Urgency for Sustainable Fashion - Global Fashion Summit 2022 Recap
In celebration of the recently concluded Global Fashion Summit, we are reminded of how we need to act with urgency when it comes to sustainability and climate change. This year's theme, "Alliances For A New Era," emphasizes on how we need to get everyone on the journey. In this blog post, I summarize all my learnings and takeaways from the summit.
As a small-medium enterprise business owner, don’t have too much FOMO if you aren’t able to make the summit. I found that a lot of the topics covered were quite high-level and catered toward big brands with resources and budgets. I have also summarized all my learnings and takeaways so you can save money on ticket costs, travel, accommodation, etc. and just read this blog post and/or listen to our podcast episode instead!
State of the Fashion Industry
To kick things off, it's important to talk about the state of the fashion industry to understand the context and the landscape so we can figure out what we want to do.
There are a lot of things going on in the industry right now — consumers are buying less clothing, brands are cancelling orders, manufacturers are laying off garment workers, the Ukraine and Russia war, inflation, zero Covid policy in China, harbour shutdowns, and container shortages. Covid-19 affected the supply chain which resulted in cancelled and pushed-back orders. On the bright side, the fashion industry recovered quite quickly after the pandemic and that should give up hope.
If your brand has stagnated or plateaued, give yourself some compassion and grace because there are a lot of external factors going on right now.
Defining Sustainability
During the Global Fashion Summit, there was a whole panel dedicated to defining the word sustainability.
One person pointed out that sustainability means no harm. I've recently talked about how there's no such thing as being 'truly' sustainable so it's better to see sustainability as a journey and an aspiration. In line with this, it is important that every company is on that journey and that everyone is in this together to make a sustainable future. It is really important to be inclusive but then, continue to raise the bar as well.
Another person on the panel also pointed out how important it is to build a business that can exist within the limits of the planet. As a brand, you need to make sure you take a customer-first approach and make something your ideal customer will wear and use for years to come. A sustainable product that people don't wear and throw away is just 'sustainable junk.'
Sustainability Takeaways
One of my biggest takeaways from the summit is how urgent we have to act to save our planet. We are currently in a triple planetary crisis. We need to limit global warming to 1.5C but this might be beyond reach unless there are immediate and significant emission reductions. Currently, we're heading to a 3-4 degrees Celsius increase if we continue our business as-usual activities.
"Less bad" is not good enough anymore. We need to act together and we need to act now. The planet will not wait for decision-makers to decide on priorities so we have to try to adopt a net positive mindset rather than a net neutral one. We also need to be radical when it comes to redefining how we make our sustainable fashion alliances.
We need everyone to get on the journey. During the summit, people discussed that there is a silver lining when it comes to greenwashing. "Trophy moves" and "performative acts" from bigger brands can be frustrating but everyone needs to start somewhere. One example given during the summit was the WaterLESS line from Levi's which has now grown and gone through to the rest of the company and the supply chain. We need to be inclusive but at the same time, we need to continue raising the bar.
The lightbulb was not invented through continuous improvements of candles but rather, we need to re-engineer and rethink our linear model towards a circular one. I remember a quote from William McDonough, the creator of Cradle to Cradle. He said, "Fashion is a verb — let's fashion the world we want" and I think that's inspiring.
Stakeholders
We can't do this alone so let's take a look at the stakeholders involved in our journey toward sustainability.
Brands
Brands shouldn't work on their own solutions. Collaboration should be highly encouraged.
Look beyond competition and fight for the same advocacy together. One example is the collaboration between Allbirds and Adidas. They worked together to create a shoe that used less than 3kg of CO2 (as compared to the average of 14kg)
One of the benefits of being one of our clients is that we encourage cross-collaboration and working together whether it's about buying sustainable materials together, leveraging innovative technologies together to meet minimums, cross-promoting, etc.
Consumers
Consumers have the power to shift the dynamics in the industry by voting with their dollars.
A lot of consumers have become more "aware" after COVID hence, a lot of them have been demanding more action from brands, policy-makers, etc.
