SUPPLY CHAIN -
Since the “Detox My Fashion” campaign launched in 2011, 76 fashion brands, retailers and suppliers have committed to remove toxic chemicals from their supply chains by 2020, accounting for a combined 15 percent of global textile production.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Fashion designers have long asked for a place to find materials they know are healthier for people and the planet — and now they have one. The new Fashion Positive Materials Collection, which debuted this week, includes 39 materials for fashion applications that are Cradle to Cradle Certified or have received a Material Health Certificate, which at higher levels of certification ensures safe materials suitable for circular design.
PRESS RELEASE -
As an outdoor lifestyle brand, Timberland has a legacy of protecting and restoring the outdoors and supporting the communities in which it operates. Tree planting plays an important role in this commitment. Since 2001, Timberland has planted 8.7 million trees around the world, empowering thousands of smallholder farmers in the process.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
New fashion brand Oliver Cabell is “seeking to disrupt the luxury fashion business” with an unmatched level of transparency around its products. Exclusively available online, each product’s page on the company’s website details where the item was made and the costs that went into it, including the brand’s mark-up.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
This week, outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland announced a goal to double its footprint in five U.S. cities by 2020 in an unexpected, unique way. Each year for the next five years, the brand will match its retail floor space with the creation or restoration of an equivalent amount of green space in a different city with a Timberland store, beginning with New York City. The next four cities will be revealed later this year, with projects ranging from walking trails to community gardens to city parks.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
In 2014, Patagonia dissolved its sustainability department – a move that the company’s VP of public engagement, Rick Ridgeway, remains proud of to this day. Overnight, the outdoor clothing brand deepened its commitment to environmental and social justice by decentralizing its sustainability team and moving them individually out into core areas of the business where they would have most influence.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Struggling to cover basic expenses such as food, housing and education, the roughly 40 million garment workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and other parts of Asia regularly risk physical violence, sexual harassment, starvation, and even death for the sake of cheap clothing.
CLEANTECH -
A new cloud-based platform for supply chain management promises to enhance transparency and help producers transition to circular models, starting with the apparel industry. In collaboration with software provider Improvement IT, Netherlands-based Dutch Awearness has launched an online software tool called the Circular Content Management System (CCMS) to help track and trace garments and their materials.
PRESS RELEASE -
Global outdoor lifestyle brandTimberland today announced a partnership with responsible fabric manufacturer
Thread, furthering both brands’ longstanding commitment to environmental and social responsibility. Crafted from plastic bottles collected in Haiti and Honduras, Thread™ Ground to Good™ fabric challenges how the world thinks about recycled PET. Going beyond environmental sustainability, Thread also creates social value in the form of cleaner neighborhoods and job creation for thousands of people.
PRESS RELEASE -
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (May 31, 2016) — Importer/wholesale distributor Omni United Pte. Ltd.’s Timberland brand — the first tire line created in partnership with a leading global lifestyle brand — has been recognized for its collaborative sustainability efforts.
Timberland L.L.C. and the tire brand beat out Reformation, Levi’s and People Tree to win the WGSN Futures Award in sustainability design. Sagra Maceira de Rosen, a member of the advisory board of Omni United, and Nick Barber, director of apparel design of Timberland, accepted the award in London on May 26.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
NIKE, Inc. has unveiled the latest expansion of its European Logistics Campus in Belgium, to accelerate its drive toward “the supply chain of the future.”
The expansion will make Nike’s European operations more efficient, more responsive and more sustainable, enabling growth by serving consumers across Nike.com, Nike retail and wholesale partners in 38 countries, all from a single inventory location.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Canadian forest-conservation NGO Canopy has announced six new brand partnerships in its successful CanopyStyle initiative, through which more than 65 major fashion brands, designers and retailers have pledged to end the use of ancient and endangered forests in their rayon supply chains.
Viscose and rayon fibers are made from wood pulp and are some of the most widely used in clothing and textiles, threatening endangered forests. Approximately 120 million trees are logged annually for fabrics and about a third of them are sourced from ancient and/or endangered forests.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
As leading fashion brands continue their creative battles against textile waste — check out recent innovations by Levi Strauss, H&M and adidas — a new breed of circular clothing disruptor is starting to emerge. These purposeful startups are looking to stop fast fashion in its tracks by building longevity and emotional durability into their apparel.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
With dramatically large amounts of clothing and other textiles being thrown out every year – nearly 10 million tonnes in the United States and more than 3 million tonnes in European Union (EU) countries – it is no wonder why designers and companies are increasingly looking to this waste as a potential resource.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
You’ve probably heard plenty of startups claim they can “revolutionize” their industry, but in the case of Bolt Threads, they may actually be right. The California-based biotechnology startup is already manufacturing its Engineered Silk™ protein at scale and made two big announcements this week at TechCrunch Disrupt NY: the conclusion of a $50 million Series C financing round, and a new partnership with apparel brand Patagonia.
COLLABORATION -
Cotton is planted on 2.4 percent of the world’s crop land and yet it accounts for 24 percent and 11 percent of the global sales of insecticide and pesticides, respectively. Organic cotton represents less than 1 percent of the global total annual crop, but National Geographic, international clothing brand C&A, and activist and filmmaker Alexandra Cousteau believe that needs to change.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
In 2025, there is one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish in the oceans, and in 2050 the weight of plastic has overtaken that of fish. While the cause of this future scenario would largely be the work of plastic bottles and other types of packaging, part of the blame falls on our clothing. So denim giant G-Star and marine pollution campaign group the Plastic Soup Foundation (PSP) are joining forces to stop this process in its tracks with a battle against microfiber.
WASTE NOT -
‘Fast fashion’ holds a prominent position in the apparel industry despite the many problems associated with it, from labor conditions to clothing waste. In the three years since the tragic Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, the revolt against fast fashion has gathered steam.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland prides itself on its commitment to innovate and operate in an accountable and responsible manner — in terms of its products, the communities in which it operates, and the outdoors. As part of this commitment, the company today announced the implementation of its rigorous environmental standard — the Timberland Environmental Product Standard (TEPS) — across all of its product categories, beginning with its Spring 2016 collection.