Making Net Zero Happen: Your Role in Fashion and Home Textiles
Jointly developed by The University of Manchester and our industry partners
CPD | 50 hours of learning over 10 weeks
Register your interest Register your interestTurning ambition into action
Net Zero isn't optional. It starts now.
Fashion and home product supply chains face growing pressure to transform. Climate change, shifting customer expectations, and rising business accountability are reshaping how products are designed, sourced, manufactured, and delivered. Net Zero is a shared responsibility embedded in every role, every product, and every decision.
This flexible online course explores Net Zero in a practical, accessible way, showing how responsible decision-making runs through every choice, from materials and packaging to sourcing, design, and logistics. It builds confidence to question assumptions, pause and rethink established practices and develop the skills to act with impact.
Created for professionals working across the fashion and home textiles supply and value chains, the course helps you champion change from wherever you are. Each week builds toward a personalised Net Zero Contribution Plan, giving you the tools to understand your influence and put change into practice.
Our Commitment to the UN SDGs
The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are our world’s call to action on the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing humanity and the natural world. With their unique role in creating and sharing knowledge, universities have a direct role in addressing these challenges.
As one of the world’s leading research institutions and the UK’s only university to have social responsibility as a core goal, The University of Manchester is playing a leading role in tackling the SDGs in four ways: research impact, learning and students, public engagement activity and responsible campus processes.
This course is part of that commitment. It translates the UN SDGs into practical action for the fashion and home textiles sector, equipping professionals to make decisions that advance climate goals, social responsibility, and resilient futures.
This course empowers professionals to turn Net Zero from an ambition into everyday practice. Through real-world examples, expert voices, and practical tools, learners will build the confidence to champion change across the fashion and home textiles industry.
Jo Conlon
Reader in Fashion Education and Social Value, Course Director
About the Course
Flexible Learning
This course is structured to meet the needs of busy professionals, offering fully asynchronous access to content that allows learners to study at times that suit their individual schedules. This delivery model ensures minimal disruption to work commitments while maintaining high engagement and learning outcomes.
By combining flexibility with focused, practical content, learners can immediately connect Net Zero principles to their own roles and decisions.
What You Will Learn
- Understand Net Zero principles and how they apply across the fashion and home value chain
- Map Scope 1 to 3 impacts to identify emissions hotspots in your products and processes
- Make better decisions on materials, packaging, sourcing and logistics that lower real emissions
- Communicate across teams and suppliers and influence change from wherever you sit
- Gain practical insights into behaviour change frameworks, LCA basics and traceability to move from intent to action and make credible claims
- Learn how to build cross tier dialogue and collaboration and build a shareable personal Net Zero Contribution Plan that you can put to work immediately
How will you learn?
Each week you will engage with a blend of short videos, guest speakers, case studies and quizzes that connect Net Zero principles to the realities of fashion and home product supply chains.
The course comprises 50 hours of learning, delivered flexibly so you can pace your studies around work and personal commitments:
- 40 hours of self-paced learning structured around core themes
- 10 hours dedicated to demonstrating learning and completing your final Net Zero Contribution Plan
This balance ensures you gain practical insight, apply it to your own context, and finish with a clear plan you can take forward.
Assessment
Over 10 weeks, you will develop a practical Net Zero Contribution Plan that demonstrates your understanding of the value supply chain and identifies realistic actions to support Net Zero goals. This assessment is designed for immediate real-world application, encouraging you to critically evaluate current practices and define tangible steps for positive change within your organisation.
Why choose The University of Manchester?
50th in THE World Reputation Rankings 2025
Our University has been ranked the 50th most powerful global university brand in the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2025.
World-Leading Social and Environmental Impact
The University of Manchester is ranked first place in the UK and Europe and second in the world for benefitting society and the environment by Times Higher Education for the third year running.
The University’s unique commitment to addressing the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is world leading. Manchester is the only university in the world to rank in the top ten for social and environmental impact in all seven years of the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings.
World-Class Research-led Teaching
The University of Manchester’s research beacons are examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships that are tackling some of the biggest questions facing the planet. This quality of research feeds into our taught courses, many of which are also designed to meet the needs of industry.
Register your interest
Register your interest in our Making Net Zero Happen CPD Course.
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