Designing Sustainable Futures

Since 2019, students from Nottingham Trent University and Humber Polytechnic in Canada have been working together on a unique international project focused on fashion, sustainability, and teamwork. Now in its fifth year, this Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project gives students a chance to work on real-world challenges set by ReTuna, which is the world’s first second-hand shopping mall, based in Eskilstuna, Sweden.

This year’s brief asked students to come up with ideas for a brand campaign to celebrate ReTuna’s 10-year anniversary, using circular economy principles. Students from NTU’s MA Fashion Marketing, MA Fashion Communications, MA International Fashion Management, and MA Luxury Fashion Brand Management worked in cross-cultural teams with peers from Humber’s Fashion Management Postgraduate Certificate programme.

The project is designed to support students’ development in both academic and professional contexts. Students collaborated virtually using Microsoft Teams to produce industry-ready deliverables including AR retail journeys, sustainability-led storytelling campaigns, and event strategies rooted in systems thinking.

As Dr Rossie Kadiyska from Humber explained, the project encouraged students “to move beyond just finding the ‘right’ answer and instead embrace ambiguity, innovation, and bold thinking.” She added that working with a real-life client like ReTuna had a big impact on students’ confidence and mindset.

While working across time zones and academic cultures posed some challenges, students quickly turned these into valuable learning experiences. Many said the project helped them build adaptability, teamwork, and problem-solving skills, all of which are qualities highly sought after in today’s global workforce.

Students also reflected on how much they had grown during the process. Claire Nguyen from Humber shared that, “We started with individual tasks that didn’t make sense at first. But as the project progressed, we realised everything was connected; systems mapping, brand strategy, and communication. It came together beautifully.” Similarly, NTU student Divya Bharathi Ulaganathan said the experience “taught us that leadership and teamwork are essential, especially when working across countries and disciplines.”

The COIL project is now a core part of NTU’s postgraduate fashion curriculum and aligns with the university’s commitment to internationalisation, applied learning, and sustainable development. It has also laid the groundwork for future collaborations, including research, exhibitions, and conference engagement.

With growing interest from both students and industry, the NTU-Humber collaboration with ReTuna shows how education, sustainability, and international teamwork can come together to create meaningful, future-focused learning experiences.