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Learning Outcomes

1.9 Debate the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from their consumption of goods and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development through consumer behaviour

2.5: Investigate the positive and negative impacts on a community of an organisation from an economic, social and environmental perspective

Learning Intentions

I will learn about consumer responsibilities

I will reflect on the impact of my shopping.

I will learn about the impact businesses have on the environment through the production of clothes.

Learning Experience

We will define fast fashion

We will explore fast fashion through the video attached, in pairs, using the question quadrant

We will examine SDG 12 through the lens of fast fashion.

Key Skills Development

Managing Information & Thinking: mindmap

Using 'coggle.it', PowerPoint or handwritten

Encourage students to divide 'Fast Fashion' into key headings/areas e.g. production, consumption, unethical companies, ethical companies.

They should use sub topics to explain key points

Creativity: brainstorming

Frame the question/s carefully to maximise students’ imaginative ideas, their exploring of solutions, and their offering of actions to act sustainably.

Set a realistic time limit, around 10/15 minutes.

Encourage contributions: emphasise there are no right or wrong answers at this stage,

Students may work individually, in pairs or in groups.

Teacher coordinates without adding their evaluation to comments presented by the students.

Assessment: Student-organised debate

Students select a topic

Students appoint a chairperson, timekeeper etc

Students co-create success criteria

Demonstrate knowledge of the issue using facts

Demonstrate understanding of the values involved in fast fashion

Present an informed view

Use persuasive language

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Local flooding video

2.5: Investigate the positive and negative impacts on a community of an organisation from an economic, social and environmental perspective

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Ireland flooding due heavy rain hit Wexford town

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3.11 Evaluate the benefits and costs of a government economic policy and assess who enjoys the benefits and who bears the costs.

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3.11 Evaluate the benefits and costs of a government economic policy and assess who enjoys the benefits and who bears the costs.

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Heavy rain raises fears of flooding in Co Roscommon (rte.ie)
Students will read the article, research government economic policy in relation to flooding and the associated costs. Keeps the focus local for students. Using the Key skills students will be able to research and evaluate a simple Government policy. Students will us a spider diagram to demonstrate the costs and benefits

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Residents in the Lough Funshinagh area of Co Roscommon have said heavy rain overnight is now threatening to flood a number of houses in the area.

Roscommon County Council is putting measures in place to try to raise local roads and pump out floodwater in the Ballagh area.

30 mm of rain in the west and midlands is wreaking flooding havoc again for families ...we have the latest from Rahara in Roscommon on 6.1 @rtenews pic.twitter.com/PqYv54HjX9
- Ciaran Mullooly (@ciaranmullooly) January 19, 2021

Overnight, 20-22mm of rain led to the deterioration of conditions on the lake, which is a natural turlough nearby.

The council was called to the scene of flooding at the Taughnara junction on the Ballinlough to Cloonfower crossroads this afternoon.

It is understood personnel from the council are likely to erect signage to divert traffic away from the affected area.

The flooding concerns were raised by Councillor Paschal Fitzmaurice who has made representations to the local authority to alleviate the problem at the site.

Gardaí have advised motorists to drive with extreme care if making necessary journeys today.

Residents say that Lough Funshinagh, which normally disappears, has not reduced in levels for a number of years now and is a constant threat to homes in the area.

Over the last ten days residents of one house have already been evacuated and another home is under threat today.

Locals say the failure to restore this turlough to its natural levels, through a simple overflow pipe into the River Shannon, is now hitting the area badly and is not only affecting residents and local people but wiping out wildlife and the environment.

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Heavy rain raises fears of flooding in Co Roscommon

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Residents in the Lough Funshinagh area of Co Roscommon have said heavy rain overnight is now threatening to flood a number of houses in the area. Roscommon County Council is putting measures in place to try to raise local roads and pump out floodwater in the Ballagh area.

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Link to Learning Outcome 2.4 The rights and responsibilities of Employers/Employees from a legal, ethical, environmental and ethical point of view.

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'Workers need their basic rights': Out on the Dunnes Stores picket lines

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Workers rights

Learning outcome 2.4
Distinguish between the rights and responsibilities of employer and employees from a legal social environmental and ethical practice

Learning intention
- differentiate between employer and employee
- identify the employers responsibilities towards the employees unerring the four headings
- define globalization
- list 3 negative of globalization

Learning experience
- discussion on employers responsibilities
-

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Answer the questions below to work out your total annual carbon emissions in tonnes.

The browser does not support JavaScript. The calculations in the Carbon Gym will not work. Please try accessing the Carbon Gym using another browser.

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Calculate your carbon footprint | Just One Earth

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Learning Outcomes

1.9 Debate the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from their consumption of goods and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development through consumer behaviour

2.5: Investigate the positive and negative impacts on a community of an organisation from an economic, social and environmental perspective

Learning Intentions

Define 'sustainability'

Discuss examples of businesses acting in a sustainable manner

Discuss examples of businesses acting in an unsustainable manner

Learning Experience

Brainstorm definitions of sustainability - put common terms in a key word bank on board

Display the link above on Amazon Alexa on projector. Discussion on how this ties in with sustainability. What are laws in relation to young people working in Ireland, minimum wage, etc.

Think-pair-share: 1) Examples of businesses acting sustainably 2) Examples of businesses acting unsustainably

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Hundreds of schoolchildren have been drafted in to make Amazon's Alexa devices in China as part of a controversial and often illegal attempt to meet production targets, documents seen by the Guardian reveal.

Interviews with workers and leaked documents from Amazon's supplier Foxconn show that many of the children have been required to work nights and overtime to produce the devices, in breach of Chinese labour laws.

According to the documents, the teenagers - drafted in from schools and technical colleges in and around the central southern city of Hengyang - are classified as "interns", and their teachers are paid by the factory to accompany them. Teachers are asked to encourage uncooperative pupils to accept overtime work on top of regular shifts.

Some of the pupils making Amazon's Echo, Echo Dot and Kindle devices have been required to work for more than two months to supplement staffing levels at the factory during peak production periods, researchers found. More than 1,000 pupils are employed, aged from 16 to 18.

Chinese factories are allowed to employ students aged 16 and older, but these schoolchildren are not allowed to work nights or overtime.

Foxconn admitted that students had been employed illegally and said it was taking immediate action to fix the situation.

The company said in a statement: "We have doubled the oversight and monitoring of the internship program with each relevant partner school to ensure that, under no circumstances, will interns [be] allowed to work overtime or nights.

