Threading Circular Futures: Moderating at Fair Fashion Festival 2025
Written by: Ese Okereka, Project Manager at Delphi & Leading Change Fellow
July 4th, 2025
[10-minute read]
When Youth Power Meets Climate Action
I never imagined I’d someday be moderating a panel on circular fashion futures alongside a high school climate activist, a city sustainability manager, and a circular economy researcher sporting a recycling tattoo.
If you had told me a few months ago this would be my reality, I might've raised an eyebrow. But on June 1st at the Fair Fashion Festival, I got to participate in a bold vision for a circular future.
Setting the Scene: No Waste, No Barriers, Just Possibility
Our panel was titled "Threading Circular Futures: Youth Power Leading Community Action," and I had the honour of being the moderator-in-chief.
Our goal? To unpack what circularity really means and how BIPOC youth are already leading the charge, and how to imagine fashion systems that repair not just clothes, but also communities.
To set the tone, I opened with a vision: Imagine the GTA in 2035, no waste, no barriers, just creativity, equity, and shared care. Romantic? Maybe. But believing in climate action often means being a little romantic. It's what keeps us hopeful and moving.
Our intergenerational panel brought together:
Victor Xu, a High school activist and nonprofit founder of The Green Society (TGS) and FutureEd, which operates across 7 countries
Jennifer Wong, City of Markham's Sustainability Manager
Calvin Lakhan, Ph.D, Director of the Circular Innovation Hub at York University
Each brought such different lenses to the conversation, yet all threads converged on the same spool: circularity as justice, creativity, and community care.
What Is a Circular Economy?
I kicked off with a deceptively simple question: What does the circular economy really mean?
Calvin’s answer was part lecture, part reality check: “There are over 47 definitions of the circular economy in the literature. Mine? It’s about mimicking nature, where waste becomes food. But let’s not confuse circularity with sustainability. Just because it’s circular doesn’t mean it’s sustainable.
That struck a chord. We often toss around “sustainability” like fairy dust, but circularity isn’t always magical. If it doesn’t centre equity and real community power, it risks becoming just another industry buzzword.
Victor gave a beautiful example of circularity in action: His nonprofit builds climate workshops with students in New Zealand and Kenya, incorporating local practices. Those students, often in Indigenous or rural communities, teach Canadian students how to reduce and reuse more creatively. Cross-cultural collaboration as circularity? Yes, please.
And Jennifer reminded us that circularity also lives in policy. Markham has an 81% waste diversion rate (Canada’s highest!), a result of community trust, local champions, and yes, a few cleverly inconvenient garbage bins designed to make you think before you toss.
Then came the question that anchored our entire conversation:
How can marginalized communities, often hit hardest by climate and waste issues, yet the least wasteful themselves, lead in building a circular future?
Calvin's response was humbling: "I have the recycling logo tattooed on my wrist. But 60% of the first-generation immigrants I surveyed didn't know what the symbol meant. Including my own family."
That revelation was powerful. Circularity can’t be universal if its language isn’t. His call to action? Marginalized communities must move from being invited after decisions to setting the table themselves.
Jennifer built on that: “People already recycle and reuse, they just don’t always call it that. We need to meet people where they are, not where we want them to be.”
Circularity, it turns out, isn’t just about the flow of materials. It’s about the flow of stories, values, and respect.
From Theory to Action: Steps Toward Circular Change
The beauty of this panel wasn't just the ideas we discussed; it was hearing how each person practices circularity in their daily life:
Calvin practices radical reduction, the most overlooked "R." Even when Amazon tempts him with new gadgets and gym gear, he reminds himself: "I have enough." (Relatable, right?)
Jennifer brings reusable containers to restaurants, yes, even when it gets weird stares. She challenged us to disrupt social norms by doing, not preaching.
Victor collects and repurposes curriculum ideas from youth around the world, especially in regions where climate practices are instinctual, not institutional.
