By Becky Yust, head

Students explore the process of consumption as a phenomenon counter to the ethic of sustainability. In retail merchandising they analyze our material culture from the consumer's perspective and address the full breadth of consumption--the development of consumer goods, the distribution to consumers, the use of the product, and finally the product's disposal or reuse.

In the clothing design program, students understand that waste results when garments are not used. For example, issues of fit as one ages are explored through the Human Dimensioning Lab so clothing is better aligned with the human body and its changes, improving self-esteem and eliminating poor purchases.

This fall, three students are integrating the concept of sustainability into their senior clothing lines. One is developing a clothing line for young women using organic natural-fiber fabric. She is creating pattern on the fabric using a marbling technique so the waste from dye is minimized. Two other students are using previously owned garments--one to create a design line for young women, the other to develop an urban menswear line. Using discarded garments eliminates fabric costs for the new lines, but both students face the challenge of reusing fabric that was cut and shaped for existing garments. Those segments must be repurposed for the newly designed garments. These and others will be featured in the 2008 senior fashion show in February.

Students and faculty in graphic design use their design skills to communicate information, keeping in mind the impact of the visual message and its power to persuade. The students develop their own ethic of responsibility and create assignments in their senior seminar that express their philosophy.

In the surface design studios, students learn about screen printing and fabric printing and dying. The studio operates on the principal of minimizing waste. For example, dyes and inks are recycled for future use in the studio. In screen printing, selected projects are required to only use inks that have been mixed for previous projects. Although the design process requires documentation, students are encouraged to prioritize their output to minimize the number of pieces they print.

Housing can be sustainable based on the construction materials used and the operating systems employed. More broadly, in housing studies we consider sustainability in the context of social justice within a community while providing for peoples' needs. To be truly sustainable, housing should be affordable, appropriate for individual and family needs, safe and secure, healthy, private without and within, and centered in household choice. Sustainable communities provide diversity of household incomes, ethnicities, ages, abilities, and services.

Our interior design students integrate sustainability into the environments they create as they specify products. Sustainability also extends to the concept of sustaining one's identity through environments that reflect the user's culture; students in Studio V complete projects that apply the concepts of culture, as well as universal design, to residential design. At the commercial level, students design environments that specify sustainable products from lighting to surfaces to furnishings.