"There have been instances in the past where lax oversight on the part of the local management team has allowed this to happen and, while the impacted interns were paid the additional wages associated with these shifts, this is not acceptable and we have taken immediate steps to ensure it will not be repeated."

The company defended its use of schoolchildren, however, claiming that "it provides students, who are all of a legal working age, with the opportunity to gain practical work experience and on-the-job training in a number of areas that will support their efforts to find employment following their graduation."

Foxconn said it would increase the number of regular workers and review salaries immediately.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company would not tolerate violations of its supplier code of conduct and regularly assessed suppliers, often using independent auditors, to monitor compliance and improvement.

"If we find violations, we take appropriate steps, including requesting immediate corrective action," said the spokesperson.

"We are urgently investigating these allegations and addressing this with Foxconn at the most senior level. Additional teams of specialists arrived on-site yesterday to investigate, and we've initiated weekly audits of this issue."

Teenagers who spoke to researchers said the factory work has no relevance to their courses and they have been pressed into working overtime.

Xiao Fang*, 17, started work at the factory on the Amazon Echo production line last month.

Fang, who is studying computing, was given the task of applying a protective film to about 3,000 Echo Dots each day. Speaking to a researcher, she said she was initially told by her teacher that she would be working eight hours a day, five days a week, but that had since changed to 10 hours a day (including two hours' overtime) for six days a week.

"The lights in the workshop are very bright, so it gets really hot," she said.

"In the beginning, I wasn't very used to working at the factory, and now, after working for a month, I have reluctantly adapted to the work. But working 10 hours a day, every day, is very tiring.

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Students on internship at the Foxconn factory in Hengyang, China. Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain/China Labor Watch

"I tried telling the manager of my line that I didn't want to work overtime. But the manager notified my teacher and the teacher said if I didn't work overtime, I could not intern at Foxconn and that would affect my graduation and scholarship applications at the school.

"I had no choice, I could only endure this."

According to the documents, Foxconn managers need students, who mostly stay in the factory's dormitories, to work overtime to meet production targets; those who refuse are let go by the factory, researchers found.

A document states: "Student interns who don't work overtime will not only affect the production goal but also affect their willingness to work. Student interns need to work overtime."

The documents were leaked to labour rights group China Labor Watch and shared with the Guardian.

They reveal how the factory has turned to schoolchildren to fill the gaps after struggling to recruit permanent staff. One document describes how a factory needs roughly 7,000 workers to handle production from April to October, but says that it is only able to recruit an average of about 30 workers a week and needs to hire agency workers and interns to fill the gap. Interns can account for up to 15% of the workforce.

"To fulfil the shortage of the labour force and lower the cost of labour recruitment, we would like to cooperate with local schools to recruit student interns," read one document before listing the advantages of recruiting schoolchildren.

"Low labour cost, can hire a large amount of labour at once, easier to reassign additional workers to other positions, strong ability to learn new things."

Company documents show that Foxconn pays interns a total of 16.54 renminbi an hour (£1.93) inclusive of overtime and other add-ons, with a basic salary of £1.18 an hour. Experienced agency workers, known as dispatch workers, cost the company 20.18 renminbi an hour. The documents also show that Foxconn has cut the rate paid to interns since last year.

The factory pays schools 500 renminbi a month for each pupil they provide. One company document shows agreements with four schools to provide a total of 900 pupils to work in the factory, though other documents outline plans to recruit up to 1,800 interns this year.

Foxconn's documents show that the company has wrestled with the issue of hiring schoolchildren as workers but decided that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Notes from a meeting to review the intern-hiring policy on 25 July this year reveal that without students the factory may not be able to hit production targets. The meeting was told that students are cheaper to hire than agency workers, which the factory also uses to cover peak production periods as an alternative to hiring regular staff.

The meeting was told that some children were refusing to work nightshifts and overtime, and there was a need for teachers to intervene.

"Nightshift line leaders should check in with student interns and teachers more often, and report back any abnormal situation so that teachers can persuade students to work nightshifts and overtime."

If children continued to refuse to work the additional hours, the meeting was told that teachers should file a resignation letter on their behalf.

The student intern recruitment review meeting, which involved staff from the Echo production line, the production control department and the human resources department, reached an agreement to recruit student workers in large numbers. "They advised to recruit student workers to resolve the labour shortage problem during peak season," a record of the meeting notes.

Amazon agreed a deal with Foxconn in 2017 to add 15 new production lines to the factory and hire thousands of new workers to ramp up production of its Echo and Echo Dot devices and Kindle tablets.

But last year the Observer revealed how the factory was using more agency workers than permitted by Chinese law to avoid having to recruit permanent staff to cover busy months. Many were working overtime hours far in excess of the usual legal limit of 36 hours a month.

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Dave Limp, senior vice-president of Amazon Devices, at a product launch in Seattle. Photograph: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

In response, Amazon admitted that independent auditors had identified areas of concern at the factory. Foxconn promised to reduce its reliance on agency staff and said agency workers were to be offered the chance to become regular employees.

Commenting on the latest revelations, Li Qiang, executive director of China Labor Watch, called on Amazon and Foxconn to allow independent monitoring of working conditions to prevent breaches of labour law.

"It is only when the company allows independent parties to monitor the working conditions that rights violations at the factory can be effectively addressed," he said.

"Recruiting a large number of dispatch workers and forcing student workers to work overtime and nightshifts is illegal, and Foxconn is well aware of this. However, because it increases their profits, they will continue to recruit dispatch and student workers."

The leaked documents also reveal that Foxconn has faced problems as a result of the trade war between the US and China, with the cost of raw materials increasing and some orders lost.
* Name has been changed. Topics

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Schoolchildren in China work overnight to produce Amazon Alexa devices

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Hundreds of schoolchildren have been drafted in to make Amazon's Alexa devices in China as part of a controversial and often illegal attempt to meet production targets, documents seen by the Guardian reveal. Interviews with workers and leaked documents from Amazon's supplier Foxconn show that many of the children have been required to work nights and overtime to produce the devices, in breach of Chinese labour laws.

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1. Get on your bike!

Cycle to work, school or college. If you drive or get a lift somewhere you produce a lot more carbon dioxide emissions than if you cycle and produce none! Cycling is also a great fun way to get exercise and stay fit. Walking is good too but not as fast!

2. Change to a green energy provider

Changing to a green electricity provider like airtricty means that the electricity that powers your home will be 100% from renewables, instead of from the burning of coal and peat in power stations. Its easy, you just need to call them and ask them to change you over, they don't even have to come out and fit anything special to your house. So convince your family or housemates to have clean, green energy in your home.

