5 years ago - Circularity is slowing making its way into the fashion industry, aiming to transform one of the most polluting sectors into a shining example of sustainability, but it still has a long way to go before it can truly shed its bad reputation. Technology has been an important driver of change, allowing brands to improve efficiencies and reduce impacts, but the sharing of resources and best practices is proving to be just as critical in nudging the industry forward towards a circular future.
5 years ago - 2017 was a big year for the circular economy, with innovative new products, initiatives and tech tools popping up almost daily, and making it easier than every for corporates and consumers alike to engage in circularity. An initiative of the World Economic Forum and the Forum of Young Global Leaders, The Circulars are awarded to individuals, companies (from startups to multinationals) and public and social organizations in recognition for their contributions to the circular economy. This year, 43 innovators have been nominated for pushing the circular agenda forward and paving the way for others in their field.
5 years ago - Sweden is a leader in waste-to-energy generation and earlier this year, the country began powering its incineration plants with trash purchased from neighboring countries. With less than one percent of Swedish household waste sent to landfill since 2011, the country needed to look outside its borders to keep its incineration plants going. Now, news has emerged that some of this waste is discarded clothing from fast fashion giant H&M.
5 years ago - Textile waste is a 26-billion-pound problem the world is just beginning to recognize. With us consuming more than 80 billion pieces of new clothing each year globally, there’s no question that change is necessary – but what will it take for retailers, clothing manufacturers and consumers to embrace the environmental benefits of reuse?
5 years ago - Big news has been rolling out of the Textile Exchange 2017 Textile Sustainability Conference near Washington, D.C. this week, providing evidence of the major paradigm shift taking place in the apparel and textile industry.
6 years ago - Control Union, a global network of inspection operations and dedicated laboratories, in partnership with H&M has created a new tool to help the apparel industry meet its commitments to supply chain transparency and responsible sourcing. A unique supply chain traceability and data service, CONNECTED is designed specifically for apparel industry supply chains that are complex, distributed over several tiers and countries.
6 years ago - The fashion and textile industries continue to make strides towards a more circular future with the emergence of new resources and technologies that make a sustainable shift easier than ever before.
6 years ago - Startups and retail giants alike are looking to bio-based materials and recycled plastics to drive innovation and reduce environmental impacts along the value chain within the fashion and textile industry.
6 years ago - Across the globe, brands, manufacturers and employers are becoming more aware of the urgent need to address worker exploitation in global supply chains. Through the development of new cross-industry collaborations and technological solutions, industry leaders hope to put an end to forced labor.
6 years ago - Viscose continues to dominate the news as brands ramp up efforts to eliminate the destruction of ancient and endangered forests and human rights violations from the viscose supply chain, while others fall behind.
6 years ago - The apparel industry continues to make progress towards shedding its bad rep, with even more brands making moves to rethink traditional supply chains.
6 years ago - The Ellen MacArthur Foundation continues to drive forward the circular economy agenda with the launch of a new initiative that brings together key industry stakeholders, including C&A Foundation, H&M, Nike Inc,
6 years ago - Human Rights Watch is calling on the fashion industry to adopt and carry out the Apparel and Footwear Supply Chain Transparency Pledge. The organization contacted 72 apparel companies, asking them to publish information identifying the factories that produce their goods, addressing a key obstacle to rooting out abusive labor practices across the industry and helping to prevent disasters such as the Rana Plaza collapse.
6 years ago - Four years after the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in which 1,134 people were killed, Fashion Revolution has released its 2017 Fashion Transparency Index, which ranks 100 of the biggest fashion companies on their social and environmental policies, practices and impacts.
6 years ago - The concept of fast fashion isn’t exactly synonymous with conscious consumerism and sustainability, but major retailer H&M has been at the forefront of the movement to change that — and the fashion industry as a whole.
6 years ago - The textile and apparel industries are widely known to have considerable environmental and social impacts on both local and global levels. The leather industry is no exception — in India, approximately 2.5 million workers are exposed to poor working conditions that violate their human rights and negatively affect their health.
6 years ago - If there existed any question about the effectiveness of boycotts, recent actions taken across the retail industry by both consumers and brands should remove any doubt. The performance of Ivanka Trump’s fashion line plummeted as her father’s presidential campaign gained momentum, leading major retailers such as Nordstrom to pull the plug on her products not long after his inauguration.
6 years ago - The Social and Labor Convergence Project (SLCP) — an initiative led by the world’s leading manufacturers, brands, retailers, industry groups, intergovernmental organizations, service providers and civil society organizations — has secured more than 100 signatories in the year since it launched. The missions of the SLCP is to develop a common assessment framework and data collection system for the apparel, footwear and textile industry, dramatically increasing industry efficiency and reducing audit-related costs.
6 years ago - The fashion industry shows no sign of slowing down in regards to reducing its environmental impact, with new initiatives and schemes emerging almost daily. Though the concept of fast fashion stands in stark contrast to the notion of conscious consumerism and arguably sustainability itself, innovation and disruptive design play an important role in driving the industry towards a more circular, sustainable model.
6 years ago - Corporate sourcing of renewable electricity can be a major driver of the transition to a robust, zero-emissions economy, according to the RE100 Annual Report, released last week to coincide with the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.