Always New from Türkiye - Green Skills Award 2024 Finalist
Turkish fashion and design teacher, Nilüfer Günay, is at the centre of a quiet revolution in clothing use.
An instructor at an all-female vocational school in Zonguldak, east of Istanbul on Türkiye’s Black Sea coast, Nilüfer wanted to do something to address the appalling environmental record of the global fashion industry.
Tackling an industry that is responsible for 5 percent of global carbon emissions, and 20% of water pollution, where textile production uses 20 tonnes of water to process just a single kilogram of cotton, may be a tall order, but that did not worry Nilüfer. Believing in doing what you can – thinking globally and acting locally – she and English teacher Eda Onur – teamed up to launch the “Always New” project to repurpose old fashion items.
“We women love to buy new, different clothes,” Nilüfer says, recalling a seminar she gave to fellow teachers at her college.
“We always buy something new, but rarely wear them. We use them for a short time, and then either forget it in the wardrobe or throw it away.”
The environmental waste and pollution impact in what is known as “fast fashion” is exacerbated by industry approaches to unsold clothing – which is often simply dumped into landfill by big companies.
Concerned that women’s addiction to fashionable new clothing items was creating an environmental nightmare, she launched her project to create new from old.”
“Always New is about repurposing clothing destined for landfill sites, reducing the footprint of fast fashion on the environment,” Nilüfer says. “But it is also about sharing our knowledge to inspire others to make eco-friendly choices.”
Although it may be modest, the potential for Always New to be replicated across the world, makes it one of the ten finalists in the European Training Foundation’s Green Skills Awards 2024.
The award is a global initiative, first introduced in 2021. It provides ideas and inspiration from all over the world about innovation happening thanks to individuals and institutions. The initiative has become a source of good practices that can inspire people everywhere to make real change happen in creating circular and carbon-neutral economies and societies.
As well as working with a small group of women at the college, where armed with needle-and-thread and their Always New vision, Nilüfer advises on creating new clothing from old, she runs seminars and workshops to spread enthusiasm on fashion practices throughout the community.
“The fashion industry has become the second most polluting industry globally, after gas and oil, led by consumers constantly driven to buy and consume cheap clothing,” Nilüfer adds.
She firmly believes the initiative can make a real difference: “If we develop awareness about preserving global resources, and refrain from using more thanb we need of products, such as clothes and plastics, we can become conscious about utilising everything wisely. We can leave our children a more beautiful, liveable world.”
And she sees her project as one that transcends cultures: “Sewing is also universal, just like music. Just as melodies and notes are the same everywhere, joining the parts of a sewing machine is also the same everywhere.
“Various methods and techniques may exist, but it is important to be conscious about what we want to achieve first. If our awareness is high about preserving the ecological balance of the world, we can discover new methods ourselves.”