Organisation

UCRF is led by a board who bring varied expertise in the field of fashion and sustainability and coordinate the Union’s activities. Their work, like that of the Union as a whole, is guided by a Code of Conduct based on principles of change, collaboration, care and courage.

The Board

The current UCRF board has Eight members (listed alphabetically):

Amy is a PhD student at Cardiff University, researching climate risk and resilience in fashion supply chains through the lens of Ecofeminism. Her work centres on the experiences of marginalised supply chain actors, bringing the voices of garment workers in Cambodia to the forefront of climate resilience discussions. She challenges the capitalist normativity embedded in dominant resilience narratives to propose radical new ways of understanding resilience. She has a background in consultancy focused on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and consumer purchasing behaviour; and has also worked in the luxury fashion industry as a buyer and merchandiser.

Dr. Jennifer Inaba is a scholar-practitioner whose research interests explore the intersection of fashion, nature, and identity—specifically how our connection to the natural world shapes what we buy, wear, and value. As a TEDx speaker, she shares how the practice of mindfulness can disrupt the cycle of overconsumption and help restore our relationship with the Earth. With a two-decade career in strategic communications in conservation and environmental advocacy, she now leads research and reporting initiatives for a global non-profit in the fashion and textile industry, helping shape climate- and nature-focused strategies rooted in care for people and planet.

Vinit is an industry professional with over 25 years of experience in design and product development, complemented by education in business accounting, statistics, fashion design, and sustainability. He holds a senior management position at a garment manufacturing company. He serves on the Board of Management at RTL (Sustainable Textile Association), a non-profit based in Jakarta. His research focuses on system-level solutions to tackle the industry’s challenges, such as overproduction, overconsumption and underutilisation of resources, and embedding sustainability into organisations.

Meg Pirie works across fashion and policy, specialising in textiles, sustainability, regeneration, culture and heritage. As Head of Policy at Fashion Roundtable, she translates complex policy into actionable formats and contributes to research, policy development and knowledge exchange across the fashion sector. Her work includes the Creative Wellbeing Economy Framework, which explores wellbeing as a holistic measure of success. She is beginning a funded PhD at Bangor University exploring, through the lens of linguistics, how safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage, living traditions and regional craft can challenge colonial and growth-driven fashion models.

Karishma is an educator, researcher, designer and entrepreneur hybrid. Her social enterprise Karishma Design disrupts the fashion industry through a systems thinking lens, rooted in interconnection through indigenous wisdoms. Karishma also works with secondary and tertiary students as a teacher of entrepreneurship and sustainable design innovation in Aotearoa. Her current action research projects focus on implementing indigenous wisdoms frameworks into education to foster innate ethically focused future leaders. Karishma’s style activism movement, Miraculous Me, focuses on post growth through conscious connection to self.

Worku Tegegne Molla is a doctoral researcher at De Montfort University within the Textile Engineering and Materials Research Group. His PhD focuses on recycling and reusing waste textiles through biotechnological approaches, aiming to recover valuable textile components and support sustainability and the circular economy. He has published research on sustainable textile dyeing and finishing and is particularly interested in textile recycling methods, biotechnology for textile applications and advanced recycling technologies that contribute to a more sustainable future. bute to a more sustainable future.

Hester Vanacker is a PhD candidate in Industrial Engineering at ENSAM Paris, within the IFM × Kering Sustainability Chair. Her community-centred action research explores garment durability as a practice and investigates local upcycling as a catalyst to reconfigure the global fashion system, drawing on fieldwork in Congo, Ghana and Indonesia. Alongside her research, she lectures across programmes at Institut Français de la Mode and runs Hé The Studio, a consultancy working with industry actors and NGOs.

Wendy Ward is a researcher, maker, educator and author whose work spans fashion industry practice, ethical production, garment making and repair. Her PhD research, Enduring Fashion, uses creativity to investigate the relationships people have with their clothes and how these can foster more sustainable clothing practices. Her activism connects systemic fashion challenges with tangible local action, including #takeitback, which encourages citizens to return unwearable clothes to the brands that made them, and research into local textile waste systems that helps citizens understand and question how clothing waste is managed in their own communities.

We are grateful to the founding Board members — Kate Fletcher, Lynda Grose, Timo Rissanen, and Mathilda Tham — and to the former Board members — Otto von Busch, Gitika Goyal, Hakan Karaosman, Cello Lockwood, Yvonne Ntiamoah, Hadeel Osman, Luis Quijano, Nandita Shivakumar, Tone Skårdal Tobiasson, and Amy Twigger Holroyd — who helped shape the Union.

The first principle of UCRF is to effect systemic change in the fashion sector, for fashion that respects Earth’s limits and the health and survival of all species. This means that we, its board and members, always have to ask – is this action likely to lead to the most possible change, with priorities outlined in the UCRF manifesto. Is this the best way to spend our energy, time and resources?
UCRF is a platform for collective action and not for self-promotion. This also means that individuals or collectives, whether founders, board members or members, cannot use the UCRF as a platform for financial gain.
UCRF seeks to be a leader in its culture of change as well as through its actions. To this end, we take time to reflect on our culture at each meeting and the AGM.
UCRF keeps seeking to expand diversity in fashion and give space for voices that otherwise often remain unheard.
UCRF acknowledges that with privilege often comes a sense of entitlement to take up discussion space and therefore actively seeks to calibrate contributions.
UCRF strives for accessibility. For example, English is our working language, but as most members have English as a second language UCRF English seeks to celebrate mistakes and see diversity of articulation as a value.
In a situation when individuals are acting on behalf of UCRF, such as in a presentation or an interview with the media, they speak as UCRF and not as an individual and should seek to make this explicit.
Speaking on behalf of UCRF means only discussing what UCRF has agreed.
UCRF signatories and board members commit to being on time for meetings and deadlines and communicating when this is not possible. They keep relevant working groups informed on progress.
UCRF practices nonviolent communication – communication constantly striving for collaboration, respect and learning.
UCRF meets resistance with respect. It sees a difference between anger and aggression.
UCRF seeks to ‘tell it straight’ – UCRF members address issues immediately and directly with the person/s involved.
UCRF practices a culture of sharing and support.
UCRF does not attack individuals, targeting instead issues and striving for dialogue.
UCRF accepts that all people make mistakes. When this happens, UCRF acknowledges it, discusses it, learns from it and moves on.
UCRF seeks to resource ourselves and each other and offer support.
UCRF acknowledges that activism is a challenging relationship that probes at vulnerabilities, but does not exploit them.
Further it sees activism as not about producing harm, but leveraging towards a more just peace.
UCRF sees activism as fostering communication that dares to challenge aggression and violence.
In addition UCRF acknowledges that activism is exhausting and often overwhelming and as a result there is a need to cultivate a culture of encouragement and support that helps feed endurance.