walking into friends + family, a vintage shop on massachusetts avenue in cambridge, the scent of incense sticks is like mild sunshine, leading people into the depths of the store. in a small room inside the shop, two hangers are filled with common brands but in unique designs. a woman with shoulder-length blonde hair wearing a blue baggy check pattern shirt and wide-fit raw denim pants looks ready to showcase her new products. 

this is michmade, an independent upcycling fashion brand in boston, where designer michaella sheridan makes clothes useless to someone else into valuable commodities and proves that the future of fashion does not have to be wasteful.

every year, the average american consumer discards 81.5 pounds of clothing per person, resulting in approximately 11.3 million tons of textile waste. however, only 15% of used textiles are recycled annually, and half of that ends up in landfills or rotting piles. according to the environmental protection agency,  17 million tons of textile waste were dumped in landfills in 2018.

upcycling: giving old clothes a new life

sheridan’s work is part of an initiative that aims to slow down the cycle of textile waste by providing a new life to discarded clothes. 

“i love american sportswear brands like polo ralph lauren because they are known for having high-quality materials, so i’m attracted to items like that,” sheridan said. “you can take a men’s shirt from a thrift store and wear it, but what excites me is to take those items and give them a little spice like changing them in a way that makes them feel new and exciting.” 

a red tank top originally a red sox t-shirt, a yellow knit with a smiling red lobster emblem representing boston, and a men’s yellow polo stripe shirt transformed into a business casual women’s blouse with playful ruffles; sheridan is giving a new identity to discarded clothes. sheridan treats each piece of fabric like a piece of the puzzle and readjusts them to make something new. in her hands, old clothes are reborn with a new story and purpose.

“i was born and raised in boston and that informs my taste and style,” she said. “the lobster is a culmination of all that — upcycling meets boston imagery and a core part of my brand is that i’m not fussy. it all just works.”

the challenges of sustainable fashion

sheridan’s passion for upcycling began in her childhood with her grandmother and her mother. 

“my grandmother taught me to sew when i was a little kid and my mom taught me how to sell at a flea market,” she said. “i started sewing things and putting them at her booth. that was five years ago, and it’s just snowballed from there.”

however, continuing a sustainable fashion business hasn’t been easy.

“oh my god, a thousand times, yes,” she said, when asked if she’s struggled. it is difficult for her to make the product line consistent and cohesive because working with found materials is unpredictable. “it is a challenge to make everything feel like it’s part of the same family. i don’t buy fabric, so i work with what i find.”

sustainability encompasses everything from the origin and composition of fabrics to the processes used in manufacturing, distribution, and post-consumer impact. according to anna sáez de tejada cuenca, a professor at iese business school in navarre, spain, “the word ‘sustainability’ has many meanings, some people think about material properties if the material is made of an organic fiber, recycled fiber, or is going to be recyclable later.”

fashion brands like patagonia and outerknown embrace using organic materials or developing recycling technologies; however, it is complicated to say that all brands are sustainable.

“shein is now trying to claim to be more sustainable and they are trying to develop recycling technologies. but that’s the biggest contradiction because they are a model for selling a lot of stuff cheaply with less durable stuff,” sáez de tejada cuenca said. “the ultimate change will come when clothes are more durable and we buy less.”

big brands and greenwashing greed

brands are relying on mass production while they market their sustainability initiative. ongi min, a former environmental department fellow from south korea’s anseong si sustainability committee, thinks it is a marketing strategy. 

“i call them greenwashing,” she said. “shein or h&m say they are making an effort to be sustainable by using recycled materials. however, it doesn’t change much because customers keep buying cheap clothes.” 

sheridan pointed out the problem of fast fashion in the environmental crisis. “it’s built on greed and a lack of understanding of what we actually need,” she said. “the constant demand for cheap and disposable clothes creates so much waste. that’s not sustainable.” the industry will be viewed as sustainable when the cloth itself becomes sustainable. 

giving consumers a choice

upcycling fashion brands like michmade are giving customers a way to feel as though they are contributing to solving the issue in their daily lives by changing their consumption patterns. 

