Sustainability Intelligence (SI): Art Enhancing Systemic Connectivity Across Science, Business, and Beyond
Gurpreet Singh
Researcher_Sustainability Intelligence (SI) (AFHEA, PhD candidate / Mphil, PGCAP, Bsc)
By Gurpreet Singh, PhD Candidate, Buckinghamshire New University, UK.
Available at: Oxford-Cambridge ARC University Group
As a doctoral researcher at Buckinghamshire New University (BNU), my work focuses on Sustainability Intelligence (SI) in the denim industry and fashion systems. My research delves into systemic interactions and explores how sustainability can be embedded within industrial processes, consumer behaviour, and the emotional durability of products. These ideas took on new meaning for me during a visit to the BNU Winter Garden art exhibition in March 2024, where I encountered a unique and thought-provoking artifact by Tara-Lee Hollander , a BA Fine Arts student at BNU. Hollander’s work sparked fresh insights into the intersection of art, sustainability, and the Anthropocene epoch.
Hollander’s creation, a stuffed denim piece adorned with imperfect hand-embroidered splatters, caught my attention. This seemingly simple artwork was imbued with deeper symbolism, linking material reuse to emotional connection and sustainability. Far from being a random artistic experiment, her creation represented a profound reflection on the narratives that materials carry with them. Her work embodies the emotional durability and sustainability principles that are central to my research on Sustainability Intelligence (SI). In her hands, discarded denim became a powerful symbol of connectivity and transformation, illustrating how materials can gain new meaning and purpose when viewed through a sustainable lens.
Hollander explained that her artifact’s C-shape represents Connectivity, drawing on nostalgic conversations and the concept of being error-friendly. Her work invites viewers to reflect on the sentimental, playful aspects of growth and failure. Just as children imitate adults through imperfect trials, whether it be embroidery, cooking, or dressing up, Hollander’s denim artwork captures the emotional resilience and adaptability inherent in those experiences. This notion aligns closely with my research into sustainability, particularly the idea that sustainability is not a rigid pathway but rather a journey marked by experimentation, errors, and growth. Hollander’s art exemplifies an error-friendly paradigm of sustainability, where imperfections become opportunities for learning and evolution.
The fast fashion industry, by contrast, often detaches consumers from these emotional and material connections, promoting a culture of disposability. Scholars like Linda Gross (2017) have pointed out how fast fashion encourages mindless consumption through cheap prices and short-lived trends. Hollander’s artwork challenges this paradigm, emphasizing that materials—even those considered low in economic value—can hold significant emotional and sustainable value. Her art reminds us that sustainability is as much about fostering emotional connections with materials as it is about reducing waste and resource consumption. This idea is also reflected in the work of Kate Fletcher, a leading scholar on sustainable fashion. Fletcher argues that when materials carry personal narratives, they foster more meaningful and durable consumption habits (Fletcher, 2012). Hollander’s denim piece, despite its humble origins, challenges the fast fashion mindset by suggesting that sustainability lies in developing deeper relationships with the materials we use. Her work encourages us to see value beyond economic worth and to embrace a more thoughtful, emotionally connected approach to fashion.
Further adding to this discourse, Professor Sri-Kartini Leet Leet has explored how visual narratives shape our perceptions of everyday life and social relations (Leet, 2011). In the same way that photography can transform our understanding of the world around us, Hollander’s denim artifact shifts our perspective on sustainability. Her work illustrates how materials like denim, typically associated with mass production and consumerism, can be reimagined as vehicles for personal and artistic expression.
Hollander’s artistic initiative offers valuable lessons for the fashion industry. It suggests that businesses should adopt a more reflective approach, allowing for creative experimentation and deeper conversations about material use and emotional engagement with products. As Peter Senge (1990) notes in his work on systems thinking, the fashion industry needs to move beyond superficial sustainability initiatives and embrace deeper, systemic change. Sustainability is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but rather a complex journey that requires openness to experimentation and a willingness to embrace the inherent imperfections in any system.
What the fashion industry can learn from this art initiative by Hollander is an approach to normalize radical metaphors of sustainability. Particularly for the wider part of the fashion business that tends to operate on conventional, superficial sustainability explanations, Hollander’s work suggests a need to move beyond delusions of quick fixes. As Peter Senge (1990) discusses in his systems thinking approach, the industry needs openness, reflection, and deeper conversation to foster energized, confident, and creative expertise at the level of fashion professionals. This can ultimately optimize organizational and industrial sustainable initiatives. As sustainability challenges grow in complexity, businesses must cultivate deeper understanding and flexibility, informed by multiple centres of knowledge across the socio- economic cosmos (Kate & Tham, 2018). In this context, people become units of capability in broader organizational, industrial, social, and global systemic interactions (Senge, 1990).
This is where the Ox-Cam Arc Universities Group (AUG) can play a transformative role. The AUG is uniquely positioned to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, linking STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) with SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy). As discussed at the Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster Board Creating a Scientific Superpower Conference in 2024, the integration of diverse disciplines is critical for fostering innovation and addressing sustainability challenges (Supercluster, 2024). By bringing together the creativity of the arts and the analytical rigor of the sciences, the AUG can lead systemic efforts that span academia, industry, and government, creating new pathways for sustainable innovation.
In conclusion, Hollander’s artwork provides valuable lessons for the fashion industry. It challenges the fast fashion model by emphasizing emotional durability and encouraging a deeper connection with materials. Sustainability is not just about technical fixes or eco-friendly fabrics; it’s about fostering meaningful relationships with the things we use and wear. The Arc Universities Group is well-positioned to lead this conversation, driving a future where sustainability is understood not just as a goal but as a continuous, creative process that involves all sectors of society.
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4moVery good article - I feel very proud to be a part of this important work of encouraging sustainability!
Associate Lecturer in Fine Art. Module: Creative Sector, Participation, Collaboration and Socially Engaged Practice
4moCongratulations to all participating in the project Sustainability Intelligence! ❤️