Definition of 'sustainable' by the London College of Fashion's Center for Sustainable Fashion.
JoinedMarch 22, 2010
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My passion: ‘Future Fit’ Business as a Force for Good.
Corporate Responsibility expert for consumer goods, FMCG, fashion, textiles.
INSEAD IDP-C certified non-executive board director.
The term ‘circular economy’ has recently been – again – converted into a buzz word. To some extent there are a couple of good reasons for that as both common sense as well as the Ellen McArthur foundation's most recent report prove.
The current fashion and textile landscape is fairly limited in terms of what types of materials are being used. Innovation is key, and products such as Tencel, Sorona and Ingeo proof that industry is investing heavily in R&D. Spider Silk may be one of the few natural fibres of the future yet to see it hayday.
The “Better Consumer” report aims to be a source of reliable information to those executive saying “Show me there is demand, and we'll be happy to cater to it” when asked why their fashion brand is not producing better, more sustainable products.
This current post is looking at supply chain risk in the light of the Europe wide ‘Horse meat’ scandal. It remains to be said that the results found so far not only suggest that undeclared horse meat found its way into cheap and low quality, possibly prepared meals. But that there is a much more general, and widely spread problem with meats of different types ending undeclared on the shelves for consumption.
Parents complain about the prices of school uniforms. Yet - are they also considering that too cheap a price may actually ... get them school uniforms for their children, made by children of that same age?
Japanese historic textiles, as much as their modern version, are famouse for their distinct colour ranges. What few know: all 1052 of these shades are created with natural dyes (only!), and each has its own distinct name.
Nordic countries have been recognised for their advanced sustainability practices, particularly at a business level. The Nordic Ecolabel is a voluntary certificate 100% made in Scandinavia that was established in 1989 by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The original aim of the label was probably to respond to the needs of the new “green consumer” movement that strengthened in the 80s after the environmentalism wave of the 1970s.
Supply chain transparency is – as it happens – among the prime concerns of investors when considering their risk. The news is though, that it really isn’t any news at all. Supply chain transparency has been called for for at least a couple of decades – for reasons that are entirely aligned with profitability, customer service, competitive advantage, product quality and so on and so forth.
In this article a very brief run down of the main varieties of ‘better’ cotton that exist: Cotton made in Africa, Better Cotton Initiative, Organic and Fairtrade cotton, and 2 more generic good practise farming systems.
It’s not news that there exist many, many labels out there that hope to convey low-risk or sustainability credentials to consumers (B2C) and/or buyers (B2B).
Some of these are indeed so specialised, or hidden within the larger context, that indeed few people have seen or taken note of it.
One such label is the Greenguard certification, which is focused entirely onto remedying negative health impacts in interior spaces: from furniture, to interior textiles, air filters, adhesives, flooring and floor finishes etc.
This article has was submitted to and appeared in edited form at the European Business Ethics Network annual conference, Lille...
In the 1990s, Nike was caught in a sweatshop scandal showing poor working conditions in its suppliers’ Asian factories. Not...
“Show me there is demand, and we’ll be happy to cater to it.” is the most frequently received answer when asking CEOs of consumer goods companies, fashion and apparel in particular, as to why they are not producing better, more sustainable (ecological and ethical) products.
This new report, combines – to the best of our knowledge – all available data about the increasingly popular consumer demand for more responsible products in EU countries.
Recently, my colleague Ilaria Pasquinelli and I had the opportunity to participate in a, generally speaking, consumer facing product showcase and trade show.
For the purpose of this research, we built an interactive task which required the visitors to cut off one of their garment labels (i.e. the washing instructions), and then pin it to a map attached to a cork board according to 2 dimensions:
– ‘Made in‘: Where the garment was manufactured.
– ‘Made from‘: What the primary material the garment was made of.
There are several things that come to your mind when visiting Estethica at London Fashion Week this February. To start with, the new venue , in the West Wing of Somerset House, adopted since last edition, is really sophisticated. Exhibitors are accommodated in rooms with a neat aesthetics that has one aim: making collections the only protagonists. Further, it is interesting to note that, besides the usual “aficionados” like Ada Zanditon or Henrietta Ludgate, there are some interesting international emerging talented brands.
In the discussions within companies around risk management and indispensable moves towards more sustainable processes and business practises, there’s habitually unmentioned elephant in the room, namely: Where, in all what needs to be done in the corporate world, does the responsibility of the individual factor in?
Fashion that has been produced by people who work reasonable hours in safe conditions and are paid a living wage.
For most of us within the small professional circles of sustainable fashion, the terms ‘upcycling’, ‘recycling’, and ‘downcycling’ flow aeasy over our lips. However, while there are a few simple definitions of what these terms means – to follow hereafter – the concept demands a bit more attention when drilling down into material streams related to fibres, in particular
Panipat is an ancient and historic city in the Panipat district, state of Haryana, India. The city is the global centre of “Shoddy Yarn”. It is a business that is worth 1 billion dollars world wide. 85% of the volume is for the domestic marketm 15% for export. But the industry has more shadows then there is light ...
