About Sustaining Voices
Sourcing Journal’s Sustaining Voices celebrates the efforts the apparel industry is making toward securing a more environmentally responsible future through creative innovations, scalable solutions and forward-thinking initiatives that are spinning intent into action.
Overview
The Global Fashion Agenda uses carrot-and-stick diplomacy to urge fashion CEOs to prioritize sustainability.
Deep Dive
For the Global Fashion Agenda, sustainability isn’t just good corporate stewardship. It’s also a business imperative, one that fashion CEOs must address if they expect to survive the “unprecedented threat” of climate change.
But though textile production accounts for 1.2 billion metric tons of greenhouse-gas emission every year, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, not everyone is taking action.
In 2018, the Copenhagen Fashion Summit organizer reported in its annual “Pulse of the Fashion Industry” report that nearly one-third of the fashion industry is still sitting on sustainability.
Concerned with the glacial progress, the Global Fashion Agenda developed the CEO Agenda, a framework that spells out the areas where laggard companies should focus their efforts, including four “core priorities” for immediate implementation (curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, resource efficiency, supply-chain transparency and respectful and secure labor environments) and four “transformational priorities” for change in the longer term (the use of sustainable materials, creating a circular fashion system, promoting better wages and finding opportunities in digitization).
The organization wasn’t alone in its efforts; it sought out the input of its strategic brand partners, including Asos, Bestseller, H&M, Kering, Li & Fung, Nike, PVH Corp., the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and Target. The result, according to Eva Kruse, president and CEO of the Global Fashion Agenda, is a set of guidelines created “by the industry, for the industry.”
“We recognize the importance of bold leadership, so the agenda is targeted at CEOs as we believe they have the power to influence the entire business model,” she said.
At Davos earlier this year, the Global Fashion Agenda announced it was promoting combatting climate change as the agenda’s topmost priority. Months before, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had given the planet just 12 years to cap rising temperatures and “limit climate change catastrophe.”
“This is an issue that cannot be ignored and it urgently needs to be addressed when businesses are tackling sustainability,” Kruse said.
The agenda is doing its part by helping fashion businesses identify gaps that need filling, as well as the critical areas falling short of action. More still needs to be done, of course, but if companies that were lingering on the sidelines are joining the fight, it’s at least a start.
“With the ultimate aim to mobilize and guide the fashion industry to take action on sustainability, it is rewarding to hear from CEOs who have made fundamental changes to their business models as a result of the CEO Agenda,” she added.
In what areas has the fashion industry made the biggest strides in sustainability in the last five years?
“We have seen a lot of progress over the years in the end of use phase. There are much more textile collection schemes and solutions that focus on recycling fibers to create new garments. The resale market has strengthened with the likes of Depop and Vestiaire Collective growing rapidly in response to the growing demand for secondhand goods.
There is also a lot more transparency and traceability when it comes to supply chain, with brands communicating much more openly.
Plus, there is definitely more awareness about sustainability among both brands and consumers. In the 10 years since we launched Copenhagen Fashion Summit, attendees have doubled, and this year we had 800 people on the waiting list, highlighting the growing industry need to learn more and find solutions.”