3. Consume less

Every gadget, toy, magazine or piece of clothing that you buy has had an impact on the environment just by being made. The energy to make products almost certainly comes from the burning of the fossil fuels that cause greenhouse gas emissions. Then products have to travel long distances, often half way accross the world to get to us. Be happy with the important things in life, most of them aren't made in factories. Buy what you need rather than everything you want.

4. Plant a tree

Trees are great becasue they actually absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and store it as wood in their trunks, branches and roots. Trees look great too and provide shelter and homes for wildlife. And it feels good to get close to soil and nature by planting something.

5. Pledge to Fly less

Flying is the most damaging form of transport for the atmosphere. Flying is the fastest growing contributor to greenhouse gases in Ireland. Go to www.lowflyzone.org and pledge to be free from flying for a year.

6. Become a vegetarian

Cows are responsible for a big part of Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions. This is because in Ireland we have a big national herd and all cows fart a lot. Their farts contain methane which is a very powerful grenhouse gas, many times more warming than CO2. It also takes many times more energy to produce the same amount of calories from meat as it does from plants. Being a vegetarian or eating less meat means you are using less of the world's precious food resources.

7. Grow you own vegetables

Growing your own vegetables means that your food doesn't have to be transported long distances from the farm to supermarket and then from the supermarket to your house. If you grow the vegetables yourself then you can be sure that you are not eating pesticides or other chemicals that might be sprayed on your food.

8. Talk about Climate Change

Talk to your friends and family about how important climate change is. Explain how our pollution is making the lives of poorer people even more dificult than they already are. Don't be shy, your opinion on this is as valid as anyone elses. Read books and websites and educate yourself to better answer peoples questions.

9. Write to politicians

Email or write to your TDS and local councilers. Tell that them you think Ireland needs to do its fair share to help prevent runaway climate change. Tell them that it is an issue that is important to you and that you would consider this issue when choosing who to vote for.

10. Set up a campaign group

Get together any other people that you know who are interested and start to campaign locally on climate change. Put up posters and hold regular meetings. Decide together the best way that your group can get Ireland to reduce its greenhouse gas pollution.

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1. Get on your bike! Cycle to work, school or college. If you drive or get a lift somewhere you produce a lot more carbon dioxide emissions than if you cycle and produce none! Cycling is also a great ...

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Learning Outcomes
2.4: Rights and Responsibilities of Employers/employees from a legal, ethical, social and environmental point of view
1.1: Wage slip and calculation of personal tax

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Because we'll help you save money!

Switching suppliers with us is super quick and easy and since we started back in 2010 we've helped hundreds of thousands of customers to save on their household bills. Whether you're looking to switch to a cheaper energy supplier, a faster broadband provider, or are moving home and need to get set up with your new utility providers, we can help.

What's more we're the only website in Ireland that allows you to compare prices and switch across a range of energy, broadband, mortgage and insurance providers meaning you can save on all your household bills in the one place.

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Irish Comparison Site. Never Overpay On A Bill Again | bonkers.ie

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Because we'll help you save money! Switching suppliers with us is super quick and easy and since we started back in 2010 we've helped hundreds of thousands of customers to save on their household bills.

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Learning Intentions
1.  I will learn about the rights of workers and the rights of employers
2. I will learn how to read and understand a wage slip
3. I will learn how to calculate tax and work out my take home pay
4. I will learn about the workplace and the responsibilities I have as an employee

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Important resource for Climate change and flooding.

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Important resource for Climate change and flooding.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Bgikppynw

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An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power | Live In Conversation with Al Gore | Paramount Pictures UK

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Important resources for sustainable living and climate change

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Important resources for sustainable living and climate change

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An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power | Live In Conversation with Al Gore | Paramount Pictures UK

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Inequality in terms of access to education and 

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Inequality in terms of access to education and 

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Uganda's schools reopen to students after world's longest pandemic disruption

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Uganda's schools have been fully or partially shut for more than 83 weeks.

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FoodCloud is a social enterprise with a mission to transform surplus food into opportunities to make the world a kinder place.
https://food.cloud/

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We connect businesses that have surplus food with Charities and Community Groups that need it.

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1.7
Consumer responsibilities

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Learning Experience:
1.  We will watch the above video on workers rights here in Ireland and as a class we will discuss the impact on both the worker and the company
2.  We will discuss the rights of the workers here in this situation and what had lead to this happening
3. We will also look at the responsibilities of the employer and the employees in this situation

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Impact of Consumer Choice - Globalisation and transport of goods and services

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Impact of Consumer Choice - Globalisation and transport of goods and services

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LO 3.6

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Thomas Hylland Eriksen - The world is overheated | Introducing 'Overheating'

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Why The Inequality Gap Is Growing Between Rich And Poor

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The truth behind fast fashion - Are fashion retailers honest with their customers? | DW Documentary

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Learning Outcomes
1.9
2.1
2.4
2.5

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The truth behind fast fashion - Are fashion retailers honest with their customers? | DW Documentary

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Penneys launch new clothes recycling scheme across its Irish shops

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Fast fashion retailer Penneys has launched a new clothes recycling scheme in its 36 stores across Ireland.

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https://www.farmersjournal.ie/climate-conversations-taking-action-on-household-food-waste-671664

Learning Outcome:
1.9 Debate the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from their consumption of goods
and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development
through consumer behaviour
2.5 Investigate the positive and negative impacts on a community of an organisation from
an economic, social and environmental perspective

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In late 2020, the Government officially launched Ireland's National Waste Policy 2020-2025. Among other things, it served to provide a roadmap to our approach to waste management. It aims to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030.
Serious problem
We've all been there: opening up the fridge only to find that long-forgotten tub of yoghurt or a slimy bag of lettuce.

We're only human and will likely never be able to cut our household food waste by 100%. But food waste, on a global scale, is at such a serious level that we need to start talking about it more and taking action.

If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter on the planet - just behind China and the US.

When we see food waste in our homes, we think to ourselves, "that's a shame", and perhaps vow to do better. But we rarely see or understand the climate impact food waste is having.
FoodCloud
Jessica Greene, brand and communications manager at FoodCloud (an Irish social enterprise which connects surplus food with community groups), says food waste can be a costly problem for the average Irish household.

"We all know wasting food isn't a good thing, but its link to the climate issue can be surprising to people," she says. "Globally, food waste accounts for four times more carbon emissions than global aviation emissions. In the average Irish household, €700-€1,000 worth of food is wasted per year. It's not just the wasted food; a huge amount of resources go into our food system: water, labour, shipping, transport - all of these things are also wasted when we throw away food."

