New Normal: How Fast Fashion Can Slow Down and Go Green, with Javad Nasiry

Fast fashion is a rapidly expanding subsection of an already environmentally problematic industry. What does a truly sustainable fashion industry model look like—and will customers buy it? In episode 9 of the second season of The "New Normal" podcast series, Professor Javad Nasiry from the Desautels Faculty of Management joins journalist Dave Kaufman to discuss the environmental impact of the fast fashion industry and what can be done to lessen its carbon footprint. Nasiry examines certain initiatives already underway and whether they have made a measurable difference, delving into the question of what an alternative to today’s fast fashion would look like and if it could make the industry more sustainable.

“My philosophical take on sustainability is something like this,” Nasiry explains. “At the moment, our approach is to say that we have a profitability framework, so we are profit maximizers as a corporation, and sustainability comes as a constraint shackle of what we can do; it becomes a nuisance. Hopefully if we can change this into a framework of sustainability within which we are trying to maximize the profit, then we will have a much more sustainable business model.”

Read more on Delve and read the transcript.

Delve’s The "New Normal" podcast series is a collaboration between journalist Dave Kaufman and Delve, the official thought leadership platform of McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management. The “New Normal” is produced by Delve and Dave Kaufman, with audio engineering by David Rawalia. Each episode looks in-depth at a different aspect of the new normal that we are all navigating due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Original music by Saku Mantere.

Dave Kaufman is a Montreal-based journalist and commentator. He has worked for CJAD 800 and TSN 690 Radio in Montreal, CTV News Channel, CTV Montreal, and TalkRadio and SkyNews in the United Kingdom. He has written for the National Post, Montreal Gazette, and Toronto Sun and other publications. Follow him on Twitter at @TheKaufmanShow.

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