“i used to shop fast fashion without thinking about it,” said jane park, a first-year graduate student at berklee college of music, standing in a crowded flea market in fenway.  “i used to feel powerless and depressed when i heard about environmental issues including textile waste piling up in landfills, but shopping from upcycling designers gives me a way to be part of the solution.” 

jennifer song first discovered michmade at a flea market in fenway. she was drawn to the brand’s unique selection of clothing, especially a crop top emblazoned with a boston sports team logo. 

“i bought this cropped t-shirt that used to be a red sox t-shirt which is something you can always see if you live here. the fit was perfect, and i love that it has a story behind it,” she said. “i’m literally wearing something that has a past life. that makes it feel special.”

sheridan also values connecting with her customers. “if someone is emotionally attached to a shirt they bought from a designer, they’ll take care of it and make it last longer,” she said. 

while social media has helped her grow her brand, she values the time that she spends meeting with customers in person even more. “they allow me to talk about what i do, explain the work, and show how these pieces can be styled,” she said. “i want people to understand the emotional value behind upcycling.”

the disused buildings of our past can be a way of preserving culture while simultaneously following sustainable initiatives of our present day. it’s up to us to harness the potential of these buildings and preserve our beautiful, one-of-a-kind, planet. 

in this video, i discuss how giving building stock a second chance allows for communities to grow without the unnecessary use of undeveloped land. using these buildings can also allow for local economic stability by hiring locally and keeping the resources of the buildings within the community. we can build a better future together.

this video is all about local action individuals can take against the litter problem in the foggy bottom neighborhood of washington, d.c. in 2022, residents of d.c. on average produced 5.87 lbs. of waste per person per day, much of which can often end up on the ground. annually, this can amount to well over 2000 lbs. of individual waste production.

this video aims to teach viewers about the issue at hand by adding visual elements that the audience can engage with, understand, and motivate other citizens to do their part – not just in d.c. but around the world!

indonesia is a country rife with biodiversity and natural resources. it is also a country where climate change is not a distant future, but a widespread reality. imagine if new york was sinking into the ocean, and you have jakarta, the nation’s coastal capitol and the fastest-sinking city in the world. when pope francis and the grand imam signed a joint declaration this summer calling for “decisive action” toward climate change, catholic communities all over the archipelago celebrated his arrival with their own climate-centered community action. in yogyakarta, catholic community organizers are working diligently toward climate action.

denmark is one of the best recycling nations in the world, thanks to an extensive waste management system. waste in denmark is sorted into various categories, such as plastics, metals, glass, food waste, cardboard and more. this kind of waste sorting happens at both a household level, where residents sort their small, everyday items, and at a larger, citywide level, where residents and companies drop off their sorted waste at recycling stations. i visited a recycling center in copenhagen to get a sense of what kinds of strategies are implemented to create such an effective waste management system.

with chapters across the world, freecycle gives community members the ability to post unwanted items for free pick-up or post inquiries for wanted items as well. in washington, d.c., the community interacts via the facebook page, washington dc freecycle. 

one person’s trash is another’s treasure

according to the epa, in 2018, the average american produced 4.9 pounds of trash daily, totaling 1,789 pounds of trash per year, of which only 32.1 percent was recycled. 

“our mission is to build a worldwide sharing movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources and eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community,” freecycle mission statement states.

the freecycle website states their network comprises 5,000 local town groups with over 11 million members with the washington d.c. freecycle group amassing over 13,200 members. the only rules to join is everything a user posts must be “free, legal and appropriate.”

“membership is free, and everything posted must be free, legal and appropriate for all ages,” the website states. 

one member of washington d.c. freecycle is arun isukapalli, 41, is a tech product manager who said he found the group when moving back to the washington, d.c. metropolitan area about a year ago from new zealand with his wife. 

although the previous owners of their residence left items behind, he said they got “almost everything” they needed off facebook marketplace or freecycle. 

“we haven’t bought anything new,” isukapalli said.

building community

one admin of the group is gloria strange, 35, who is a massage therapist and said in an ideal world” freecycle should not be “niche group” but rather a government run organization. strange said she wants to see a more “collectivist” idea of community rather than having to rely on purchasing more items or help from the government. 

