Towards Collected and Connected Action
The Fashion Conveners continues to build alignment across our core members to ensure greater focus across the industry, creating greater efficiencies and driving positive impact. A number of the conveners are creating focused alliances for engaged, connected strategies and aligned implementation.
An Alliance on Engagement & Communication
Engaging the Industry Through Connected and Coordinated Events & Communication
This alliance is focused on aligning key events and communication to share key messages, resources, and best practices that help catalyze change around common goals and outcomes for the industry. These initially include the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, October 7th-8th, hosted by Global Fashion Agenda and the Textile Sustainability Conference, November 15th-19th, hosted by Textile Exchange (TE) in collaboration with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). Various Fashion Convener organizations will be incorporated into breakout and plenary sessions, including Apparel Impact Institute (Aii), Fashion for Good (FFG), Fashion Makes Change/Responsible Business Consortium (RBC), Global Fashion Agenda and ZDHC – Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals.
For 2022, planning is in place to align a calendar of events for the industry that can shape and focus industry dialogue and action toward common goals with aligned key messages leveraged throughout the year at regional and annual meetings. The events calendar on the Fashion Conveners site will also include various trainings hosted by ZDHC, SAC, Textile Exchange, Global Fashion Agenda, RBC and other Convening organizations to align training and educational opportunities. In addition, key messages and reports can be further aligned through timing launches, coordinated communications and amplification of key messages across the industry.
An Alliance on Learning
Providing Consistent and Credible Information and Training to Guide Industry Action
Reports & Research: Across the Conveners, over 20 reports are created and delivered every year. Stronger alignment on key messages, actions to be prioritized, consistent data and methodology, leveraging the respective information collected for these reports will be key to leverage resources and provide clear, credible and proactive guidance to the industry. In addition, aligned data and methodology will ensure that we can provide credible insights that inform collective action and allow us to demonstrate clear results.
Training: The Conveners already hold a wide variety of training events for various audiences and on various topics (SAC, TE, ZDHC, GFA, Aii, etc.) Aligning a calendar of training and education events as well as training content that would benefit similar audiences (such as SAC/TE brand training, ZDHC/Aii facility training, etc.) and decrease confusion on various programs, tools and increase understanding of sustainability issues and proven solutions would aid the industry in acceleration of tool/program adoption towards increased positive impact.
An Alliance on Implementation
Aligning and Leveraging Tools and Programs Across the Industry Towards Aligned Goals and Collective Action
Several Convener organizations have already developed tools and/or programs that are widely used across the industry (SAC, TE, ZDHC, Aii, FFG etc.) by a significant number of common members. Further alignment of proven tools and programs would decrease confusion on various programs and tools, accelerate adoption of existing tools/programs, reduce duplication by new tools/programs, increase value to companies who leverage existing tools/programs and accelerate action towards aligned organizational goals such as the “Getting to 45%” reduction goal.
Existing tools include: SAC’s Facilities Environmental Module, Facility Social Labor Module, Brand & Retailer Module, Material Sustainability Index, Product Module, Transparency Program; Textile Exchange’s Corporate Fiber & Materials Benchmark Program, Standards: Organic Content Standard (OCS); Global Recycled Standard (GRS); Recycled Claim Standard (RCS); Responsible Down Standard (RDS); Responsible Wool Standard (RWS); Responsible Mohair Standard (RMS); Responsible Alpaca Standard (RAS); Content Claim Standard (CCS), Preferred Fiber & Materials Matrix, LCA+ primary data, Impact Data, Shared Measurement Systems; Aii’s Clean by Design program, Carbon Leadership Project, and RESET Carbon and Aii’s Carbon Tech Assessment; ZDHC’s Supplier to Zero Program, Brand Leader Program, and more.
Deepening partnerships across these organizations allow companies to leverage existing proven solutions to further support the achievement of sustainability goals and move the industry towards increasing collective action and transformation. This will allow for increased consumer awareness about the climate impacts of raw materials through the final garment stage.