Sustainability Awareness Week 2023
Schedule of Events
All events are free and open to the FIT community only. Faces and Places in Fashion is open to the public, as are virtual events.
* Denotes virtual event.
Check Out Our Presenters and Panelists
Monday, October 16
Katie Murphy Amphitheatre
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Dr. Joyce F. Brown, President, FIT
Dr. Karen R. Pearson, Chair, Sustainability Council
Faces and Places in Fashion: Launching a Clean Company, from Beauty to Apparel
Caroline Gordon, Adjunct Professor, Fashion Business Management
Kristy Caylor, Cofounder, For Days
Shannon Goldberg, Founder and Executive Board Member, Izzy Beauty, and FIT Alumna
Networking Mixer
Katie Murphy Amphitheatre, Lower Level
Following the panel, all guests are invited to join us for cocktails and light refreshments as we celebrate the kickoff to the 2023 Sustainability Awareness Week with a networking mixer. Meet alumni, faculty, staff, and students from across the campus who are working in sustainability, and find out more ways you can get involved. Representatives from FIT’s Sustainability Council, our campus bookstore Follett, and the FIT Foundation and Alumni Relations will be on hand to answer your questions and provide information on upcoming events and other initiatives. We look forward to seeing you there!
Tuesday, October 17
Join us outdoors for interactive activities led by faculty, staff, students, and alumni to learn about sustainability projects and events at FIT.
Hometown Flower Co.
Interactive flower demonstration using local, seasonal, and sustainable flowers
Jaclyn Rutigliano, Cofounder, Hometown Flower Co., and FIT Alumna
FABSCRAP Fabric Sale
FABSCRAP is a pre-consumer textile waste recycling service, an affordable art and fashion supply store, a sustainability education center, and a community hub. Partnering with over 800 fashion, interior design, and entertainment brands, FABSCRAP saves hundreds of thousands of pounds of fabric from landfills annually. Check out the FABSCRAP booth to shop saved-from-landfill fabrics, leathers, yarn, and sample garments, all at thrift store prices.
Erin Wiens, Community Lead, FABSCRAP INC
FIT Style Shop Vintage Sale
Izzy Herber, Vintage Head Buyer, FIT Style Shop
Community Dye Bath
Learn about indigo, refresh an old item or garment, and take part in creating a community banner. The indigo used has been grown, harvested, and dried from a local New York farm with the help of Textile Development and Marketing students. The muslin has been collected from draping classes on campus. Garments brought to dye must be T-shirt size or smaller.
Dr. Evelyn Rynkiewicz, Assistant Professor, Science and Math
Digital Protest Tee Photobooth
Dress up with Snapchat filters developed by FD400-602, Professor Andrea Diodati's Clo3D class. From veganism to fast fashion, each student created a T-shirt filter to raise awareness about their favorite sustainable issue. Digital fashion can be considered the most sustainable way to dress with zero physical product being produced. Post your digitally dressed pic on social media and raise awareness within your community! #sawweek
Andrea Diodati, Assistant Professor, Fashion Design
Movie Screening: The True Cost
Student Dining Hall
The True Cost is a documentary film exploring the impact of fashion on people and the planet.
Sustainability Grant Recipients
Urban Woodworking Initiative: Reclaim and Reuse
Steven Ceraso, CDP Technologist and Instructor, Spatial Experience Design
Anabelle Dimond, President, FIT Furniture Making Club
The Fabric Recycling Program: Muslin Recycling
Brooke Singer, Student
Sustainability Opportunities at FIT
Sustainability Grants
Learn how to apply for a $5,000 Sustainability Grant, administered by FIT’s Sustainability Council in support of projects related to social, environmental, and/or economic areas of sustainability.
Dr. Evelyn Rynkiewicz, Assistant Professor, Science and Math
Ethics and Sustainability Minor
The minor in Ethics and Sustainability draws on the expertise and critical thinking of faculty across the campus in all three undergraduate schools. Minoring in Ethics and Sustainability provides students with knowledge and tools to understand and critically assess environments, materials, economics, aesthetics, philosophical concepts, social responsibility, and the impact of actions. The minor is designed to facilitate understanding of the interrelatedness of topics, information, and applications related to ethics and sustainability.
Dr. Evelyn Rynkiewicz, Assistant Professor, Science and Math
Ann Cantrell, Associate Professor, Fashion Business Management
Sustainable Materials and Technology Minor
The Sustainable Materials and Technology minor provides an understanding of the different kinds of challenges faced by our society and teaches students how to apply fundamental scientific knowledge and practice to help solve real-world problems. This minor will complement students’ major-course knowledge and prepare them to lead their industries to a more sustainable future.
Dr. Karen R. Pearson, Chair, Sustainability Council, Chair, Science and Math
Genspace Scholars
The FIT Genspace Scholars Program provides FIT undergraduate students the opportunity to develop and complete research at the state-of-the-art Genspace Laboratory in Brooklyn during the spring semester. Learn more about the scholars program and how to apply.
