Exploring the Relationship Between Environmental Knowledge and Behavioural Intentions for Sustainable Fashion Practices: Fashion Design Student Perspectives

With global climate change and resource constraints looming, sustainable design has become a focus of attention for all industries. Sustainability in the fashion industry requires changing the practices of all participants - designers, manufacturers, marketers and consumers. Advocating and practising sustainable fashion practices is necessary to achieve sustainable development in the fashion industry. As designers, this study should actively explore and apply sustainable design concepts to contribute to creating a better future. This study aimed to investigate undergraduate fashion design students’ attitudes and behavioural intentions towards sustainable fashion practices. Undergraduate fashion design students (n = 441) from three universities in Guangdong Province, China, participated in this survey. By constructing different scales of environmental knowledge, attitude towards sustainable fashion practice and behavioural intention towards sustainable fashion practice, and by using structural equation modelling to analyse the relationship between environmental knowledge and sustainable fashion practice, the following conclusions were drawn: 1) environmental knowledge has a positive effect on attitude towards sustainable fashion practice (p＜0.05); 2) environmental knowledge have a positive impact on behavioural intention towards sustainable fashion practice (p＜0.05); 3) Subjective norms have a positive effect on behavioural intention towards sustainable fashion practice (p＜0.05). 4) Attitudes towards sustainable fashion practice mediate the relationship between environmental knowledge and intentions towards sustainable fashion practice behaviour (p＜0.05). The findings of this study have implications for environmental education for undergraduate fashion design students and sustainable production in companies.