A Guide to Free Online Courses on Sustainability, Ethical Fashion and Permaculture [2021 edition]

So you’ve committed to reducing your environmental footprint this new year and are keen to learn more about sustainability, ethical fashion and permaculture. Whether it’s because you’re concerned about climate change, want to learn about the impacts of the clothing you wear or just keen to grow your own food in a more holistic way, these free online courses will help to improve your knowledge and understanding of these subjects.

1. Fashion’s Future: The Sustainable Development Goals

Created by Fashion Revolution, this free four-week digital course is for anyone looking to understand the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the fashion industry’s impact on people, communities and the planet and how these are linked. Students will learn about global fashion supply chains and how they relate to human rights, how improving supply chains can deliver positive impact, how the industry can better support conservation of natural resources and limit its environmental impact.

Best for: Anyone with an interest in fashion, ethics, sustainability and activism.

Course delivery: Online

Course duration: 4 weeks

Cost: FREE!

Click here to register for this free ethical fashion course.

2. Permaculture Women’s Free Online Permaculture Course

If you’re looking to get your hands more than a little dirty this year and want to learn more about permaculture, we recommend this free 52-week online course by Permaculture Women. Designed for those seeking a holistic and sustainable whole systems approach to gardening (because permaculture is so much more than gardening!) the course covers many topics from basic permaculture ethics and principles right through to understanding the social systems that govern communities. This comprehensive permaculture design course includes plenty of follow-up reading material, videos, articles and reference books and forums making it an ideal self-paced course for people wanting to learn about permaculture.

Best for: Anyone with an interest in permaculture.

Course delivery: Online

Course duration: 52 weeks.

Cost: FREE!

Click here to enrol for this free online permaculture course.

3. Circular Economy: An Introduction

If you’ve ever wondered what the circular economy is and how it can help to solve many challenges facing human civilisation such as waste, climate change and resource scarcity this is the course for you. This free introductory course created by TU Delft, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Sustainability outlines the concept of ‘circular economy’, how shifting shifting design thinking from linear to circular is a more sustainable approach and how businesses can create value by redesigning products and recycling materials.

Learn how to contribute to a sustainable economic system by implementing novel business and design approaches

Best for: Business managers, industrial designers, entrepreneurs and anyone interested in learning about the circular economy and circular design.

Course delivery: Online

Course duration: 7 weeks

Cost: FREE!

Sign up for this free course.

4. Introduction to Sustainability and Development

Don’t know the difference between sustainability and sustainable development? This is the short course for you. Developed by one of Australia’s leading universities, Deakin University, you’ll learn the difference between sustainability and sustainable development, get to understand how human activity impacts negatively on the environment and the actions that can be taken for a more sustainable future.

Best for: Those with an interest in sustainability in the fashion industry or working in a fashion-related job such as designer, marketer or educator.

Course delivery: Online

Course duration: 2 weeks

Cost: FREE!

Click here to register for this free sustainable development course.

5. Fashion & Sustainability: Understanding Luxury Fashion in a Changing World

This is the first digital course of its kind, and it’s free! Ideal for fashion students, those working in the industry, designers and the style obsessed, Fashion and Sustainability: Understanding Luxury Fashion in a Changing World gives enrolled participants the opportunity to develop and discuss the complex nature of sustainability through the creative and practical lens of high-end fashion. The course syllabus was developed by French luxury fashion behemoth Kering (which counts labels such as Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga in its empire) in partnership with London College of Fashion, UAL. It covers topics such as Contextualizing Sustainability for a Changing World, Material Dimensions: Sourcing for luxury fashion and Informed Decision Making: tools and methods.

Best for: Those with an interest in sustainability in the fashion industry or working in a fashion-related job such as designer, marketer or educator.

Course delivery: Online

Course duration: 6 weeks

Cost: FREE!

Sign up for this cours e here.

6. Farm to Fork: Sustainable Food Production in a Changing Environment

If you’ve ever wondered how food is grown and ends up on your plate, this free course will give you a wonderful overview. Explore topics such as food security, soil health, animal welfare, biosecurity, supply chains, climate change and how to build a more resilient and sustainable agricultural industry. You’ll also examine the various ethical and biological constraints of the food chain and how regulators and governments maintain food quality, food safety, traceability and authenticity.

Best for: Those working in the food industry sector, entrepreneurs looking to enter the agricultural and food industries or anyone interest in food production.

Course delivery: Online

Course duration: 4 weeks

Cost: FREE!

Sign up here.

7. Slow Factory Foundation’s Open Education

“Equity-Centered Education for Black, Brown, Indigenous and minority ethnic communities taught by Black, Brown, Indigenous and minority ethnic scholars, thinkers and educators.” – Slow Factory Foundation

Founded by social and environmental advocate Céline Semaan, Slow Factory Foundation is one of the leaders in equity-centered education. Its Open Education “acknowledges power structures and historical social context as a key driver of any topic” and as such, delivers open and free online courses to make learning (and unlearning) and training accessible to all.

Covering topics such as cultural appropriation, social activism through fashion, deconstructing greenwashing myths, wokewashing and regenerative agriculture, this is a course designed to push past the current sustainability literature and ensures you understand sustainability in its whole systems context and how it intersects with environmental and social justice.

Best for: Changemakers, activists, disruptors, social entrepreneurs and anyone pushing for systemic change and positive solutions for regenerative social and environmental justice.

Course delivery: Online

Cost: FREE (though a donation helps to support the brilliant work of this organisation).

Sign up here.

8. Innovation: The Fashion Industry

Created by the University of Leeds, this free two-week online short course explores how large fashion retailers innovate and specifically British retailer Marks & Spencer which is used as the case study for this course. The course explores different levels of innovation, how M&S has implemented innovation, how fashion advertising has also evolved, how the industry is working towards sustainability and even explores how to create an educational video. While this course doesn’t focus on sustainability per se, it does explore the three levels of technological innovation: incremental, radical, and disruptive and how these continue to impact the future of the fashion industry.

Best for: Anyone keen to understand the basics of fashion innovation but is time poor and looking to complete a super brief course on the subject.

Course delivery: Online

Course duration: 2 weeks

Cost: FREE!

Sign up here.

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