FoodCloud began in 2012 when CEO Iseult Ward and co-founder Aoibheann O'Brien met and started talking about the issue of food waste. By 2013, they officially launched and started working with a few retailers around Ireland. Today, they connect retailers and surplus food with their network of more than 600 community groups and charities, both through their technology and also their three warehouses - one in Galway, one in Cork and one in Dublin - which deal with larger amounts of surplus food from higher up the supply chain.
Twin issues
"Today, we're tackling twin issues: food waste and food security," Jessica says. "This means ensuring the food doesn't go to waste and, also, that it finds a good home. Our technology is used in the UK and also across multiple food banks worldwide.

"To date, we've redistributed more than 59,000t of surplus food - the equivalent of 140m meals across both solutions - 38.5m of which were in 2021 alone (and 40m of those were in Ireland). By avoiding this food going to landfill, 188,000t of CO2 was avoided."
Doing your bit
The majority of food waste isn't necessarily coming from private homes, but from larger supermarkets and food supply companies. It's easy to despair when you think there is so little you can actually do. Tessa Clarke co-founded the global food waste app OLIO to help give more power to the individual.

The app connects communities through food sharing. For example, if you have surplus food from Christmas which you feel will go to waste, you can take a picture of the food and upload it onto your OLIO app. Community members who are also on the app will be alerted and can browse and request whichever food items they might like.

"I grew up with a pathological hatred for food waste," Tessa says.

"I spent years working in the digital space, so it was intuitive to think an app could help solve this problem. My co-founder Sasha immediately 'got' this idea - we researched food waste and immediately resolved to launch OLIO.

"The app is global and so far we've had items shared in 61 countries. What's amazing, though, is the demand for the food itself - half of all the listed items added to the app are requested in less than 21 minutes."

Tessa says they wanted to provide the individual with a way to act on food waste rather than wait for government or business-led initiatives, which have been painfully slow.

"We are big into individual empowerment," she says. "The real magic is the doorstep connection - there are lots of reasons why there might be too much food in the home. The problem is because we are no longer connected to our local community; we have no one to give that spare food to. People are building friendships [through our app] - over 40% of our community have said they've made friends since joining OLIO."
foodcloud.ie
It pays to be cool

In the market for new kitchen appliances? Consider models that will keep food fresher for longer

Many new models of fridge and freezer are not only the desirable A+++ energy rating, they offer functions like fast-cooling systems, which keep ingredients at the optimal temperature almost as soon as you put them away. Many freezers now also have a rapid-freeze function that keeps food tasting as fresh as possible, even after being frozen for weeks.

UK-based non-profit charity Wrap released a report on the Impact of more Effective use of the Fridge and Freezer - they found that the majority of food waste is coming from perishable foods which were either not stored properly (below 4°C in the fridge, properly wrapped or packaged) or not frozen in time.

They maintain that by simply reducing the temperature in your fridge to the recommended 4°C, you could add an additional three days of freshness to perishable foods.

Climate Conversations: changing materials and mindsets through the bioeconomy

Climate Conversations: engaging in a circular economy, part two

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Climate Conversations: taking action on household food waste

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In late 2020, the Government officially launched Ireland's National Waste Policy 2020-2025. Among other things, it served to provide a roadmap to our approach to waste management. It aims to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. Serious problem We've all been there: opening up the fridge only to find that long-forgotten tub of yoghurt or a slimy bag of lettuce.

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Rana Plaza Collapse Documentary: The Deadly Cost of Fashion | Op-Docs | The New York Times

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There’s an interesting Netflix episode titled The Motherhood Penalty that can prompt discussion on gender pay gaps. The article above is a UK example.

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British women still face a drastic "motherhood penalty", with those who have children earning up to 45 per cent less than those who do not, according to a study by researchers at UCL.

The report, published in the European Sociological Review, shows this disparity occurring across the six years after the birth of a mother's first child. In the first year wages drop by 28 per cent, equivalent to an average of £306 a month.

While the drop in pay predictably varies according to how many children a woman has and how many hours they can work upon their return, another factor is the age at which they become a mother. Those who have children in their thirties suffer less than younger mothers, possibly

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'Motherhood penalty' cuts earnings by up to 45%

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British women still face a drastic "motherhood penalty", with those who have children earning up to 45 per cent less than those who do not, according to a study by researchers at UCL. The report, published in the European Sociological Review, shows this disparity occurring across the six years after the birth of a mother's first child.

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Learning Outcomes:

1.7 Distinguish between and appreciate their rights and responsibilities as consumers
1.9 Debate the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from their consumption of goods and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development through consumer behaviour

Intentions:
Define food waste
Learn about the responsibilities as a consumer & producer
Have an understanding on which companies are ethical & sustainable

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America at Large: Nike must wake up to human rights

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The use of Uyghur labour in Chinese factories continues to be a huge cause of concern

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Penneys respond to Sustainability

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Penneys launch new clothes recycling scheme across its Irish shops

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Fast fashion retailer Penneys has launched a new clothes recycling scheme in its 36 stores across Ireland.

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2.3 Differentiate between employment, work and volunteerism, identifying and describing features benefits, rewards and careers within each
2 .4 Distinguish between the rights and responsibilities of employer and employee from a legal, social, environmental and ethical perspective
Learning Intentions
I will learn about rights and responsibilities of employers and employees
I will learn different types of work.
Learning Experience
Define different types of work
explore difference between self-employed and volunteerism.

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United for Human Rights: Videos, Worker, Employee & Child Labor Laws, UN Universal Declaration

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Watch video teaching the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including tenets governing worker and employee rights, labor laws, child workers, unions and workplace discrimination. Learn more about humanitarian groups like United For Human Rights protect against abuses and violation…

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#BackToSchoolUG

Here's what day 1⃣ of returning to school🏫 looks like for learners at St. Joseph Katabi Primary School in Entebbe, a @GovUganda UPE school. #ForEveryChild #Education #InvestInUGchildren #Uganda🇺🇬 
@Educ_SportsUg @JanetMuseveni @MorikuJoyce

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#BackToSchoolUG

Here's what day 1⃣ of returning to school🏫 looks like for learners at St. Joseph Katabi Primary School in Entebbe, a @GovUganda UPE school. #ForEveryChild #Education #InvestInUGchildren #Uganda🇺🇬 
@Educ_SportsUg @JanetMuseveni @MorikuJoyce https://t.co/sO4PA3K4xA

