Sustainability at Kangan Institute

Kangan Institute is one of the pioneers of sustainability in fashion and leads the sector by implementing sustainable fashion design into our curriculum. Study areas include reinvention, forecasting, making slow and ethical fashion, and sustainable business strategy.

Kangan collaborates with Australian Red Cross, Red Cross Shops, and Melbourne Fashion Week every year in our #ragstorunway partnership.

Running for over five years now, Kangan Institute’s Rags to Runway program addresses growing environmental and ethical concerns about textiles manufacturing and waste in the fashion industry. The program challenges Diploma of Fashion Design and Merchandising (MST50119) students to rethink how and where materials are sourced for work and to explore creative ways to reinvigorate recycled materials.

Andre Oosthuizen, General Manager Retail Services at Red Cross said the Australian Red Cross was thrilled to support a new generation of designers in transforming pre-loved fashion into runway pieces.

“Our Red Cross Shops support a reduce, reuse and recycle philosophy, and it’s an honour to partner with Kangan Institute students on this fashion-forward sustainability initiative, encouraging people to think differently about how they design and shop.”

Awards and Achievements

Kangan Institute won a bronze “Award of Excellence” from the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics in the category of Sustainable development.

Kangan partners with Australian Red Cross on an annual sustainable and circular fashion design program that provides fashion students with experience in creating sustainable fashion designs. The program is based on the philosophy of, reuse and recycle – students select donated garments and textiles from Red Cross Shops. Students are taught and encouraged to embrace sustainable techniques throughout the process of design and transformation. The World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics (WFCP) is an international network of colleges and national and regional associations of colleges. The 2020 Awards of Excellence received 113 nominations from across the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Fiji, Kenya, Spain, the United Arabic Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. Craig Robertson, Chief Executive Officer of TAFE Directors Australia and Chair of the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics congratulated the Australian TAFEs that reached reduce the finals of the awards. “The results confirm TAFE’s outstanding international reputation for quality vocational education and training. “It’s not only in Australia but around the world that the TAFE brand equates with the very best in student outcomes, industry partnership and innovation. The Awards were zoomed worldwide on Friday night including into the TVET conference of the China Education Association for International Exchange and webcast to over 600 participants throughout China.