FIT GenSpace Scholars
Casey Lardner, PhD, Lab and Operations Manager, Genspace
Dr. Karen R. Pearson, Chair, Sustainability Council, Chair, Science and Math
Student Campus Sustainability Initiatives
Sustainability Council students will showcase FIT student activism actions to combat climate change and promote the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. They will also launch the new “Don’t be Trashy” campaign, asking students to bring their own reusable cutlery to the Dining Hall to reduce plastic waste and to support other sustainability efforts on campus.
FIT Sustainability Council Student Members
Dye Garden Rooftop, Feldman Center, Ninth Floor
Come see FIT's Natural Dye Garden and learn more about our dye plants, including native and pollinator species. Learn how we've been harvesting, help us collect our dye yield for storage, and take part in a natural dye workshop. Students, fill out this interest form and get on the Dye Garden Student Mailing List.
Whitney Crutchfield, Assistant Professor, Textile Development and Marketing
Feldman Center, DTech Lab, C110
Holes in your favorite jeans? Moths ate your sweater? Can't sew a button on? Come to the SAW mending workshop and learn the sustainable art of clothing repair. Basic hand sewing as well as more advanced techniques like jean patching and sweater darning will be taught. Bring a garment to fix or just bring your interest to learn. Supplies will be provided.
Nancy Brooke Smith, Mending Expert
Business and Liberal Arts Center, Room B307
Join Laura Novich, Sustainability Strategist at Hyloh and FIT alumna, and FBM Associate Professor Ann Cantrell as they discuss setting, measuring, and managing sustainability targets in the business world today. Real-world case studies will be reviewed as well as Laura’s journey to Hyloh.
Ann Cantrell, Associate Professor, Fashion Business Management
Laura Novich, Sustainability Strategist, Hyloh, and FIT Alumna
Forward New York Soho • 468 Broome Street
Event is open to FIT Students only.
EVENT IS SOLD OUT: To be added to the waitlist, please email [email protected]
Golden Goose invites you to celebrate Sustainability Awareness Week with CEO of the Americas Silvia Merat at their Soho Forward store, a place that celebrates craftsmanship, artistry, and sustainability.
Ann Cantrell, Associate Professor, Fashion Business Management
Silvia Merati, Chief Executive Officer, Americas, Golden Goose
Wednesday, October 18
Feldman Center, C802
Join Kristen Fanarakis, designer and founder of Senza Tempo, in conversation with Andrea Diodati's Draping II class. Hear how Fanarakis’s commitment to sustainability impacts both the small and big decisions of running a U.S. fashion brand, from seam allowance to small business advocacy. Fanarakis also educates her customers on how to buy quality fashion and avoid green washing, which you can read more about here: https://senzatempofashion.com/a/blog/sustainable-fashion-myths
Kristen Fanarakis, Founder, Senza Tempo
Andrea Diodati, Assistant Professor, Fashion Design
Thursday, October 19
Dubinsky Student Center, 8th Floor Alcove
Elizabeth Sanger, Attorney, Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Division of Advertising Practices
Dr. Evelyn Rynkiewicz, Assistant Professor, Science and Math
Feldman Living Room, C904
Dr. Theanne Schiros, Associate Professor of Science and Mathematics and National Geographic Wayfinder, will be in conversation with Dr. Karen R. Pearson, Chair of the Sustainability Council and the Department of Science and Math. Their conversation will focus on innovation and exploration that can be used to accelerate the development and use of regenerative materials that support circularity.
Dr. Theanne Schiros, Associate Professor, Science and Math
Dr. Karen R. Pearson, Sustainability Council Chair; Chair, Science and Math
Dubinsky Student Center, Eighth Floor
Tour the FIT Green Roofs and learn about their history and how they positively impact our environment.
From the street level, FIT’s imposing brutalist buildings are a signature of New York City’s urban landscape. Look at FIT from above, and a greener picture emerges. Nearly an acre of green roofs, made up of hardy succulents in the genus Sedum, offer numerous environmental benefits. They insulate the buildings, improve air quality, help cool the neighborhood, and absorb rainfall, mitigating flooding in the city’s sewers during storms. Also, atop the Shirley Goodman Resource Center, solar panels provide electricity for the grid.
Al Palmaccio, Assistant Director of Engineering and Sustainability
Learn about FIT's green roofs beforehand in this video.
Feldman Center, Room C903
Join Mallorie Dunn, FIT Fashion Design and CCPS professor and founder of inclusive clothing brand SmartGlamour, for a talk on how societal fatphobia has added to sustainability issues within the fashion industry. In this talk, we will cover fashion overproduction by the numbers, the reality of US customers, ethical fashion access issues, and actions we can all take to correct these problems.
Mallorie Dunn, Adjunct Professor, Fashion, CCPS, and Precollege
Friday, October 20
Feldman Center, Room C804
Join us to make and mold vegan dish soaps from waste cooking oils. While the oils saponify, we will explore the history and science behind soap, the nature of fragrances and additives, and, of course, play with some bubbles.
Julian Silverman, Assistant Professor, Science and Math
Online Event
The FIT Genspace Scholars Program provides FIT undergraduates the opportunity to develop and complete research at the state-of-the-art Genspace Laboratory in Brooklyn during the spring semester. Learn more about the program and how to apply in this prerecorded event.
Dr. Karen R. Pearson, Chair, Sustainability Council
Questions?
Contact the FIT Sustainability Council at [email protected].