“i would like for us to see community as the pillar instead of the government,” strange said. 

strange also said she downsized to a smaller apartment three years ago and used freecycle to give away some of her furniture. but she said the most items people try and give away are cardboard. 

another admin of the d.c. chapter, garner chandler, 64, is retired but now volunteers as the co-vice president of the woman’s national democratic club. chandler said she moved to washington, d.c. from the panhandle of florida approximately two and half years ago where she found the group online. 

she recalls one woman on the site who posted how she was starting over after her husband left her and she was renting a one bedroom apartment with two babies. chandler said between half a dozen and a dozen people asked to help through giving away some of their unwanted goods. 

“our community is obviously passionate about the environment or helping each other out,” chandler said. 

joining freecycle

chandler said all one has to do to join washington d.c. freecycle is answer a few simple questions, get approved by a moderator and they are in. she said she has accepted people in as little as four minutes. 

“it’s easy to join the group,” chandler said. 

even if one joins facebook with the intent of only joining freecycle, or is a new user, it does bar not them from joining washington d.c. freecycle unlike other groups. instead, their posts are reviewed by admins for the first 30 days while they are in the group. 

the organization can help college students living in dorms save money and the environment. 

at the beginning of the school year, a college student can find free furniture and other necessities during move-in season. while dumpsters are often overflowing with reusable goods at the end of the school year, students can post their reusable goods on freecycle to give away. 

if interested in getting involved in washington d.c. freecycle, click here. or if not located in the washington, d.c. metropolitan area, look up “freecycle” on facebook and click join group.

“leading the charge,” the theme of an april 10 kellogg climate conference at northwestern university, brought together an all-stars cast including leaders from coca-cola, gm energy, start-ups, academics and conservation groups to redefine business strategy in a changing climate.

the mission? counter climate change and find new profit pipelines there as well.

a standing-room-only crowd of business executives, experts, and students explored company examples of innovative and cost-effective climate change mitigation at the all-day conference sponsored by the kellogg school of management’s energy and sustainability club and the trienens institute for sustainability and energy at northwestern.  

meghan busse, associate professor of strategy at the kellogg school of management kicked off the conference with what she called, “a greenhouse emissions breakdown,” in other words, a lively lowdown on the challenges ahead.

according to busse, in the u.s, one-fourth of gas emissions come from electricity generation, one-fourth from transportation, one-fourth from industrial processes, and one-fourth covering both agriculture and buildings. the conference program covered all these sectors and how each one is providing new solutions and innovative technology to decrease emissions.

“our goal of the day is to leave you all feeling armed to become climate capable leaders where you are willing to ask questions and start thinking about no matter what your job is, how does climate plan into my strategy?” said busse.

the incentive to act for companies is linked to the impact on their pockets. climate change is expected to cost u.s. businesses over $1.3 trillion in the next three years. such high stakes have pushed industries around the world to seek massive technological and business transformations. but experts say that refusing to invest is climate solutions will cost even more in losses due to rising costs, resource uncertainties, extreme weather damage, and other factors.

speakers at kellogg conference emphasize solutions

keynote speakers included business leaders across the board to share the specifics their companies have implemented to prioritize sustainability as a core component of strategic decision-making. coca-cola is the number one plastic polluter in the world, according to coke’s executive vp bea perez who took center stage her talk on “navigating sustainability and profitability.” she focused on the importance of accountability, transparency and support from top corporate leaders for a company to move toward sustainability. she asked the audience to envision the size of 120,000 olympic size swimming pools, the pyramid of giza and every single volcano in the world to show the massive amounts of waste that the coca-cola company generates. she emphasized solutions.

businesses and consumers should examine a company’s business and sustainability reports to see if sustainability strategy is embedded into the finances of the company, she said. without that commitment, the measures are irrelevant, said perez, global chief communication, sustainability and strategic partnerships officer at coca-cola.

according to the coca-cola company’s 2022 business & sustainability report, the company aims to “make 100% of our packaging recyclable globally by 2025— and use at least 50% recycled material in our packaging by 2030.” perez explained how water, packaging, and climate goals are interconnected and that by creating a circular economy for packaging, they can lower their carbon footprint.

in their 2022 business & sustainability report, coke claimed that 90% of its packaging is recyclable, 15% of plastic bottles made with polyethylene terephthalate (pet) are recycled, and that 61% of packaging (is) collected for recycling. coke’s innovation of a 100% plant-based bottle prototype is a key component to helping them achieve their sustainability goals. “if you don’t have strong communities, you can’t have strong businesses,” said perez.