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#BackToSchoolUG

Here's what day 1⃣ of returning to school🏫 looks like for learners at St. Joseph Katabi Primary School in Entebbe, a @GovUganda UPE school. #ForEveryChild #Education #InvestInUGchildren #Uganda🇺🇬 @Educ_SportsUg @JanetMuseveni @MorikuJoyce pic.twitter.com/sO4PA3K4xA
— UNICEF Uganda (@UNICEFUganda) January 10, 2022

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#BackToSchoolUG

Here's what day 1⃣ of returning to school🏫 looks like for learners at St. Joseph Katabi Primary School in Entebbe, a @GovUganda UPE school. #ForEveryChild #Education #InvestInUGchildren #Uganda🇺🇬 
@Educ_SportsUg @JanetMuseveni @MorikuJoyce https://t.co/sO4PA3K4xA

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#BackToSchoolUG

Here's what day 1⃣ of returning to school🏫 looks like for learners at St. Joseph Katabi Primary School in Entebbe, a @GovUganda UPE school. #ForEveryChild #Education #InvestInUGchildren #Uganda🇺🇬 
@Educ_SportsUg @JanetMuseveni @MorikuJoyce https://t.co/sO4PA3K4xA

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#BackToSchoolUG

Here's what day 1⃣ of returning to school🏫 looks like for learners at St. Joseph Katabi Primary School in Entebbe, a @GovUganda UPE school. #ForEveryChild #Education #InvestInUGchildren #Uganda🇺🇬 
@Educ_SportsUg @JanetMuseveni @MorikuJoyce

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Sustainable living, climate change and flooding

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Sustainable living, climate change and flooding

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An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power | Live In Conversation with Al Gore | Paramount Pictures UK

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Food Waste: 1.9Debate ethical and sustainability issues that arise from the consumption of goods and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development through consumer behaviour.

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Food Waste: 1.9Debate ethical and sustainability issues that arise from the consumption of goods and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development through consumer behaviour.

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Raise their awareness of food waste and discuss possible actions/changes they and their family can make. Discuss the impact of Foodcloud and othere social enterprises working in this area.

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What is FoodCloud? Meet founders Iseult and Aoibheann

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Learning Outcomes
1.1 Review the personal resources available to them to realise their needs and wants and analyse the extent to which realising their needs and wants may impact on individuals and society
1.9 Debate the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from their consumption of goods and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development through consumer behaviour

Learning Intentions
We will distinguish between needs and wants
Outline our responsibilities as consumers
Reflect on the impact of consumer choices on food production and waste
Explore ways to overcome food waste

Learning Experience
Distinguish between needs and wants
Watch a video on food production and waste and a case in Singapore - student input using a worksheet
Think - pair-share - student brainstorming using menti.com, how can we overcome food waste
Individual Reflection - how do our choices impact on food production and waste

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3.1 - Explain how scarcity of economic resources results in individuals having to make choices; predict possible consequences of these choices

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Ocean Plastics Are A Huge Problem | WWF-Australia

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Learning Outcome 2.4 Distinguish between the rights and responsibilities of employer and employee from a legal, social environmental and ethical perspective.

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Learning Outcome 2.4 Distinguish between the rights and responsibilities of employer and employee from a legal, social environmental and ethical perspective.

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Learning Intentions:
- I will learn about the rights and responsibilities of an employer and an employee
- I will reflect on the social and ethical responsibility as an employer and an employee
- I will discover the importance of legislation governing workers' and employers' rights and responsibilities
Learning Experience:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWEoLC_yY2k
Explore the Debenhams campaign to link the learning to real-life context - studying the background to the conflict and the timeline of events as it unfolded - videos, newspapers articles, online articles, employee opinions, statements from Debenhams etc.
Strategy to develop key skills:
Brainstorming, group work analysis of timeline of events, performing desk research and gathering secondary data using ICT.
Assessment - Debate or role play scenario splitting the class into two sides - representatives for Debenhams and representatives for the workers. Affords students the opportunity to enhance key skills of communication, investigating etc.

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Global apparel industry facing structural decline

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Global apparel industry facing structural decline

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2.5 Investigate the positive and negative impacts on a community of an organisation from
an economic, social and environmental perspective
3.6 Explain how economic growth can impact positively and negatively on society and the
environment and justify the promotion of sustainable development

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Workers rights hand in hand with responsibilities

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Workers rights hand in hand with responsibilities

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Fast fashion is 'fast' in a number of senses: the changes in fashion are fast, the rate of production is fast; the customer's decision to purchase is fast; delivery is fast; and garments are worn fast - usually only a few times before being discarded.

The rise of fast fashion has had devastating consequences, from its reliance on plastic fabrics and its enormous carbon footprint to its erosion of workers' rights.

In this article we explain what we mean when we say 'fast fashion' and why it is so bad for people and the planet.

What is fast fashion?

In the last few decades, we have seen fashion trends changing more and more quickly. Pressures on workers to produce more and at lower prices have grown alongside pressures on consumers to turn to the newest trends.

Fast changing trends

At its heart, the fast fashion business model relies on consumers endlessly buying more clothes. Brands tempt consumers by offering ultra-cheap garments (for example, Missguided's £1 bikini) and ever-changing new ranges. At the time of writing, fast fashion brand Shein featured 21,139 clothes under the 'New in' section of its website.

Fashion brands have long used new styles and lower prices to attract customers, but previously brands would plan new ranges many months, even years, in advance. The pace of change was relatively slow and there were fewer products on offer. In comparison, fast fashion is focused on responding to ever-changing consumer tastes as quickly as possible.

For example, in the BBC's 'Breaking Fashion' show we see Manchester-based fast fashion company, In the Style, reproducing a bodysuit worn by Kylie Jenner. The company manages to have the piece designed, manufactured and on sale within 10 days of the piece first being worn publicly by the celebrity.

The rise of fast fashion is intertwined with social media and celebrity/influencer culture. A celebrity posts a photo wearing a new outfit, and their followers want it, so fast fashion brands rush to be the first to provide it. Fast fashion brands often target young people - so called Gen Zs -, who have been brought up amongst social media and influencer culture. In fact, a recent survey found that almost 75% of 18-24 year olds believe influencers can be held somewhat accountable for the rise in disposable fashion.

Of course, the flow of causality is not that simple: fast fashion brands are not simply reacting to consumer demand, they are also creating it. But the essential point is that these brands operate on the basis of constantly producing new lines of clothes to meet the insatiable and ever-changing consumer demand for all things new.

Fast production

Faster changing trends means that producers are under pressure to manufacture clothes more and more rapidly. Factories are expected to produce new lines with only a couple of month's notice, meaning that their workload - and therefore the amount of employment they can offer to workers - is unpredictable and insecure.

