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The purpose of this project is to provide an account of the student experience at a higher education institution known for its holistic approach to sustainability education.

A qualitative study was conducted at Green Mountain College (GMC), an environmental liberal arts school in Poultney, VT; 55 students participated in focus group interviews.

Students articulate that the most valuable gains that manifest at GMA are a variety of new capacities for science literacy, anthropological appreciation, the triple bottom line, a sense of place, systems, empathic decision-making and reasoning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and practical techniques supporting self-sufficiency. Prompting these emergent outcomes was a philosophy of practice at Green Mountain College, which included place-based techniques, empowerment, personalization, community ecology and charting polarity. Many students described their seeming metamorphosis as uncomfortable, and some felt isolated from the outside paradigm.

A key implication of the study’s findings is that in a holistic setting, the line between the informal and formal curriculum are significantly blurred and what is implicitly communicated through university practices and values is what most transforms the students’ explicit understanding of sustainability.

Sustainability education is far more than technique, far more than what a lone instructor can manifest in students. While the persistence of individual faculty members is important, this evidence suggests that the fertile conditions for transformation may be more fruitful when faculty members work together with a collective sense of responsibility and a well-articulated paradigm.

The advantage of the present study is that it examines the perceived impact of a focus on sustainability across curricula and school by considering the educational environment as a whole. The experiences of students from many different majors who are involved in a holistic, sustainability-infused curriculum at a university with a history of successful post-graduation job placements in the sustainability field are explored here.

As sustainability efforts have increased across the apparel and textile industries, consumers are being exposed to an increasing variety of information and label claims. The purpose of this paper is to determine consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for locally produced animal fiber products with organic and alternative labeling schemes, which included eco‐friendly, natural and sustainable.

Experimental auctions were used to elicit bids on wool socks from consumers across three Southern US states. Means were computed for the various bids, as well as bid differences before and after definitions. To test for significance, non‐parametric Wilcoxon signed‐rank tests for matched pairs were performed for all differences investigated.

Consumers indicated higher WTP for all versions over conventional wool socks, with the highest WTP exhibited for organic. WTP for organic versions further increased after definitions were provided. Natural and eco‐friendly versions had larger premiums than sustainable, but this difference disappeared after definition.

The experimental setting brings the results closer to actual consumer behavior, but eliminated many additional variables that consumers consider.

The results of this paper indicate that policy makers should consider definitions and certification for claims besides organic to potentially benefit wool producers.

This research provides consumer WTP comparisons for a variety of labeling terms currently appearing on wool apparel products. Uncovering this information provides greater understanding of consumer WTP for wool with such attributes, especially after definitions are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the organic apparel consumer. Is the recent upsurge in organic cotton products another fashion trend or is there a segment of consumers genuinely interested in purchasing organic cotton apparel based on the benefits of organic agriculture to the environment?

Data were collected with a mail survey of US health and natural foods consumers. Conjoint analysis revealed salient product attributes and cluster analysis identified segments of consumers with different attribute preferences. Factor analysis uncovered latent variables from among the large number of items and the clusters were examined for differences in their psychographic profiles.

It was found that the 38 percent of consumers who found used organic cotton content salient had positive attitudes toward organic and sustainable agriculture, preferred to “buy locally” and had a strong self‐identity as environmental, organic, and socially responsible consumers.

The sample of US health and natural foods consumers means that the results cannot be generalized too widely. Research is currently under way to relate the self‐reported purchase behavior of organic apparel consumers discussed here to actual purchase behavior.

Survey respondents interested in purchasing organic cotton apparel agreed that organic farming is good for the environment, suggesting that consumers would be receptive to marketing messages that place an emphasis on the environmental benefits of purchasing organic cotton apparel.

The paper provides insight into the attitudes and motivations of environmentally concerned US consumers of organic apparel and provides information on focusing marketing to these consumers.