infrastructure challenges

at the scaling the energy transition panel, key challenges focused on infrastructure development. shashank sane, a kellogg alum, and evp at transmission invenergy, said that supply chain delays are making it challenging for businesses to amplify the grid system. projects may take up to a decade from supply chain to completion and a major challenge that business owners face is the lack of policy and government support for funding.

at a global scale this sets the u.s behind. for comparison, germany which backed up by government policy, is capable of placing massive national orders for supplies, while business owners in the u.s are limited by their procurement resources. consequently, the lack of infrastructure affects other sectors like the transportation sector.

companies such as nexteramobility which focuses on developing, constructing, and operating power projects to produce electricity are restricted in mass capacity by the infrastructure of grid placements. however, even with the use of a massive electric plant to compensate for fuel, yann kulp, director business development, fleet electrification advisory, argued that having one major source of emissions is better than having millions of sources of emissions, making the carbon capture in one place more manageable.

insight into regenerative farming

the panel seeds of change: cultivating a sustainable future in food and agriculture introduced ancient processes and cutting-edge initiatives as change-makers. sonali lamba, co-founder and executive director of the soil inventory project, brought to light how regenerative farming practices could be a greater part of the solution for fighting climate change and restoring our soils through farming.

regenerative farming, as lamba explained, roots back to indigenous practices. this kind of farming focuses on supporting local farmers and even funding their businesses to incentivize healthier farming practices that avoid pesticides, other chemical and erosion-causing practices that harm both earth and our health.

“why not pay people to do things the right way,” said meera bhat, global director of equitable conservation for the nature conservancy.

this year’s kellogg climate conference brought together an audience of about 300 business leaders and mba students, each with different perspectives on how to decrease their carbon footprint in their business sector. regardless of their business strategy, attendees shared kellogg’s mission that day to educate, strategize and mobilize, for the sake of change.

doris alvarez is a graduate student at northwestern university’s medill school of journalism. 

the brick is known as ‘filter cake,’ and although they are not yet ready to be used in construction, the company is producing up to 100 tons of filter cake bricks each day that would have otherwise been shipped to landfills.

by replacing raw materials with recycled ones, the production of filter cake bricks also means that there will be less need for quarrying, which produces over 15.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year in the uk alone.

ensuring an effective waste management strategy is not only very important for community development, but is also a vital component of supporting climate action. unfortunately, indiscriminate disposal of wastes is a challenge that exists across different classes and regions of nigeria. 

according to the nigerian federal government’s 2020 nigerian national waste management policy, “nigeria produces a large volume of solid wastes out of which less than 20% is collected through a formal system.”

even in nigerian academic institutions, this issue is prevalent. as a fresh masters student in obafemi awolowo university (oau) in 2015, i realized that despite my school’s green reputation and beautiful exterior, illegal waste disposal was still a problem on campus.  

so in 2016, while serving as the president of my university’s environmental control and management student association (ecomsa), i teamed up with lagos-based african clean up initiative (formerly known as passion house) and sustyvibes to launch the oau campus cleanup. 

with the help of nigeria’s national environmental standard and regulation agency (nesrea) and several other clubs on campus, we collected approximately 100 bags of solid wastes which were channeled into appropriate receptacles. after this event, the participating organizations and individuals started organizing weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly cleanup exercises within the school.

one of the attendees at the oau campus cleanup event was mayokun iyaomolere, who would later go on to form his own organization, the plogging nigeria club. 

plogging is a concept created by erik ahlstrom, an activist from sweden who combined his love for hiking and running, with the practice of picking up litter. iyaomolere’s organization is functional across 18 university campuses in nigeria with 1,600 members who have collectively picked more than 30 tons of waste since the program’s founding in 2018. 

i caught up with iyaomolere to discuss the progress of his club and his experience with sustainable waste management on nigerian school campuses. this conversation appears below, edited for length and clarity.

wa: what does ‘sustainable waste management’ mean to you?

mi: i would describe sustainable waste management as a holistic set of policies, infrastructure and behaviors that contribute to reduced use of items, proper disposal of wastes, finding afterlife for some wastes and carefully ensuring all final wastes do not end up polluting the environment.

wa: did you participate in the oau campus cleanup 2016?

mi: yes, i participated in the cleanup.