When I asked everyone to imagine one object they wished were more circular, the answers were delightfully specific: protein tubs, styrofoam, and solar panels.
Mine? Books. I love them too much to see them pulped. There has to be a better afterlife for novels and unread books than landfills.
Come Behind the Seams
Outside of moderating, this day had its montage moments with layers that went far beyond our panel discussion.
Meeting the Makers: I fell in love with earrings made from recycled bottle caps. The creativity on display reminded me that fashion can be art, protest, and joy all at once.
Yellow earrings made from bottle caps.
The Stitch Challenge That Changed My Perspective
I joined a hands-on challenge with Sara McQuaid where we tried sewing hemlines in under a minute. The pressure I felt trying to sew while racing the clock was intense, and that was just for fun.
Yet this is the daily reality for garment workers who must sew about 10 t-shirt hems in less than a minute, working 10-12 hour shifts under unsafe conditions. The production pressure is relentless, and the wages are unsustainable.
How many t-shirt hems can you sew in a minute?
This is why I stand with #WhatSheMakes and support Oxfam Canada's What She Makes Campaign, demanding Canadian fashion brands pay a living wage now. We need to hold brands accountable, push for change and end the exploitation of the women who make our clothes.
The Conversations That Opened My Eyes
Garment Workers' Realities: My chat with Nirvana Mujtaba about garment workers in Bangladesh painted a stark picture: wages that don't sustain life, brands that don't care, slow progress on company audits. Her words reminded me why festivals like this matter: they pull back the curtain and make you confront what it takes to make fashion fair.
The Clothing Swap: I donated some pants and picked up two beautiful sweaters. What I loved most? The organisers track the weight of clothes donated and diverted from landfills. Its impact you can hold in your hands.
Clothing Swap
Mending Station
Imagining 2075: A Circular GTA
One of the most hopeful parts of the day was hearing how the panel envisioned a circular GTA in the next 50 years. Youths as connectors, not just consumers.
Victor called for education reform: “We need climate and circularity in school curriculums, not as electives, but as essentials.”
Jennifer imagined repair cafes in every public library: “Just like you borrow books, you’d borrow tools and repair services.” This was an idea I absolutely loved. Imagine being able to borrow a sewing machine?
Calvin envisioned a future where reuse is the default: “It should be easier to repair your clothes than order fast fashion.”
I added this: Circularity begins in your own ecosystem. What you eat, wear, shop, and repair are your economic votes. Use them wisely.
The Thread That Connects Us All
As we wrapped, I asked each panelist for one takeaway. Victor’s stayed with me the most:
“Don’t focus on the end goal. Focus on your next step. That’s how change happens, one passion, one project, one person at a time.”
It can be easy to think your small step doesn’t matter. It does. Just start.
The Fair Fashion Festival was a living prototype of our circular future. A space where sewing, swapping, storytelling, and systems change coexisted. Where clothes were preloved, conversations were heart-led, and youth weren't future leaders but present ones.
Circularity isn't just about waste. It's about worth. And your voice is worthy of shaping what comes next.
So go ahead, mend that dress, start that club, support that NGO, attend that event. The future is already threading itself through your fingertips.
Ready to join the movement? Check out the videos to see the Stitch Challenge in action, sign up for the #WhatSheMakes campaign and go behind the scenes at the Fair Fashion Festival.
Ese Okereka
Dr. Ese Okereka is a Toronto-based sustainability consultant, project manager, and lifelong champion of creative climate action. She holds a PhD in Environmental Biology and brings over 10 years of global experience leading ESG and sustainability projects across energy, development, academia, and management consulting.
From advancing decarbonization at Shell in Nigeria to championing environmental justice with the United Nations in Europe, Ese’s work spans continents and causes. She thrives at the intersection of sustainability, technology, and storytelling, advising people and organizations on circular economy practices while inspiring a greener, more equitable future. Ese brings practical wisdom and a contagious sense of possibility that sustainability can be practical, inclusive, and future-forward.
