Three, Sixty: With Troy Armour

This is an extract from Issue 10 of SDG Alpha, my newsletter that casts an Irish lens on the world of Impact Investment, Innovation, and Sustainability. In each issue, I pose three questions on the theme of sustainability to an impact entrepreneur or innovator, to get a better understanding in sixty seconds of how they’re working to achieve the SDG targets.

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On a personal level, what impacts of the climate crisis are you most concerned about?

The impacts of the climate crisis that have hit me is our own level of consumerism — this need that we have to buy and consume at feverish levels. There are many things driving this — myself as an entrepreneur — to be successful we have to drive business growth — aka more consumerism — it’s a never-ending cycle. In our house we have recently tried to have plastic free Christmas — it’s mad how much toys and silly things we would buy made from plastic just because we could — most of them are unconscious decisions — impulse buys. It’s going to be a challenge to get the business world onside with this as any business model with less consumerism means less growth.

Which of the UN SDGs did you start Junk Kouture to address?

When JK (Junk Kouture) started originally it wasn’t about the SDGs for me — it was about creating a fun platform for creative young people — as we grew over the years we directly support three, and indirectly a further 9. I started to hone in on the elements of Junk Kouture that spoke to me personally — it was the education that it delivered. It was the self-education — where young people learned about themselves and their environment through the creative challenge of using trash to make wearable fashion. Thus, the SDG that really stood out to me was Quality Education as JK supports young adults to explore creative and technical skills, exposing them to a broader set of skillsets. This can expand the possibility of their future employment options and empower them to explore more entrepreneurial endeavours.

Good Health & Well-being is a second SDG that we’re passionate about addressing. JK offers a creative community for young adults to come together through a shared passion for creative expression and explorative design. Creating a space for young adults to feel a sense of belonging in their chosen expressive field greatly supports mental health and well-being for teenagers otherwise on the fringes of their peer groups.

Thirdly, SDG 12, Responsible Consumption and Production, as JK encourages young adults to challenge the traditional ‘take-make-dispose’ linear model of fashion production. By turning “waste” back into creation of wearable fashion, JK is fostering a new generation of circular engineers.

Through the JK process, participants become more aware of sustainable development and humans role in destroying, or living in harmony with nature.

How does your business model enable the transition to a low carbon, or more sustainable future?

Our business model is about creating people and planet transformation — we create circular engineers — young people who see trash as a raw material — who will find new ways to reuse this material rather than dump it and make something again from scratch. For example our alumni participant Katie Brill who made a leather like material from orange peel — it’s thinking like this that will create the solutions needed to help us build a more sustainable future.