Member Article

WRAP’s ‘Love Your Clothes’ calls on Leeds businesses to help tackle negative clothing behaviours

The Love Your Clothes campaign, developed by environmental charity WRAP to help change the way the UK citizens buy, use and dispose of clothing to more sustainable, is calling on businesses in Leeds to partner-up to teach consumers positive clothing behaviours and help the planet.

The ‘Love Your Clothes’ Habits for Life project aims to raise awareness of the value of clothes and encourage people to make the most of the clothes they already have, after the national charity found over half (55%) of people in the UK now view the environmental impact of clothing as severe.

The project includes a series of workshops to teach the public key skills in repairing, altering or upcycling clothes and is looking for businesses to champion and partner with the initiative. Partnership includes helping with the organisation of workshops, becoming a Super Crafter or providing venues and equipment. Organisations can also support, by amplifying Habits for Life and ‘Love Your Clothes’ messaging across their own channels and networks.

The project is launching after a WRAP study found that one in five (20%) UK citizens say the first lockdown has made them think differently about clothing and as a result, one in four (27%) people are repairing or altering clothing instead of throwing away, one in five (19%) are deciding to keep an item of clothing for longer.

Recruitment for project partners is underway, with organisations including Zero Waste Leeds already onboard as partners. In return for support, Habits for Life provides a platform to promote the businesses own initiatives that similarly encourage citizens to adopt more sustainable clothing behaviours.

An example of these initiatives is Zero Waste Leeds which runs projects aimed at making Leeds a zero-waste city by 2030. Two recent ones - Leeds Fashion Futures and Leeds School Uniform Exchange - have brought together a community of passionate people committed to promoting sustainability in clothing. Habits for Life supports these initiatives in encouraging citizens across Leeds to uptake sustainable clothing behaviours.

Stephanie Campbell, Habits for Life lead comments: “As far back as a century ago, the city of Leeds was known for its skill in the textile industry, so starting our ‘Love Your Clothes’ campaign here and calling upon its local businesses to help us was a natural choice.

“Habits for Life business partners will support the project by using a specific campaign toolkit to publicise the workshops and engage with citizens via online channels using the provided campaign assets. However, businesses can choose the level of support they can offer ranging from helping to organise the workshops and even providing venue space to helping by promoting the PR and social media activity.”

The Habits for Life ‘Love Your Clothes’ project received funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation to deliver this two-year project across Leeds, focusing specifically on engaging communities on sustainable behaviours around clothing.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Gatehouse .