Domenica Leibowitz, who authored CFDA’s just-released Guide to Sustainable Strategies, studied International Relations with a focus in development and social entrepreneurship, and pursued a career in the non-profit sector of fashion to help the industry with best practices in both production and consumption.

Nine years go, she co-founded Global Action Through Fashion (GATF), and in 2014, launched the Averti fashion label. We caught up with Leibowitz to discuss her drive to work in sustainability, and advice she has for brands looking to embrace it.

What inspired you to start working in sustainability?

I grew up in a family of environmentalists and artists and began designing and making my own clothes as a little girl, developing a deep love and appreciation for the craft. Despite my love of fashion and the arts, for college, I decided to study International Relations with a focus in development and social entrepreneurship.

When I graduated from college, I knew I wanted to work in sustainable fashion because it combined my two interests – fashion and working to make life better for people and planet. My journey began on the human rights side, doing PR for London-based Fair Trade fashion label People Tree. Since then I’ve worked on sustainability from various perspectives, including running my own educational non-profit, designing, overseeing production, couture sewing and consulting. But it’s always embedded in what I do.

Fashion is a beautiful part of our human identities and reflects a global sharing of ideas and craft, intellectually and physically, since garments often travel through multiple continents before you buy them. The story of a piece of clothing can be quite beautiful and both empower people and respect the environment along its entire supply chain. Unfortunately, the way most clothing is produced, used, and disposed of these days hurts people and the environment. But we can change that!

How would you define sustainability for someone who is completely new to the topic?

Like I write in the Guide to Sustainable Strategies, sustainability is based on a deep understanding that all things are interconnected in this world. It provides the ability to design and produce indefinitely. This requires that the design, development, production and use of fashion products meet today’s needs, without preventing them from being met by future generations. (Though sometimes it’s easiest to simplify it to “fashion that doesn’t hurt people or the environment.”)

What advice would you offer brands that are new to sustainability? How should they determine their first steps?

Start with small actions and big questions! Sustainability is complex and everyone’s journey is different. Think about what issues are the closest to your heart and start there. Anywhere you want to start is great. For example, don’t underestimate the value of actions like reducing energy use at your office!

It’s good to start by learning. Read, talk to others, and educate yourself – once you know the problem it’s hard to un-know it. I always find that reading others’ company sustainability reports is really interesting.

How do you see sustainable fashion industry initiatives intersecting with sustainable initiatives in other industries?

Wow, it’s hard to think of an industry where they don’t intersect. It all comes down to the same things: overconsumption, oil, agriculture, etc.

That said, I think one of the big mistakes the sustainable fashion industry makes is to not expand more beyond itself. It would be nice to see people from the big oil and chemical companies in some of these conversations. The conversation also skews very western in terms of global perspectives.

How have you seen the idea of sustainability in fashion evolve since you started working in it?

It has evolved so much over the past decade. The industry was significantly smaller when I started. You could even call it “niche” despite the fact that some great companies, organizations, and thought leaders were promoting sustainable practices.

I think the real industry turning point came in 2013 with the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, a garment factory accident that killed 1138 people. Despite the fact that horrific accidents happen to garment workers with unfortunate regularity, this event was unique because of the number of dead and the fact that it went completely viral on news and social media circuits. It opened the conversation up to the mainstream and brands who were either afraid of or didn’t take sustainability seriously before had to talk about it.

The energy of the sustainability movement also shifted from being more competitive to collaborative. Today, there is unprecedented collaboration and the movement is BIG! Though we still have a way to go before we turn around so our industry is headed in the right direction.

That said, there is a fair amount of continuity. Many of my sustainable fashion heroes from when I started remain my heroes today; people like Lynda Grose, Kate Fletcher, Safia Minney, Orsola de Castro, Tamsin Lejeune, Matt and Scott from Indigenous Designs and more who are still shaping solutions to problems that can feel overwhelming in magnitude.

Has working in fashion sustainability impacted the way you live your life on a daily basis?

Absolutely. It has impacted the way I think, dress, eat, and the products I use. Once you dive deep into supply chains and ingredients you can’t pretend you don’t know how things are made. I go through waves of being more or less strict with myself, but generally the more I learn, the better I behave. Despite all the incredible work they’re doing for sustainability, I still can’t buy anything from H&M or other fast fashion retailers. I think that comes from my roots in fair trade and couture sewing.

I believe in truly loving the fashion that you buy. Someone recently told me to use the Marie Kondo method to clean out my closet: hold each piece up and ask myself, “does this bring me joy?” I wouldn’t get rid of anything because almost all of my clothes bring me great joy.

The sustainable fashion industry has also supplied me with many of my d earest, closest friends.

What excites you most about sustainability?

Like I mentioned before, the industry-wide collaboration is truly inspiring and invigorating. It is an exciting time to be a designer! There are many excellent tools and resources available to help designers implement sustainability, from common metrics to global events to the newly launched CFDA Sustainability Initiatives that Sara Kozlowski and her incredible team are overseeing. There are also so many beautiful materials and techniques to work with.

Perhaps the most exciting, though, is the degree to which sustainability is incorporated into fashion study programs. Many of my favorite sustainable fashion thought-leaders are in academia, including CCA, the London College of Fashion, Parsons, and many more. As this generation of design students gets jobs and rises up through the fashion industry, I think the world will be a better place.