Melissa Sharp

NC State Wilson College of Textiles, in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Lab and the North Carolina Textile Innovation and Sustainability Engine, will build a publicly accessible life cycle assessment database to promote more sustainable choices for the textile supply chain.

The Purpose and Vision for the Engine is to develop a sustainable and regenerative textile circular economy rooted in diversity and equity, focused on training and workforce development and based on rapid translation to practice.

To address the short-term and long-term textile and apparel workforce needs of Honduras, the following hybrid (in-person and online) training and education modules will be developed in direct partnership with industry and implemented in Spanish and English for students/trainees.

The Textile Workforce Community Consortium (TWCC) converges the efforts of six leading organizations and their respective partners from academia, industry, not-for-profit organizations, local government, and federal government while strategically engaging new partners who are well positioned to provide unique education opportunities to students and educators of all ages and across all demographics. Led by AFFOA, the proposed project expands the established consortium to include partners who specifically focus on working with populations traditionally underserved by STEM opportunities.

Cotton is nature���s gift to the textile industry, with excellent physical properties, biological origins, and the ability to biodegrade. Using immersive, fun, thought-provoking hands-on laboratory experiences, inspired by on-going research in the Wilson College of Textiles on cotton biodegradability, we will develop a set of learning modules to direct the educational power of student interest in textile and apparel sustainability towards curiosity about cotton fibers and knowledge-building that can help them as young professionals to shape the sustainable future that is so important to us all, and to young people especially. These modules will be an innovative new offering, designed to become incorporated in core and elective courses in the undergraduate-level Polymer and Color Chemistry and graduate-level Textile Chemistry curricula. CottonWorks��� resources and information will be closely integrated into the project-based modules. Students will work in teams to select a variety of high cotton content fabrics with various dyes, finishes and embellishments, and will subject these to accelerated degradation using an Enzymatic Fiber Separation process developed at Wilson College. They will compare results, debate potential reasons for the outcomes, and consider creative uses for degraded cotton. After completing the modules, students will have a deeper appreciation for how cotton degrades, why this is an important attribute, how colorants and finishes can interfere, and they will gain inspiration for strategies to overcome these obstacles. At least 60 students will be directly involved during the grant period, with the goal of continuing to involve at least that many annually thereafter.

The primary goal of this proposal is to create and cultivate key statewide and regional collaborations to address both the current and next generation workforce in North Carolina with a focus on asset mapping and identifying key workforce gaps in the re-emerging textile industry. This gap analysis and asset mapping will include engaging small and medium manufacturers to define critical components of re-shoring a domestic supply chain for textiles in North Carolina, understanding workforce demographics in this region, and rebuilding this workforce.