The drive to produce garments rapidly has led many UK fast fashion companies to reshore clothing production to the UK, where previously almost all clothing brands sourced from less-economically developed countries such as Bangladesh or Vietnam.

Leicester has become a central hub for clothing production and many of the scandals associated with workers' rights in the UK have been found in factories in the city.

The exploitation of workers in fast fashion supply chains is partly the result of brands pressuring suppliers to produce clothes as cheaply and quickly as possible. We talk about this more below.

Fast sale and delivery

The low-cost of fast fashion items encourages fast sale. The average person in the UK buys 60% more clothing today than in 2000. We buy more clothes per person in the UK than in any other country in Europe, and our addiction has grown - with online searches for 'cheap clothes' increasing 46.3% during the first coronavirus lockdown.

Even if you are out-of-pocket you can buy items using Klarna and other easy credit services. Its post-purchase payment options allow you to defer paying for your garment for 14 to 30 days, much like a payday loan.

Most companies also offer cheap deals for quick delivery. At the time of writing, Boohoo offered unlimited next-day delivery for one year for just £7.99.

Fast use

It's estimated that the average item of clothing is worn just 14 times, and in 2019 The Guardian reported that one in three young women considered an item worn just once or twice to be old.

Much modern clothing is not made to last. Due to super-fast production, designs are generally not well stress-tested before sale, and cheap synthetic fabrics are used in order to keep costs low. Much of it will end up in landfill after only being worn a handful of times.

Five things you need to know about fast fashion

The problems with fast fashion

What are the environmental problems with fast fashion?

The endless creation of new clothes comes with a heavy environmental price. Every year the sector requires 93 billion cubic meters of water, which is enough to meet the consumption needs of five million people, and is responsible for around 20% of industrial water pollution as a result of textile treatment and dyeing.

There are also numerous problems with the materials and processes used. For example, cotton production uses 6% of the world's pesticides and 16% of insecticides.

The industry also has a heavy carbon footprint, which is responsible for up to 10% of total global carbon emissions, and estimated to increase by 50% by 2030.

The above problems affect the clothing sector more broadly, but one issue is particularly endemic to fast fashion: plastic.

How much plastic do clothes contain?

The rise of fast fashion has been heavily dependent on synthetic fibres such as polyester, nylon, acrylic and elastane, which are made from heavily processed petrochemicals (fossil fuels). These materials are cheap to produce - polyester, for example, costs half as much per kilo as cotton - and therefore allow brands to keep prices low, though with a high environmental price-tag.

Polyester is the most widely used of these synthetic fibres and is now found in over half of all textiles produced. It is generally produced from polyethylene terephthalate, better known as PET, a type of plastic derived from crude oil and natural gas - also used to make items such as plastic bottles.

The ubiquitousness of plastic in clothing means that the textile sector accounts for 15% of total plastic use; the only sectors that use more are construction and packaging. Many brands are making a song and dance about using recycled plastics for their clothes, but a recent report by the RSA found that the actual level of recycled content was pitifully low. Across four major online fast fashion brands, the use of recycled fabrics was a mere 4%.

Our analysis of Shein's website found its recycled content was even lower, at only 0.5%, despite the brand claiming, " When selecting materials, we do our best to source recycled fabric, such as recycled polyester."

Recycling plastics where possible has some benefits, but it does nothing to address the problem of microfibres - the miniscule bits of fabric that are released when clothes are worn, washed, or disposed of, that find their way into our bodies and the natural world.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, clothes release half a million tonnes of microfibres into the ocean every year, equivalent to more than 50 billion plastic bottles.

These fibres have been found almost everywhere: from the summit of Mount Everest to the placentas of unborn babies. We still do not know the effects they may have.

How much waste does the clothing industry cause?

The industry is also responsible for enormous amounts of textile waste. The amount of textiles being produced globally per person has more than doubled from 5.9kg to 13kg over the period 1975-2018.

Many of the clothes bought are thrown away after being worn just a handful of times: the industry produces an estimated 92 million tonnes of textiles waste annually, much of which is burnt or finds its way to landfill, while less than 1% of used clothing is recycled into new garments.

Some of this waste consists of items that never even reached the consumer - clothing lines that have become outdated and so are destroyed instead of sold.

Atacama clothing mountain highlights over-consumption

The shocking reality of fast fashion's waste problem hit the headlines in November 2021 with an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report on the mountains of discarded clothing ending up in Chile's Atacama Desert. A total of 59,000 tons of second-hand clothing is said to arrive in Chile for resale each year from Europe, the US and Asia. However, an estimated 39,000 tons is unable to be sold and ends up dumped in the desert.

The situation highlights the myriad of problems in the fashion industry. The over-consumption of new clothing means that even an increasingly thriving second-hand clothing market cannot keep up, and this is exacerbated by the amount of poor-quality clothing not suitable for resale.

While second-hand markets certainly play a huge role in reducing the carbon impact of clothing when replacing the purchase of new items, a system where clothing gets shipped around the world multiple times, only to be wasted anyway is clearly not sustainable.

Clothing made of plastics

The piles mounting up in the Atacama, and in landfills across the world, are not biodegradable. Much of our clothing is made from synthetic plastics and also contains chemicals harmful to the environment.

Many fashion brands are pledging to address the issue of the use of virgin plastics in clothing manufacture, a material derived from the fossil fuel industry. However, this is often by replacing it with recycled synthetics.

And this may well be from recycled plastic bottles but, as a recent Guardian article points out: "PET bottles are also part of a well-established, closed-loop recycling system, where they can be efficiently recycled at least 10 times. The apparel industry is 'taking from this closed-loop, and moving it into this linear system because most of those clothes won't be recycled', said Maxine Bédat, Executive Director of New Standard Institute. "Converting plastic from bottles into clothes may actually accelerate its path to the landfill, especially for low-quality, fast-fashion garments which are often discarded after only a few uses."

The fashion industry, governments and consumers need to act to slow down consumption and ensure that garments are sustainable at every stage of their life cycle, from fibre production, to manufacture, to end-of-life.

Why is it bad for workers?

In order to offer clothes at ultra low prices, fast fashion brands need their costs to be low. One of the main ways of doing this is to drive down the wages of garment workers in the supply chain.

For years, brands have 'chased the cheap needle' around the world, seeking countries with the lowest labour standards so that garment workers can be easily exploited. In recent years, many UK fast fashion brands have found the cheap needle closer to home, often in quasi-legal factories in cities such as Leicester.

