Sustainique

This website represents educational material in the form of a toolkit and the mentoring programme developed in the frame of the SUSTAINIQUE project. Here you will find useful information about sustainable textile innovations that are available on the market and about some of the tools you can use to start innovating your activities in order to build a thriving textile business. You can navigate through all the pages and resources for free. We suggest to take the time to explore all the content and to indulge on all the external resources and links for a better and thorough understanding of the implications related to innovating your textile design activity. 

The world of textiles is constantly changing. New materials, known as textile innovations appear everyday. Most of them fall within the area of sustainability. However, sustainability is a complex concept, including not only environmental matters, but also economic and social aspects. Of course that at the moment the environmental aspects is the most pressing one, especially for the fashion and textile industry.  However, economic and social aspects, such as market viability of textiles introduced on the market or the fair labor practices involving their production are equally important to assess sustainability of textiles in a holistic way. The huge impact of the textile industry on the market is therefore manifold - from climate change, business needs, market shifts and to the infinite strategies that designers and businesses can define their path in the textile world. Measuring textile sustainability becomes thus a complex endeavour. 

Remember that it does not matter the size of your business or sole trader activity. You can still make the best out of what you have and implement your business management with up-to-date tools that will help you throughout the innovation process. Still, the most important thing is committing to the resources you have and make the most out of it; remembering that they have to be preserved at their best in order to give back the fruits you expect. If you are to start your own textile and design business, we suggest to deepen your knowledge by all means available and to rely on sustainable energy, resources and machines, as well as to integrate social and cultural matters into your work (e.g. preservation of textile traditions, locally-sourced materials etc).

Navigate the website, learn something new and make your business ideas thrive by embedding textile innovations in your work.