Coral bleaching, floods, bushfire, biodiversity decline and extinction – as we witness the effects of climate change, amid a stream of reports warning of the cost of government inaction, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. How to counter the gloom? We asked six...
Why we should adopt a wellbeing wardrobe
If things don’t change fast, the global fashion industry could use a quarter of the world’s remaining global carbon budget to keep warming under 2℃ by 2050, and use 35% more land to produce fibres by 2030. While this seems incredible, it’s not. Over the past 15 years,...
Explainer: What is the promise of a global agreement to reduce plastic pollution?
The flow of plastic entering the ocean is expected to double by 2040. To prevent this tsunami of difficult-to-decompose waste, experts have proposed a global treaty which could oblige all nations to reduce how much plastic they produce and emit to the environment. At...
Meet the Design Futures Lab 2022 Creatives
Nine teams of two creatives each have been selected for the Design Futures Lab 2022. Included in the lab are fashion designers, artists, gamers, product designers and creative technologists who will be making immersive media prototypes.The Design Futures Lab is a...
Low-technology: Why sustainability doesn’t have to depend on high-tech solutions
It’s a popular idea that the path to sustainability lies in high-tech solutions. By making everyday items like cars electric, and installing smart systems to monitor and reduce energy use, it seems we’ll still be able to enjoy the comforts to which we’ve become...
How we can use the law to make the fashion industry fairer to women and Earth
In March 1911, in a garment factory in Manhattan, over 100 people, mostly Jewish and Italian women migrants, some as young as 14, were trapped inside and died as the factory burnt to the floor. Management had locked the doors. In the following years, women workers...
Explainer: Large scale chemical pollution now exceeds the safe limit for life on Earth
The production and release of plastics, pesticides, industrial compounds, antibiotics and other pollutants is now happening so fast and on such a large scale that it has exceeded the planetary boundary for chemical pollution, the safe limit for humanity, a new study...
Why you should care about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
You have heard about that the United Nations has set 17 goals towards sustainable development, known as the Sustainable Development Goals. Do you understand what are they? Why do we have them? And how can they help us frame our decisions in a way that positively...
Don’t look Up! has a surprising amount to tell us about economics, much of it useful
In the new Netflix sensation Don’t Look Up, two astronomers, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo Di Caprio, discover a massive comet heading towards Earth, and desperately try to warn the US president, played by Meryl Streep. Their hope is the government will...
Open Call for Design Futures Lab 2022
Have you got a sustainable fashion story you want told in an immersive digital format? Electric South, Twyg Magazine and Crossover Labs are excited to invite dynamic creative technologists and digital storytellers to apply for the Design Futures Lab 2022.