases less carbon than the most efficient train (10-40g CO2/metric ton versus 30-100g CO2/metric ton) (Anonymous, 2011). The Flourish Approach ranks available options of transportation as: ship, train, truck and airplane.

Estimated Carbon Emission Comparison

between Flourish Approach: Experience Producer Partners The Flourish Approach

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Conclusion The Flourish Approach was created to show that sustainability and big business can co-exist, and beyond that, small communities can thrive within the global context. In the six months that the Flourish Approach: Experience was developed numerous individuals and groups participated in the ideation and production. Many have shared their personal stories with us as a testament to the success of the system. Flourish Approach systems can be set up anywhere in the world using a variety of groups and individuals to knit unique components to join together in a worldwide garment. Not only do we encourage you to test the Flourish Approach, we also encourage you to make changes and adapt it to your business or your brand. For more information on the Flourish Approach: Experience and the research that went into the development of this industry reference, see the accompanying The Flourish Approach: Experience Design Report and The Flourish Approach Dissertation.

Contact The Flourish Approach was developed through the MA Fashion and the Environment course at the London College of Fashion with support from the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. If you would like to learn more about the Flourish Approach or The Flourish Approach: Experience please contact the author through the Flourish Approach website or her personal website (information provided below).

Please visit our website at http://theflourishapproach.com or visit our facebook page at ‘The Flourish Approach’. You can also follow us on twitter at FlourishRedress.

The Flourish Approach http://theflourishapproach.com

Danielle Sponder Systems Researcher danielle@theflourishapproach.com www.daniellesponder.com danielle@daniellesponder.com The Flourish Approach

Sarah Dixon Design Researcher sarah@theflourishapproach.com www.theflourishapproach.com sarah@sarahdixon.com 63

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Business Model

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The Flourish Approach: Abstract