Environmental and Urban Change

Across my courses, I teach about the three pillars of sustainability — Environmental, Economic-Political, and Socio-Cultural.

In an effort to explore the intersections of sustainability and culture, I took my students in the General Arts and Science (GAS) program, on a field trip to the Bata Shoe Museum, from which I lectured and we toured the ‘Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting Edge Kicks‘ exhibit.

The ‘Future Now’ exhibit focuses on how innovation in technology, materials, and ideas in sneaker design are now moving the industry and culture of footwear. The exhibit explores how, for example, mushroom-based leather and reclaimed ocean plastic are supporting the push toward sustainability.

This field trip provided an opportunity for experiential education, through an esteemed arts and culture space in the city, and from which the students were able to interact with the content of the learning materials being discussed in class, and to explore the inclusion of sustainability in anything/everything they do moving forward into their future studies and careers.

In the lecture, learning materials, and museum field trip, we also specifically discussed many of the UN SDGs that are applicable to the footwear industry, from good health and well-being through reducing the chemicals, dyes and other harmful products used in shoe manufacturing (target 3.9) to the energy used to power the factories and transportation used to produce and move footwear around the world (target 7.2). Notable among the SDGs is, of course, Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, and the need to reduce waste generation by reconsidering the entire life-cycle of sneakers (target 12.5), and encouraging sneaker manufacturers to adopt aggressive sustainability practices (12.6).