May is a big month for fashion. At the Met gala, often described as the Super Bowl of fashion, celebrities arrive in outfits so elaborate they often require assistance as they ascend the stairs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Taking place towards the end of May, the Global Fashion Summit sees sustainable fashion experts and designers flocking to Copenhagen for what could be called the Super Bowl of sustainable fashion. At the three-day conference, delegates’ outfits receive far less scrutiny than the ideas, innovations and new technologies aimed at reducing fashion’s ever-growing carbon, waste and water footprint.
This year, on its 15th anniversary, the lack of progress towards change across the industry has dampened morale. But there was plenty to discuss, from fast fashion brands’ transition to circular business models to advice on how to decouple carbon emissions from revenue growth. Here are 10 key takeaways:
1. It’s time for legislation
Fashion’s emissions are still rising. “Global goals are not working,” said Eva Kruse, founder and former CEO of the Global Fashion Summit (GFS). He was speaking on a panel described by moderator Vanessa Friedman, the New York Times’ chief fashion critic, as the “OG peak gang.”
“I didn’t know this was going to go this slowly,” Kruse continued. “I thought it would become obsolete at some point, but we’re still here talking about the same things.” His conclusion: “We need to pass legislation. “This is our responsibility.”
Calls for regulation echoed throughout the sessions. The European Union’s extended producer responsibility plan, which will come into force on January 1, 2025, is likely to be the first of many steps towards legislative accountability. Due to the global nature of fashion supply chains, the legislation will have an industry-wide impact. It is also clear that a line has been drawn in France, California, New York and Australia with the discussion of legislative regulations. Regulation is coming and businesses need to figure out how it will affect them.
2. Primark and H&M undertake some rental, resale and repair commitments
At the summit, there was some hope regarding the Fashion ReModel project launched by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF). A coalition of fashion companies including Primark, Reformation and H&M Group (which owns Arket, Cos and Weekday) have pledged to replace some of their revenue streams from new goods sales with income from circular business models such as rental, resale and repair. It does. Currently these make up 3.5% of the global fashion market, but EMF says that by 2030 these models have the potential to make up 23% of the market and be worth $700 billion.
3. It is possible to grow a business and reduce carbon emissions
It may sound too good to be true, but Danish It girls’ favorite brand, Ganni, announced to the crowd at home that it has achieved a 7% absolute reduction in carbon emissions compared to 2021 and an 18% annual sales increase. It is possible to separate revenue from carbon.
It turns out this is a formula that can be replicated by other businesses with the right expertise. Ganni co-founder Nicolaj Reffstrup co-wrote Ganni Playbook with journalist Brooke Roberts-Islam and explains how to do it. Even though it was full of details about the difficulties and financial costs, it kept things higher at the top. When asked what advice he had for other businesses looking to decarbonise their supply chains, he said simply: “Just do it.”
4. Brands need to put their money where their mouth is
According to Father Michael Anker-Jorgensen, who is on the board of Global Fashion Agenda, which organized the summit, the slow pace of change is due to brands’ lack of financial commitment to sustainable solutions. He said: “1.5% to 2% of operating income goes to research and development.” Despite paying lip service to sustainability: “It’s not the money that talks.”
According to Christine Goulay, founder of the consultancy firm Sustainabelle, investments in fashion pale in comparison with investments in other sectors. A recent report found that electronics companies spend 10% to 15% of their sales on research and development, while pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies spend 20% to 30%.
5. Brands need to be more transparent
The fashion industry is famous for working behind closed doors and protecting its secrets. The consensus at the forums was that these isolationist tendencies hinder progress towards sustainability, which depends on overhauling interconnected supply chains. “If everyone is just tending to their own little garden without industry cooperation, we will never get results,” said Attila Kiss, CEO of Gruppo Florence, a group representing luxury manufacturing facilities in Italy.
6. Perspectives of garment workers in the global south are still missing
The panels generally consisted of people representing the corporate or consumer side of the fashion industry, rather than the farmers and manufacturers who produce fibers and clothing. He talks about who will sit at the table. “When we talk about garment workers, farmers, tannery workers, we need these people to be in the conversation, not just talked about in the abstract,” said Emma Hakansson, founding director of Collective Fashion Justice. In one instance, Adil Rehman, a representative from the Cambodian workforce, joined a panel via video due to the difficulties of obtaining a visa to travel to Copenhagen. “ [summit] “Labour communities and their representatives need to take proactive steps to engage and provide sponsorship and visa support where necessary,” said Olivia Windham Stewart, an independent business and human rights consultant who moderated the panel. “Otherwise this will just be a forum for the industry to tell its side of the story.”
7. Artificial intelligence is not the solution
One of the factors that determine the environmental impact of fashion is the abundance of products that are never worn as a result of the time lag between orders, production and retail sales. Artificial intelligence is often cited as a solution, but overhauling fashion’s production processes to make them more agile and responsive to consumer demands is “using AI,” said Dr Ahmed Zaidi, CEO of AI platform Hyran Technologies. [as a solution] “It’s like installing a jet engine into a broken process.” So, if anyone thinks that artificial intelligence can fix our broken system, think again.
8. Collaborations with indigenous communities are progressing
Despite fashion’s reliance on the natural world for its most luxurious materials, Indigenous and local communities—custodians of 80% of the world’s biodiversity—have long been excluded from corporate sustainability conversations. But there is hope in the form of a new guide. The collaboration between Conservation International and luxury group Kering to help brands partner with Indigenous communities comes as Textile Exchange research revealed in 2022 that only 5% of 252 fashion brands surveyed had consulted Indigenous people on their biodiversity plans.
According to Dayana Molina, activist and Indigenous designer of fashion brand Nalimo, this is “the first step in moving forward to create fashion that is collaborative, collaborative, and equitable.”
In a separate panel, seventh-generation Diné (Navajo) textile artist and designer Naiomi Glasses, who collaborated on a collection with Polo Ralph Lauren, said she “wants to see more brands embrace more storytelling like mine.” “It’s really beautiful because there are so many stories embedded in the craft and it allows us to show how Indigenous cultures are still here and still thriving.”
9. There is another new generation material to rival synthetics
More than $500 million was invested in new generation materials in 2023. From cork leather to spider silk to viscose made from coconut water, innovations in materials are often heralded as the future of fashion. But the challenges of mass producing them at a competitive price often come as a cold shock to innovators. There’s a new kid on the block, though. New York-based Bloom Labs produces materials that feel like cotton and silk but are also as functional as polyester; they are all made from protein-rich biomass waste, including pre-consumer discarded wool and recycled from the bedding industry.
10. Fashion must be led or led
“Nobody in their right mind would design a system like this,” former Unilever CEO Paul Polman said of the fashion industry’s take-make-waste model. He described making fashion sustainable as “the biggest business opportunity of the century” and concluded his keynote with a quote that would be repeated by speakers at many panels to come: Lead or be led.