In the city that is a candidate to be the world capital of sustainability, strong – recalls the president of industrialists Vincenzo Marinese – of a productive fabric that exports 39% and has planned and implemented investments for over 3.5 billion precisely on this challenge, stage the Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum, scheduled until today in the spaces of the Giorgio Cini Foundation. An initiative promoted by Confindustria Venezia Metropolitan Area of Venice and Rovigo and The European House-Ambrosetti, with the patronage of Assocalzaturifici, the National Chamber of Italian Fashion and the Italian Fashion System (Smi).
It is the first international summit dedicated to a sustainable future of the sector: two days to understand the present and future of a key sector of the Italian economy through the voices of the protagonists and with debates, trend analysis, data, market behavior and best practices. The objective of the forum – in which institutions, brands, industry professionals, representatives of the world of industry and business, NGOs intervene – is to accelerate a sustainable transition path in a sector that suffers from a lack of data and standardized measurement tools .
According to the initial report based on the surveys carried out by The European House-Ambrosetti, in fact, a clear reference framework is lacking: the estimates on carbon emissions of the fashion sector record a deviation of up to 310% between the various sources consulted, and the estimates on annual withdrawals of fresh water by companies show variations of up to 172% from each other and up to 429% compared to the data on the use of water for the production of jeans.
To further complicate the picture, the enormous quantity of sustainability certifications – over 300 – and ratings obtained with different and hardly comparable parameters. “It is well known to insiders that the transition to sustainability is complex – explains Flavio Sciuccati, head of the fashion & luxury division of The European House-Ambrosetti -, due to peculiar factors such as the strong segmentation ranging from high-end luxury to lower segments, the shortness of the life cycle of the products and the continuous renewal of the collections, the choices of globalization and the search for low cost, which have led to mass delocalization and the exasperated fragmentation of supply chains ».
A problem for politics and companies, especially if we consider that the sector is an excellence of Made in Italy, and that Italy, together with France, represents the majority (about 80%) of the luxury sector global. In this scenario, around a thousand European companies in the fashion and luxury sectors must annually disclose their quantitative sustainability performances starting from fiscal year 2023 or, at the latest, from 2024, according to the standards introduced by the new European directives. Italy, in particular, is first in Europe for the number of companies affected by this deadline, almost 300, followed by France with more than 130 and Germany with 110, while all the other EU countries have an average of about 25 companies interested. .