Monash Business School students are diverting up to two tonnes of textiles from landfill by encouraging the community to donate unwanted clothing and textile items, and teaching students as young as kindergarten age about circular fashion and textile waste.
The accounting students partnered with Upparel to reduce the 700 million tonnes of textile waste produced annually. The Australasian fashion recycler, gives unwanted textiles to charitable organisations or repurposes them into super-fine fibre material for products such as pillows and insulation.
Preschoolers from the Monash Children’s Centre donated items and participated in educational and creative activities organised by the students at the event held at Monash University’s Clayton campus.
Bachelor of Commerce and Global Studies student Briana Dias helped coordinate the event and says she’s passionate about working for a corporation that prioritises sustainability.
“Stakeholders are seeking transparency before investing and partnering with business, so more businesses need to prioritise sustainable accounting,” she said.
“All industries need to increase their focus on the circular economy and other sustainable activities to positively impact future generations.”
The project is part of the Accounting for Sustainability unit where students learn how to critically analyse sustainability disclosures based on real-life scenarios.
Lecturer Dr Annemarie Conrath-Hargreaves said the unit aims to move students away from “silo thinking in business”.
“We want to provide our students with the analytical and creative thinking tools they need to solve important complex problems related to the climate crisis,” she said.
“Accounting plays a critical role in this as it is both the starting and end point for other business areas, including management, marketing, and finance, to be effective.”