UNEP India, NIFT join hands to offer sustainable fashion course module

Looking at the overwhelming response, we may make Design Innovation for Sustainable Fashion a mandatory course for students or even a certificate or diploma course in the future because sustainable fashion and sustainable development is the need of the hour, said NIFT Director General Shantmanu.

United Nations Environment Programme and the National Institute of Fashion Technology have joined hands to offer a general elective course on 'Design Innovation for Sustainable Fashion' to all students of the institute.

More than 20 batches of this elective course are currently running across 17 NIFT campuses in India, a release stated. Addressing a webinar, UNEP India Country Office Head Atul Bagai said UNEP India is working on several initiatives on sustainability in the textiles sector. ''We are helping the (Textiles) Ministry to develop a roadmap for a sustainable textile hub in Surat for assisting sustainability and circularity in this sector. We are also working on a study on sustainability in the Indian Handlooms and UNEP has been working with Lakme Fashion Week on the Circular Design Challenge," he said. Speaking at the webinar, Textiles Secretary Upendra Prasad Singh said sustainability has to be practised in the entire value chain of textiles, not just in the production but also in the consumption of textiles. "Looking at the overwhelming response, we may make 'Design Innovation for Sustainable Fashion' a mandatory course for students or even a certificate or diploma course in the future because sustainable fashion and sustainable development is the need of the hour," said NIFT Director General Shantmanu. The textile industry is one of the largest global industries, with a market value of approximately USD 3.3 trillion, accounting for 2 per cent of the global GDP; one in six people in the world working in a fashion-related industry.

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