In the UK, Boohoo has become somewhat the symbol of fast fashion's worker exploitation problem. Numerous exposés have shown that while the pockets of Boohoo's directors are bursting at the seams, the people who actually stitch the seams of its clothing are paid a pittance, with some found to have been paid under half the minimum wage.

The Levitt report, which looked in depth at Boohoo's Leicester supply chain, found that "The allegations of unacceptable working conditions and underpayment of workers are not only well-founded but are substantially true." Levitt also claimed that these problems were endemic to the system and likely found across Boohoo's supply chain.

Worker exploitation is an essential part of the fast fashion model. If an item is very cheap, chances are that the person who produced it was paid little.

A 2022 report Unbearable Harassment: The Fashion Industry and Widespread Abuse of Female Garment Workers in Indian Factories, found that every single woman spoken to for the report (90), had either experienced or witnessed gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) carried out by male supervisors and managers at the factories they worked at.

"Verbal, physical, and sexual harassment exists in every garment factory - not just this one. It existed before COVID, it exists during COVID, and it will exist after COVID..." Smita, Tamal Nadu.

The report goes on to state that:

"Violence on the factory floor cannot be dismissed as just a factory-level problem; rather, it must be understood as an industry-wide culture of violence driven by the business model of global fashion brands".

Which are the leading fast fashion brands?

It is important to note that most of the fashion sector has become 'faster' in recent years. As such, even the more mainstream, established brands will be 'fast' to some extent. However, there are some brands that stand out as much faster than the rest:

Boohoo, which also owns the following brands: Burton, Coast, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Karen Millen, MissPap, Nasty Gal, Oasis, Pretty Little Thing, Wallis, Warehouse

In the Style

I Saw it First

Missguided

If a brand is offering vast numbers of 'new in' clothes (usually thousands of new items every day) and its products are super cheap, then it is a fast fashion brand.
UPDATE
Missguided collapsed at the end of May 2022, leaving suppliers and workers out of pocket for months of completed orders.

The Frasers Group, controlled by the Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley, has reportedly bought the company out of administration for £20m. This process will take around two months to complete.

We will review the impact of the collapse and new owner in due course.

Meanwhile, Labour Behind the Label have campaigned to demand workers and suppliers are paid, amidst reports that many are owed thousands of pounds.

Update from COP26 on fashion

Considering its comparative carbon impact, maybe the fashion industry deserved more focus at the recent COP26 summit in Glasgow, but it was not totally without attention.

In the second week, an update to the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action was announced, with more ambitious targets for carbon reduction to align with the Paris Agreement's 1.5-degree aim. The charter currently has 130 signatories including brands such as H&M, Primark, Levi's, Chanel and Adidas.

A request for government-backed incentives for using sustainable materials was also submitted by global non-profit Textile Exchange, with its COO, Claire Bergkamp, stating: "We need both regulations to stop bad action and incentives for sustainable materials to help reduce the price burden that currently exists for sourcing more responsibly. Our hope is through trade incentives and tariff reductions, we can level the playing field, without placing the burden on suppliers across the value chain".

The call was supported by 50 of the world's largest fashion and textile companies. It is an interesting turn of events considering the UK Government's complete reluctance to regulate the UK fashion industry as recommended by the 2019 Fixing Fashion report. The call could also be viewed as a profit-driven industry with a history of wreaking havoc on the environment, now demanding it be subsidised for doing the right thing. However, it is true that with such a harmful and complex industry strong legislation is badly needed to start curtailing fashion's destructive path.

Awful conditions at a Shein factory exposed

A Channel 4 documentary broadcast autumn 2022 went undercover at a Shein factory to expose predictably awful conditions and exhausted, exploited workers.

The brand is also shown to copy designs from independent designers, rely on unpaid influencers for its marketing, and use manipulative sales techniques such as countdown timers and multi-buys to encourage overconsumption.

Yet the company is hugely popular and massively outsells its fast fashion rivals. Despite many similar documentaries and decades of campaigning on garment worker rights, it seems that cheap clothes are an addiction we just can't break.

Check out our clothing guides to find some much more ethical options for new clothes, or choose second hand.

What progress has been made in the decade since the Rana Plaza disaster?

The Rana Plaza disaster and the Accord

April 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh which killed more than 1,100 garment workers, an event that exposed the appalling human cost of fast fashion. Simon Birch asks what progress, if any, has been made over the past decade in the fight against fast fashion.

Following the Rana Plaza disaster the Bangladesh Accord was established. This was the first and only legally binding agreement that holds brands to account for health and safety in the garment industry, and is designed to prevent another Rana Plaza tragedy from ever happening again.

"The Accord represents a significant victory for textile workers," says Anna Bryher from Labour Behind the Label, one of the UK's leading campaign groups against fast fashion. "There's been a massive improvement in the safety of clothing factories in Bangladesh," acknowledges Bryher.

Whilst this is welcome good news, the bad news is that the Accord hasn't done anything to address the pitifully low wages that Bangladeshi garment workers still receive.

But whilst the global fast fashion business model is still based on exploitative low wages, the brands themselves are now coming under increasing pressure.

Profits at fast fashion pioneers ASOS and Boohoo are tumbling whilst last year Missguided, one of the UK's flagship fast fashion companies went bust, all largely as a result of the cost-of-living crisis that's seen soaring costs of everything from cotton to shipping.

Environmental claims from fast fashion companies under the spotlight

Last year, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into whether eco-friendly and sustainability claims made by the fast fashion chains Asos, Boohoo and George at Asda constitute greenwashing.

Meanwhile over in Europe, the EU is stepping up its fight against throwaway culture by aiming to end fast fashion by 2030.

In an ambitious initiative launched last year, the EU announced its intention to vastly expand its clothing design rules on recycling and sustainability. In just seven years' time, all textiles sold within the EU must be recyclable, free of hazardous substances and contain a high percentage of recycled fibres.

All these actions are clearly good news for the environment but the bottom line is that fast fashion still demands the exploitation of garment workers.

However, it's important to remember that the problem is with the clothing companies, not with the clothing industry.

"We all need clothes and the clothing industry provides millions of jobs around the world from farmers who provide the cotton and fabrics to workers in garment factories," says Heather Webb, a former researcher at Ethical Consumer who has since worked within the fast fashion industry as an ethical trade analyst.

"Big fashion brands are consistently treating the factories they buy from poorly and it's the workers and environment who suffer," says Fiona Gooch from Transform Trade that campaigns for a more ethical global trading system.

"We need a fashion watchdog to regulate UK garment retailers along the same lines as the existing supermarket watchdog that's successfully reduced the unfair buying practices of the UK's largest food retailers," explains Gooch. "A fashion watchdog would reduce abusive and unfair purchasing practices of the garment retailers which would ultimately benefit garment workers."

