Purpose: This study aims to promote sustainability-based education in fashion design and merchandising program to enhance students' knowledge, skills and attitude about sustainability development, organizational responsibility and personal responsibility from the cotton industry perspective. Design/methodology/approach: To conduct this study, three learning components were considered: learning from experts, learning by doing and outreach activity. Sustainability-related topics were strategically incorporated in different courses for one year; project-based learning approach was adopted; and pre-posttest survey was conducted to study the impact of sustainability-based education on student learning outcome. Rand's principles-attributes matrix was applied to analyze the impact of sustainable education on student learning outcomes. Findings: The results of course projects indicated enhanced student's abilities on using use different types of cotton materials in product development, creative use of cotton in visual merchandising and development of business plans focused on sustainability. The two-group mean comparisons showed a significant positive impact on students' knowledge in cotton and sustainability, followed by students' skills and attitudes. Originality/value: In response to the lack of systematic approach to incorporate sustainability-related topics in textile and apparel design discipline, this study offered an opportunity to involve approximately 110 students in various sustainability-based teaching and learning projects.