The Howard University program that’s making carbon-consciousness chic

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00:00My target audience is Howard University, right?

00:03We're big on culture, fashion, all the things.

00:06And, you know, like, even during homecoming, we have, like, the fashion shows and all these different things.

00:10And I also felt like you cannot walk on campus unless you have a fit on.

00:14Sustainable fashion, the art of thrifting, sewing, and wearing what's around you

00:18to help combat the negative environmental effects of fast fashion.

00:21I'm from California, and we're big on, like, eco-friendly everything.

00:24And so I knew that environmental policy is kind of the space that I wanted to advocate for the environment in and sustainability.

00:32Haley Morris' upbringing inspired her to lead Howard University's Water and Environment Association, or HUI, which champions sustainability.

00:40Under Haley's leadership, HUI organized a festival focusing on celebrating culture

00:44and featuring sustainable fashion practices like clothing exchanges.

00:48We are promoting, of course, climate action.

00:51Celebrating is a form of action to me.

00:53We're getting the word out there.

00:55We're getting people to celebrate Mother Nature, our Earth, our planet, and also sustainable shopping.

01:01The sustainable fashion movement not only has gained popularity with America's youth, but it has reached Capitol Hill.

01:07Representative Shelley Pingree helped found the Slow Fashion Caucus in Congress,

01:11which has recently introduced legislation to make it easier for clothing retailers

01:15to choose environmentally-friendly alternatives to forever chemicals.

01:18When you think about fabric, you don't think about, well, it's ending up in the waste stream,

01:22these fast fashion that you don't wear very long.

01:25You might just throw it away.

01:27There are a lot of issues you have to deal with around the toxics in clothing.

01:30Also, when it ends up in a landfill, often it's just like plastic, so it might end up as plastic in the ocean.

01:36I want to see policies that prevent toxic chemicals in our clothing, and our fabrics, everything.

01:46I love fashion as well, so my closet is full of clothes, but the majority of it is thrifted.

01:53I just kind of love doing it.

01:54It's cheap.

01:54It's affordable for my college student's self, and it's also good for the environment.

01:58In my generation, we've made it pretty popular and trendy to thrift and everything like that,

02:03but it really needs to be a thing.

02:05It's a climate crisis.

02:08It's a waste issue.

02:09It's all of the above.

02:10For PBS News Student Reporting Labs, I'm Kenia Davis in Washington, D.C.

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