Convo No. 1
Kristian Steensen Nielsen is a PhD fellow in sustainable consumer behaviour at Copenhagen Business School (CBS). His research centres around understanding how behavioural change can contribute to reducing the environmental impact associated with individual and household behaviours.
What is your personal relationship to sustainability & fashion?
My interest in sustainability arose during my bachelor’s when I was studying at University of Auckland. This was the first time that I was thoroughly introduced to the challenges and scope of climate and environmental problems. Since then I've had a major interest in environmental issues, which have influenced both my private and work life. This journey has led me to reconsider all my consumption practices including clothing.
My journey into the fashion domain was initially not out of interest, but rather that my PhD scholarship was funded by Mistra Future Fashion, which meant that I had to conduct research in this domain. However, I have since grown to enjoy studying clothing consumption for a multitude of reasons. I'm strongly convinced of the absolute necessity of reforming the way clothing is produced and consumed due to its profound environmental and social consequences.
When trying to understand how behavioural change can contribute to reducing the environmental impact, that we individually inflict on our planet, how do you go about it?
I specifically focus on two issues: (1) what are the individual and household behaviours with the highest associated environmental impacts (e.g., carbon dioxide emissions); and (2) to what extent does self-control ability influence the outcome of behaviour change efforts.
A part of this research is within the clothing domain where I currently work on three research projects. The first project investigates whether there is a correspondence between the intents of self-identified environmentally friendly clothing consumers and the actual environmental impact of their consumption. In other words, do people who want to be environmentally friendly clothing consumers actually have a lower environmental impact than the average consumer. This work is carried out in collaboration with environmental engineers from the Technical University of Denmark. The second project is related to the Mistra Future Fashion project and explores consumers acceptance and use of alternative business models within the clothing industry, such as clothing libraries, fashion leasing, and repair services in-store. The last project investigates how the use of different self-control strategies influence the extent to which consumers adhere to their clothing goals (e.g., to purchase clothing products with a low environmental impact).
Any interesting findings to share?
Most of my research on clothing is still ongoing, but there are still a few initial findings that may be of interest. Last year we conducted a large consumer survey across four countries (Germany, Poland, Sweden, and United States). Here we found that the consumer segment who reported purchasing in the most environmentally friendly way was also the consumers who purchased the most clothing products. Results from the second project, described above, show that only a limited number of consumers within these four countries have used alternative business models before. Unfortunately, also only a limited number report an intention to use them some time in the future. It should, however, be noted that some consumers (particularly younger and female consumers) exhibited a greater interest in these alternative business models. Nonetheless, our results indicate that there is still much work to be done in order to make people more aware of the environmental impacts of clothing consumption and, most importantly, to effectively change their consumption behaviour.
A question that especially interests me at the moment is understanding which fabrics are actually environmentally friendly. As far as I know, most fabrics have both pros and cons relating to its environmental impact. This complexity also makes it difficult to provide simple guidance to consumers in terms of which products they should favour. For instance, is organic cotton much better than conventional cotton? And if so, in what regards? This is something our engineering colleagues are currently investigating.
Do you consider yourself an optimist or pessimist when it comes to the current and future state of the fashion industry?
I must admit that I'm not overly optimistic about the prospects of reforming the fashion industry. The reason being that I'm a strong advocate of reducing consumption levels, which is not only in direct conflict with fast fashion, but also the current way of doing business. That being said, very interesting research is currently being conducted on new, more environmentally friendly fabrics and effective ways of recycling fibres. Unfortunately, this is, to my knowledge, not yet scalable to the extent necessary to constitute real alternatives to conventional fabrics, although this might change rather quickly. I am, however, optimistic that we will see a significant growth in the number of clothing products produced with organic cotton.
Any tips/advice for people who want to contribute to making fashion more sustainable?
I believe the most important strategy is organisation. Building a large consumer movement that demands fundamental change in the fashion industry is in my opinion the most effective means to achieve not just incremental changes. On a more personal level, I would advise people to (1) adopt a somewhat minimalistic approach to their clothing consumption and/or to (2) support new emerging initiatives that help extend the longevity of clothes, such as clothing libraries, repair shops, or fashion leasing. And perhaps most importantly to adopt a healthy level of skepticism towards sustainability claims made by fashion companies.
To know more about Mistra Future Fashion or other research initiatives check out the Hey Mag resource page.
