Ninety minutes to try to answer the question: is fashion doing enough to reduce its impact? Probably they will not be enough, but in any case it is good news that at COP27, the annual climate conference organized by the United Nations underway in Sharm el Sheik, a round table dedicated to the fashion industry is also scheduled, as is well known. one of the most polluting and resource-consuming on the planet. Appointment therefore on 11 November, from 2.30 pm to 4 pm (also online, for those who want to register on the streaming channel of the conference) with the panel “Fashion Industry on the race to Zero”, the fashion industry in the race towards zero impact.
The event is organized by the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, an initiative led by the fashion industry under the United Nations Climate Change, launched in 2018 during the Cop24 conference in Poland and renewed at Cop26 in Glasgow last year. . Its aim is clear, to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the global fashion system to zero by 2050, and to do so it has organized its activities in working groups dedicated to the complex and diverse challenges of fashion, from the management of raw materials to use of energy sources, from logistics to production techniques, up to communication. Each of them is coordinated by members of the management of global groups such as Kering, Adidas, Puma, Nike.
Returning to the COP27 event, it will be an opportunity to take stock of the path, which must pass, according to the presentation note, from halving the emissions of the industry by 2030, focusing on low-emission materials, on circularity, on renewable energy. The sessions will be three and will be attended by among others Marie-Claire Daveu (Chief Sustainability and Institutional Affairs Officer of Kering), Stefan Seidel (Senior Head of Sustainability of Puma), Federica Marchionni, president and CEO of Global Fashion Agenda, and Leyla Ertur, Global Head of Sustainability of the H&M group. And, very interestingly, there will also be representatives of the Chinese industry (although China is not attending the conference), led by Kehua Hu, director of the sustainability program of the China National Apparel Council.
The Cop27 event confirms how the fashion industry is seriously addressing its path towards sustainability, which had already discussed these issues two weeks ago during the first edition of the Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum. At the end of the most recent Milanese fashion week, the most virtuous initiatives were awarded at the Cnmi Sustainable Fashion Awards, organized by the Chamber of Fashion at the conclusion and culmination of the fashion week. Meanwhile, the Otb group – which includes the brands Diesel, Jil Sander, Maison Margiela, Marni, Viktor & Rolf and the companies Staff International and Brave Kid – has just announced its adhesion to the Fashion Pact, an initiative for the sustainable transition of fashion born in France in 2019, led by François-Henri Pinault, president and CEO of Kering, which now has over 70 companies.
A path from which there are hitches and obstacles, as shown by the recent case of the Higg Index: it is a sustainability index, a tool for industries and designers, widely used and developed in 2011 by the SAC-Sustainable Apparel Coalition, one of the most powerful institutions in the fashion industry, but which in recent months has come under fire for lack of transparency and misleading and outdated methodologies by numerous members of the coalition, such as Kering (who later abandoned it, such as Adidas), H&M , which would have even published incorrect impact data. The Norwegian antitrust authority has banned the Norrøna brand from using the Higg Index in relation to organic cotton use reports. The Higg Index is therefore undergoing a necessary revision. A necessary approach to be able to continue along the difficult path of sustainability.