Collaborating with a Scottish Heritage Brand towards Enhancing and Preserving Sustainable Artisan Hand-Weaving Practices through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership

Abstract

This paper discusses a Knowledge Transfer Project (KTP) with a global Scottish heritage brand to develop a year-round sustainable business model through a design-led approach to new product innovation that improves their sustainability credentials. Sustainability in textile production is under increasing scrutiny from the media, governments, regulators, and consumers, all demanding transparency in the supply chain. The company has an excellent track record of sustainable employment in rural communities and sought through the project to improve their production processes and waste output. Sustainability is a vast topic, where collaboration can help to address these key challenges. The company manages an artisan hand-weaving manufacturing system where yarn production and fabric finishing are regulated by the 1993 Harris Tweed Act of Parliament that protects and restricts production to the Outer Hebrides. The success or failure of the Harris Tweed® industry directly impacts the wider economy of the Outer Hebrides, which is considered “remote, rural, fragile” by UK and Scottish governments and their economic development agencies. The paper describes how academic/business collaboration can positively encourage innovation and help reposition businesses within a changing economic and sustainable landscape that explores these new opportunities. The paper reflects on how KTPs are a mechanism with mutual benefits, where pooling individual knowledge and resources can develop strong, sustainable, and authentic relationships that can provide tangible impacts of new knowledge generation and application within a scholarly and research context that can be clearly aligned to notions of bringing value to the sector, users, and the curriculum.

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