it was one of my first major volunteering experiences. i enjoyed the company of colleagues from academia and (others who) i looked up to in the environment industry in nigeria.

wa: what did you gain from the experience? 

mi: i think it was a landmark campus cleanup event that set the pace for hundreds, if not thousands of events that had happened after it.

i met new people and consolidated on existing relationships. something about doing impactful work together makes me connect better with people.

i also participated in publicity for the event… this would become a skill for me as i grew into the environment space in nigeria.

wa: what inspired you to starting plogging nigeria club?

mi: beating plastic pollution with young people. that really was the initial drive as conversations around plastic pollution became more topical.

after we started plogging nigeria on the oau campus in june 2018, we hosted another massive cleanup at the university in august 2018. the network i built and competencies i developed during the 2016 cleanup really came in handy and helped set plogging nigeria on an ascending trajectory.

wa: what other programs or projects does plogging nigeria hold to engage the youth and educate the public on waste management?

mi: today, plogging nigeria continues evolving. we’ve done quite a lot, and will be doing even more. what we started as just jogging and picking up litter has metamorphosed into one of the most consistent and present environmental organizations in nigeria and indeed, africa. 

we have established about 30 subsidiary campus and community clubs since june 2018 when we started in oau. we have over 1,600 volunteers presently. with these clubs, we’ve had over 600 plogging episodes. 

we run an experiential environmental education school called the green switch academy. at the academy, we train people on the basics of environmental sustainability, solid waste management, climate change and the sustainable development goals amongst other things. we have organized 26 cohorts of the academy, with the latest being in february 2024. we have trained exactly 1,659 persons from over 20 countries at the academy.

another major project for us is ploggathon, a fusion of the words, “plogging” and “marathon.” we led more than 200 people to run a 10km distance in the capital city of nigeria, competitively cleaning wastes along the way. 

we also run these virtual end of year campaigns where we try to educate people on living sustainably during the yuletide period. we’ve done that five years in a row now and have partnered with over 80 organizations for this campaign alone. we have reached millions of virtual audiences through it.

these are some of the things we have done and will build on. generally, we try to employ plogging, cleanups, arts, circularity, research, and development as advocacy tools for environmental and climate education.

wa: what’s the future of waste management in nigeria and the role of young people?

mi: the future of waste management in nigeria! there’s still a lot of work to be done really. we need to put in proper policies and infrastructure that will cause and enforce a change in our waste management behavior in nigeria.

at plogging nigeria, we’ve learned from our work that there’s a dire need for policies, backed up with infrastructure, and stringent enforcement systems. advocacy is not enough. when one learns not to throw wastes indiscriminately away, they need to have a bin close by to dump the wastes. 

recycling is gaining ground around the country, but is only one part of it. we need better waste disposal and collection systems, landfill management, and should begin to really explore the potentials of generating energy from wastes. there’s a whole lot really, and there’s a wide open sky of opportunities in the future of waste management in nigeria. young people have started taking leadership of the waste management space in the country and i believe it will continue to remain so as we aim to rid nigeria of every form of dirt.

looking ahead

as the movement toward sustainable waste management continues to grow across nigerian campuses, it is imperative for school management to support environmental clubs situated within their schools and extend collaborations to governmental agencies to further solidify effectiveness in the waste management sector of the communities and of the country at large. 

activists across the campuses are beginning to voluntarily train and educate young people in elementary and secondary schools, this already helps the new generation to be aware of the need for waste management as part of the measures for community development. thus, this movement of young people shall play a huge role toward sustainable management of wastes.

as i embark on my journey toward sustainable fashion, my article “denim re-done: making ethical fashion choices at home” sheds light on the eye-opening reality of the fashion industry i both adore as a medium for my self expression, but which also poses challenging negative impacts on our environment.

discovering that each pair of denim jeans guzzles a staggering 3,781 liters of water, made me rethink how i could use my old jeans that i no longer wore. in the whirlwind of fast fashion, where trends come and go at lightning speed, i’ve embarked on a personal project.

it’s about more than just repurposing forgotten garments; it’s a journey of rediscovery and sustainability within my own closet. collaborating with my mom, we’ve transformed overlooked pieces into new treasures, challenging the status quo of consumption and embracing a future where every garment tells a story of renewal, not waste.

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