On this episode of the Lead With Purpose podcast host, Tze Ching Yeung talks to Aparna Agarwal, a student of sustainability management to talk about life as a student as well as culture within sustainability & sustainable fashion.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
I have a strong interest in storytelling, I’m especially interested in social media & how brands want to communicate their sustainability & social impact story to their audience.
When something is ‘cool’, you need to understand that it’s going to stop being cool eventually, when it comes to sustainability & climate change, it’s the exact opposite; we can’t afford to have sustainability & climate change as things that are ‘cool’. It’s something that we all need to work towards on a daily basis until we die. It shouldn’t be a trend.
It’s great that young people are so passionate about it & posting about it on social media. My biggest fear is what happens when sustainability stops being cool, which might happen in the next 2-3 years. Will we then go back to hyper-capitalism & going back to fast fashion.
Most people look at shopping as a way to de-stress, as a leisure activity, to chill, take a break from work & not think about serious things. If a brand is shouting at me for buying so much & giving me so much factual information about climate change, I’m not going to buy that product! It’s important for a brand to make that communication cool, & working on climate change a nice & great thing to do.
BEST MOMENTS
‘It’s cool to think about the climate on a daily basis. That’s something I really focus on by humanising the whole problem.’
‘Climate change isn’t just a flood that might randomly destroy your house, it’s thousands of people working with unethical brands & getting products made at less than $1 a day.’
‘I want to make sure that when brands are genuinely working towards sustainability or social impact, they shouldn’t lose out on an audience because they can’t communicate it in the right way.’
‘The communication has to be drastically different for an Eastern audience compared to a Western audience because the culture is so drastically different. You need to really understand the audience & what they want to hear.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Aparna Agarwal is a a mission-driven Communications professional, helping brands deliver impact through meaningful storytelling. With global experience in Sustainability, Luxury and Fashion in my pocket, based in Delhi.
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ABOUT THE HOST
Tze Ching started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2007 with the launch of a sustainable clothing & home furnishing ecommerce business. Next, she created a sustainable fashion brand.
In 2019, she launched a social enterprise to help raise awareness about the negative impact of fashion at schools & colleges.
Through the 15-year journey, she learned so much, but easily the most meaningful lesson learned was about the importance of marketing. She now focuses on channelling those insights to help others succeed through We Disrupt Agency, a business coaching, mentoring & digital marketing company.
Tze Ching’s mission is to create a community of global change makers and to contribute to positive change in both people & planet.
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