Whilst acknowledging that a fashion watchdog would be a good thing, Anna Bryher believes that it wouldn't fix the problem of low wages within the clothing industry. What's needed says Bryher is new legislation to enable clothing brands to be held to account for their unfair purchasing practices.

Heather Webb agrees. "We need government intervention in the market," says Webb. "One of the key things that could improve both the pay and working conditions of garment workers is a law outlawing the unethical buying practices of clothing brands."

Progress by brands is extremely slow

The Ethical Fashion Report published in 2023, 10 years after the first edition, found that although there has been some progress for garment workers, overall change is still too slow. Their research found that at the current rate of progress, it would be 75 years before all companies are paying a living wage at even a minimum of one factory per company. The vast majority of clothing companies (84%) were not sourcing from any factories which paid a living wage.

Find out more in the report and also use the charity's 'Speak Out' tool to see how individual brands are doing and let them know what you think.

People's clothing habits are changing

Despite the pervasiveness of fast fashion, things are beginning to improve.

New research from WRAP has found that compared with similar research carried out in 2013, we are wearing our clothes for slightly longer. Jeans, for example, now have a longevity of just over four years, compared to just over three in 2013. The research also found that more than half of us are happy to buy second hand clothes; nearly 60% of us put a lot of effort into maintaining our clothes; and that a similar proportion look for ways to repair clothes when they're damaged.

The WRAP research also estimates that the UK's wardrobes hold 1.6 billion items of unworn clothes, an average of 31 items for each adult. And yet we're still spending more than £4 billion on shopping for clothes each month. WRAP makes the point that as textiles and fashion are responsible for between 4% and 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, we need a revolution in our clothing habits to make our wardrobes sustainable.

Circular clothing industry

The purpose of the WRAP research was to understand the population's receptiveness to circular business models for clothing. These included second hand, upcycling, subscription, rental (pay-per-wear) and repair (where a brand repairs an item of clothing a customer has purchased from it for a fee).

WRAP found that 40% of people are likely to use a subscription service and that 58% are open to using a repair service. Among those who have already used a circular business model, the majority said they would do so again.

WRAP argues that this shows there is a clear case for clothing brands and retailers to adopt circular business models.

Read the full WRAP report into clothing longevity on their website and read tips on repairing and buying second hand in our article on upcycling and buying second hand clothing.

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What is fast fashion and why is it a problem? | Ethical Consumer

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Alex Crumbie explores the growing concern about the social and environmental impacts of the fast fashion clothing industry and sets out what's wrong with fast fashion.

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People

Primark is a signatory to the Bangladesh Accord which is a legally binding agreement between global brands and retailers designed to make all garment factories in Bangladesh safe workplaces.

It was set up in response to the Rana Plaza disaster which killed over 1000 people.

Environment

Primark receives a middle rating for environmental reporting. Primark has an ethics page on its website and has commited to a number of targets by 2020 such as a 15% carbon footprint reduction, 15% waste to landfill reduction and a 3.5 reduction in waste arising over the whole product life cycle.

Animals

As of June 2017 Primark states that "Animal testing is not permitted on any Primark products".

However, in the absence of a fixed cut-off date for the testing of ingredients, the company receives Ethical Consumer's middle rating in this category.

Politics

In June 2017 Ethical Consumer viewed the family tree for Associated British Foods (Primark's parent company) on the corporate website Hoovers.com. The site listed many high risk subsidiaries based in jurisdictions considered by Ethical Consumer to be tax havens at the time of writing. They included:

Investment subsidiaries in Guernsey & Jersey

a holding company in Hong Kong (Associated British Foods Asia Pacific Holdings Limited),

a holding company in Luxembourg (Abf European Holdings & Co) and

The company therefore received Ethical Consumer's worst rating for likely use of tax avoidance strategies.

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High street clothes retailer Primark, which is owned by Associated British Foods, is always in and out of the news. Every year we hear stories of abuse at supplier factories, usually on the Indian sub continent. Discover more about the company's ethics below.

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3.5 Examine the purpose of taxation from a financial, social, legal and ethical perspective

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Here's how Penneys makes sure the clothes you buy are ethical

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"Ultimately, you're guided by doing what's right."

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Ivory Coast's bittersweet cocoa industry - YouTube

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Ivory Coast's bittersweet cocoa industry

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Learning Outcomes

1.9: Debate the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from their consumption of goods and services and how they can contribute to sustainable development.

2.8: Devise and apply a marketing mix in order to promote a new or existing product or service.

Learning Intentions

To investigate the level/ need for certain product packaging.

To understand the environmental impact of product packaging for a number of goods.

To develop a new product packaging strategy for a good of your choice as part of the marketing mix.

Learning Experience

Lesson starter - Think Pair Share - students consider what products they use and how much packaging they have.

Students evaluate a number of product samples (still in their packaging) and discuss which parts of the packaging is necessary and also how the packaging was produced (is it environmentally friendly/ sustainable?). This could be linked to SDG 12.

Students then (in pairs) focus on the 'Product' element of the marketing mix and try to redesign/ come up with an alternative more environmentally friendly way to package/ sell  the product.

Could show a video of a zero waste shop as inspiration prior to students coming up with their idea.

Resources

Product samples e.g. chocolate bars, iPhone packaging.

Video on zero waste shop

Template to redesign the packaging.

Key Skills

Managing information and thinking - Students will have to evaluate the current product packaging, understand how it is harmful and also remember that certain parts will still be necessary e.g. the contents/ ingredients.

Being creative - Students will have to come up with innovate ways to reduce the environmental impact of this packaging.

Working with others - students will complete this in pairs/ small groups.

Assessment

Students will be questioned/ asked to discuss why they have chosen a specific product and how they feel they could make the packaging more sustainable/ less wasteful.

Exit tickets - Students will be asked to reflect on this lesson and highlight something they themselves could do in their own life to take personal responsibility and to reduce waste in relation to product packaging.

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These Zero Waste Stores Should Be Everywhere | Zero Waste Shops London

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Research work. Impact of packaging in our lives.
How does it affect us on a individual basis : bigger shopping, bigger unwrapping, bigger rubbish bin=bills, bigger chorus to clean/tidy/ was it more expensive?/Did we buy unnecessary items/quantity because of the package?, etc...
See the trailer of Don't look up- Are we short sighted and we forget that difficult problems can be sorted with collaborative solutions?.
Goverment policies can save/destroy our life/world.

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links to LO 1.9, 2.4 and 3.7