SUPPLY CHAIN -
New reports by Zero Waste Europe and Planet Tracker slam the industry for piecemeal attempts at sustainability and circularity; where it fails to adopt more holistic approaches and take greater responsibility for environmental and social issues, investors must help move the needle.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The materials innovator and sustainable fabric giant Singtex are co-developing new biomaterials across a range of applications — starting with a sustainably produced, waterproof, membrane-based material for outdoor apparel.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
The new H&M Loooptopia Experience on Roblox allows users to experiment with their digital identity and learn about fashion and circularity in a fun, creative and playful environment.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Protein Evolution’s technology can turn unused polyester and nylon fabrics from Stella McCartney’s previous collections into good-as-new, infinitely recyclable fibers — and could present a new circular solution for the fashion industry.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
As always, the goal of our gift guide is to encourage a more conscious approach to gift-giving by highlighting products, services and experiences that create value and benefits beyond short-term gratification for the recipient. Here’s this year’s list of some of the many companies, platforms and products that we’d be happy to support anytime.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Orange Fiber and Keel Labs are platforms for exploration and innovation that can reverberate across the fashion industry and prove that sustainable feedstocks and production processes can create both financial and planetary prosperity.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
From COP27, we see more and more business initiatives focused on not only reaching sustainability, but averting a climate crisis and achieving nature positivity — but have climate-fueled forest fires already nullified our chances at an effective carbon market?
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
As US consumers report more conservative gifting plans due to money worries, alternatives such as Freitag’s S.W.A.P. events and Poshmark’s Secondhand Sunday meet the downshift in enthusiasm for the Black Friday shopping frenzy.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Men’s apparel startup HyperNatural is aiming to subvert the industry’s reliance on synthetic materials with its unique fabric made from a blend of recycled and organic waste streams. While it’s still ironing out circularity kinks, the brand is determined to not make perfection the enemy of progress.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Biotech startups Bolt Threads, Ecovative and Zvnder have discovered how to make the most of mycelium — creating high-quality, sustainable versions of ubiquitous materials such as leather.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
By enabling raw material traceability at scale, Avery Dennison’s atma.io helps brands account for varying environmental footprints through more granular supply
chain data, and empowers consumers to hold brands accountable to their sustainability promises.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
As pressures mount to make fashion more sustainable, brands, retailers, policymakers and industry leaders are all seeking assistance and assurances that global supply chains are using verified data and technology to improve the industry's footprint.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY -
More brands seem to be taking a two-pronged approach to growth — continuing to sell new products while demonstrating their ‘care’ for the planet through circular initiatives and takeback schemes. When will companies truly commit to changing the products they sell and how
they sell them?
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The Swiss sports brand has created a supply chain coalition with LanzaTech, Borealis and Technip Energies to transform captured carbon into running shoes.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
37.5 Technology is offering brand partners a new additive that greatly improves and expedites the biodegradability of textiles, for free — to encourage broader industry adoption and help eliminate one of our biggest polluters.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Demand for low-cost goods has pushed manufacturing into the farthest regions of the world — many of which are increasingly vulnerable to climate change and harsh conditions. Eliminating the most vulnerable links only creates more problems; brands are only as strong as the weakest link in their supply chain.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
The dire social and environmental consequences of opaque fashion supply chains have been laid bare; and consumers now demand that brands have clear, verifiable visibility throughout their supply chains. FTC shows that it can be done — but it requires a vastly different way of thinking.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY -
Many brands that offer pre-owned merchandise through their own retail channels initially do it for sustainability reasons — to keep useful products out of landfills. While that is an important benefit of recommerce, thinking of it only in those terms is overlooking major business opportunities.
MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The latest in a growing wave of circular textile innovations, the materials-science company and the global retailer have both launched collections that turn waste materials into new, colored textiles that require no dyeing.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
In a unique industry collaboration, the three online retailers are launching a bespoke learning platform to support their brand partners in setting science-based emissions-reduction targets.