How Australian women bought less but had more

2 April 2026

How can the rental garment industry help to democratise access to designer fashion while promoting conscious consumption? Experts from the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion + Textiles in the UTS Faculty of Design and Society joined forces with the UTS Business School and the Institute for Sustainable Futures to deliver research for industry partner The Volte, a peer-to-peer fashion rental platform.

Dr Lisa Lake, Associate Professor Timo Rissanen, Associate Professor Maruf Hossan Chowdhury, and DVCR Prof Kate McGrath

Congratulations to the team for winning the Research Excellence Through Collaboration Award in the 2025 UTS Vice-Chancellor’s Research Awards: Associate Professor Timo Rissanen (Chief Investigator), Associate Professor Maruf Hossan Chowdhury,  Associate Professor Taylor Brydges and Dr Lisa Lake.

The team’s final report entitled ‘How Australian women bought less but had more: Measuring the environmental sustainability of The Volte’s peer-to-peer clothing rental model’ exemplifies the strength of interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork across UTS faculties and centres/institutes to deliver research excellence for external partners. 

Exploring the benefits of fashion rental

Timo, Maruf, Taylor and Lisa offer a uniquely holistic approach to understanding the environmental and social impacts of peer-to-peer fashion rental by bringing together their collective expertise across fashion design, environmental sustainability, business analytics and social research.

As the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion + Textiles, the team prides itself on being industry-focused and actively seeks to bring together the right academics for the work, no matter where in the University they reside. Led by an interdisciplinary project team representing two faculties and one institution within UTS, the Centre brings together diverse yet complementary expertise on fashion and textiles sustainability.

In this project, the team employed that multidisciplinary expertise to examine garment use intensity and its environmental impact in the context of a peer-to-peer rental platform. 

Focussing on research that makes impact

Maruf said that a key lesson learned from the team’s experience in delivering this project is the importance of co-designing research with industry partners rather than treating them as end-users of findings.

“Working closely with The Volte allowed us to frame research questions that were both academically rigorous and practically relevant,” he said.

Equally important is embracing interdisciplinarity.

“Complex sustainability challenges such as circular economy transitionscannot be addressed from a single disciplinary lens. By integrating expertise in fashion design, life-cycle assessment, business analytics and social research, we were able to generate insights that are both holistic and actionable.”

Maruf recommends that researchers seeking to make impact need to think beyond publication.

“Impact comes from translation and communication- engaging stakeholders, presenting findings in accessible ways and aligning outputs with policy and industry needs. In short, impactful research is not just about producing knowledge, but about mobilising it effectively.”

Timo added that when research findings present potential benefits, opportunities or threats to industry, they need to be presented in accessible ways.

“It is unlikely many people working in industry have access to peer-reviewed journals or have capacity to read them. At the conclusion of this project, we hosted an event for the fashion industry where we shared aspects of the final report with the industry. Based on the feedback we received as well as the media coverage, our approach was successful,” Timo said.

Impact comes from translation and communication- engaging stakeholders, presenting findings in accessible ways and aligning outputs with policy and industry needs. In short, impactful research is not just about producing knowledge, but about mobilising it effectively.

Aligning research with partner needs

Lisa said that when researchers work with industry, it’s important to deeply understand the challenges.

“Work closely with partners to ensure that your research questions and approaches align with both your own research interests/expertise and your partner’s needs,” she advised.

“Be sure to respect the expertise your industry partners bring to the project and try to understand the intricacies of the problem from a business/industry perspective as well as a research perspective.”

Work closely with partners to ensure that your research questions and approaches align with both your own research interests/expertise and your partner’s needs.

Why nominate for a Vice Chancellor’s Award?

For the team, Lisa said that winning a Vice Chancellor’s Award recognises the value of interdisciplinary collaboration and strong industry partnerships in delivering meaningful impact.

“I am thrilled to know that the University can recognise and celebrate the brilliance, commitment and collaborative values of the research team. Working on this project was incredibly rewarding from the beginning, not only because I knew it would add much needed knowledge to the fashion and sustainability dialogue, but because I had the privilege of witnessing the expertise of the researchers working together with our industry partner,” she said.

Taylor appreciated having the work recognised as a team.

“We know how hard it is to work across faculties. It requires excellent leadership to bring an interdisciplinary team together in the first place and then overcome the challenges posed, especially when University systems aren’t always set up for seamless collaboration,” she said.

Recognising that the Australian fashion industry does not have a history of investing in research with universities as partners, Timo said that this project felt somewhat pioneering.

“We hope that our example inspires other fashion businesses and organisations to engage in conversations with UTS and other universities regarding the opportunities that research partnerships may present for them,” he said.

As an individual research contributor, Maruf said winning the Award was both an honour and a motivation to continue producing research that is rigorous, relevant and socially impactful.

“The Vice Chancellor’s Awards help make impactful research visible and recognised and reinforce that impactful research is fundamentally a collective effort,” he said, adding that the nomination process also encourages reflection on the broader significance of your work.

We hope that our example inspires other fashion businesses and organisations to engage in conversations with UTS and other universities regarding the opportunities that research partnerships may present for them.

“Importantly, Awards like these foster a culture of recognition and inspiration, motivating others to pursue impactful, collaborative research,” he said.

“Whether one receives an award for it or not, completing a research project always feels like a win, given the dynamic work environments that staff in a university constantly face. Nominating a colleague for an award is a nice recognition of a job well done and I encourage everyone to do more of it,” said Timo.

Congratulations to the team for producing insights that are reshaping conversations around circular economy, sustainable consumption and the potential of microbusinesses led by women. Through their deep commitment to connectedness, disciplinary diversity and industry engagement, Maruf, Timo, Taylor and Lisa position UTS as a leader in sustainability research, informed industry practice and policy discussions, creating new pathways for future interdisciplinary research.