The doom and gloom messaging can be really paralyzing so instead of statistics, pull on heartstrings and create a story - see how we can engage with our community and encourage everyone to take action — also if we position it from a position of communicating how incredible the planet is and wanting to protect it, that can help
Government / Policy Makers
Voluntary action to date has been insufficient so policy-makers have stepped into place. They need to make sure there aren't a million policies per country doing the same thing because it'll be tough for brands to incorporate.
There is a huge opportunity to create a unifying global standard that every country and government abides by to standardize it so there is a need to align our priorities.
Over the last 24 months, a big shift has been seen which implies that there will be a lot of regulations coming. This means that brands should future-proof their business and/or be leaders in the industry. These changes have been happening globally (e.g. Germany's Supply Chain Act, New York's climate act, etc.)
Investors / Sustainable Financiers
Over the past few months, there has been a lot more interest in sustainable financing. A lot of investors have been investing in sustainable companies (e.g. renewable energy, innovative materials like from the Material Innovation Conference)
Investors are still very much financially driven so there is still a need for brands to quantify the results and showcase it.
Brand and Supply Chain Power Dynamics
Brands still have a lot of purchasing power and the colonial mindset geared toward suppliers still exists. In some ways, they can "do whatever they want'' because they can easily find another supplier or move to a different country for production. Some brands are still 'racing to the bottom' and finding the cheapest manufacturers. At the same time, a lot of sustainable manufacturers are competing for the same brands and contracts as non-sustainable manufacturers and unfortunately, sustainable manufacturers don't have the budgets for green machines, research and development.
Seven of the most sustainable factories are now in Bangladesh. The label "Made In China/India/Bangladesh" should no longer get a bad rep because there are a lot of amazing factories in those countries right now. Overall, there is a need to rebalance power structures and reshape the industry.
Garment Worker Wages
A lot of brands often say that living wages are difficult because there are no standards. This is just an excuse since they could easily just double their workers' salaries. The confusing patchwork legislation and lack of measurement are causing brands to be able to skirt by.
One suggestion is that manufacturers could publish their "floor wage" or their lowest hourly wage in their factories for accountability. A "lowest wage challenge" can be started. With this, brands can do a gap to living wage analysis and slowly get there. It is really important to incentivize right behaviors. In overview, there is a need to develop long-term brand and manufacturing relationships which means brands shouldn't just pick up and move to another facility or country when it's convenient for them.
Colonialism of the Fashion Industry
During the summit, there were a lot of talks regarding the Global North vs. the Global South. We transfer so much of our waste from the Global North to the Global South so they're dealing with landfills and landfills worth of clothing. We heard some really powerful stories during the summit and I want to do them justice so I have invited those speakers to be interviewed on our podcast so stay tuned!
Metaverse
As we are in the age of technology, a lot of innovations have been popping out now and then. A lot of the items in the industry aren't scalable so instead of rushing into Web3, you can focus on improving your current business practices instead.
The Metaverse is a luxury product right now. People in third world countries don't have internet and a lot of people don't have access to tools and technology to run the visuals just like goggles.
The Web3 tech is just starting and it's still a decentralized system that's still trying to achieve a consensus. Right now, the consensus is through a lot of computers cross-validating which is really energy intensive. To solve this, a lot of people are trying to move the tech forward without all these computers to transition to a new version of the consensus which aims for a 99% energy consumption reduction.
Incorporating Sustainability
The Global Fashion Summit and other conferences of the same nature foster discussions and innovations. Not everything that was discussed is applicable right for small-medium enterprises and even for bigger companies just starting so it can be overwhelming.
We have summarized our biggest takeaways and action steps for our clients. We also guide them to pinpoint their science-based target as well. Just remember that this is a journey and you need to be intentional about it. It is imperative we ACT. Long gone is the time in which we debated about sustainability or thought about how to do it. There are so many resources telling you what needs to be done.
These are the main takeaways and lessons I’ve learned during the time I attended the Global Fashion Summit. I hope you learned a lot and I was able to summarize it for you. May you be able to apply all the things you’ve learned from this blog post to your brand?
If you’d like help with your sustainability strategy, sustainability priorities, sourcing materials and manufacturers, reporting impacts, and communicating efforts to customers — we can work together through our Sustainability Consulting Services. Our team only works with a limited number of clients every year so if you’re interested in working together, you can request a complimentary consultation to see if it’s a fit to work together and create a tailored consulting package for your needs.
