In the end of February 2025, the Interreg Aurora funded project Aurora Entrepreneurialis is gathering over 100 secondary school teachers and students from Northern Sweden and Finland to meet, learn, and innovate together. The theme for the two days is Un/Sustainable Fashion.
All of us have a relationship to clothes and fashion. Maybe it is our favourite pair of pyjamas, maybe it is the trendiest t-shirt, maybe it is that really cute dress, maybe it is our most comfortable worn-in jeans, or our most practical sports jacket. We use clothes to communicate who we are, to keep warm and dry, to look pretty, to stand out, and to fit in. Whatever clothes mean to us, we need them, we often want them, and we – as a community – consume more and more of them.
This has a huge environmental and social cost. It affects nature, and it affects people all around the world. The rise of ultra-fast fashion brands is rapidly making the situation even worse. The students and their teachers will get the chance to use the entrepreneurial skills of creativity, courage and collaboration.
“We invite students and teachers to learn more and think deeply about sustainability issues related to clothing and fashion. Then, working in international teams, we want the to come up with entrepreneurial solutions to how they can get people to use clothes in more sustainable ways” says Linda Strandenhed, project manager, Ung Företagsamhet i Norrbotten.
The project partners, Oulun kaupunki, Kemi-Tornionlaakson koulutuskuntayhtymä Lappia and Ung Företagsamhet i Norrbotten are collaborating with Lumire/Butiken Samlat, Röda Korset and Slöjd och Form-center in Luleå.
