On February 9th 2011, the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation successfully launched the Fairtrade Gold Standard. The UK is the first market where FT gold is available.
The 5 principles of good design: Invisible, solves problems, open to communication, in sync with life cycle, and mimics nature.
Ever heard of EMAS, the European Eco Management and Audit Schema? No? This is a brief introduction to what it is, with links to further resources.
Sustainability for Fashion := "Creating desirable products guided by principles that consider sustainability as a core component of the process. [...]"
Sustainable fashion design := sourcing and production that do not pollute through the process of manufacture and do not deplete non-renewable resources.
Sustainability for Fashion := "Creating desirable products that evoke an emotional connection [...]"
It is quite astonishing: all the different contexts that the term ‘circularity’ or ‘circular economy’ is being used. They key point mostly is of course the waste reduction promises inherent in the term, and the subsequent lower dependency on finite resources.
But, in addition to reducing waste, carbon – or rather carbon footprint – is a key factor.
Unfortunately, the reality is sobering: taking fashion as example, at best between 3% and 6% of the industry's carbon footprint could be remedied that way.
And even worse: in order to realise the potential, three fundamental hurdles must be addressed. Some efforts are underway, of course, but a steep hill remains to climb.
The influence of decision bias is nothing new when scrutinising corporate governance. And yet: by and large businesses continue to fail to adjust their strategic decision-making processes to become more climate viable. At best they have just barely started on their journey. Why is that? As we look deeper into the corporate discourse on Climate Change, it becomes evident that one of the silent yet crucial culprits behind the climate change inertia lies in the cognitive biases at play in corporate decision making. What are those biases, what do they mean for boards in the context of strategic Climate Change decisions, and what can be done about it?
When we talk about ethical fashion, we are talking about getting away from throwaway fashion; or, if we are going to throw it away, about how we recycle.
As a consumer, we have a basic understanding of “Ethical”. We know that buying such a product is supposed to alleviate some of our guilt, by doing a little bit of good, but what does it actually mean?
Fashion that has been produced by people who work reasonable hours in safe conditions and are paid a living wage.
The quality of governance is one of the key ingredients why projects, companies, and even governments fail in their tasks. It is also the key ingredient to achieve results, buy-in and participation. It is for this very reason that good governance was seen early on as one of the fundamental success factors for the Social Labor Convergence Project (SLCP).
One of the challenges of sustainable fashion is the wording used to define it. We commonly associate adjectives like “sustainable”, “green”, “eco”, “responsible”, “conscious”, “ethical” with the word “fashion”. The question is: are certain words more popular than others? Or are some others nowadays outdated? How do consumer talk about sustainable fashion? And the industry?
Interns are more often increasingly taken over account executive responsibilities. Yet - they do not get paid. A said story of labour rights abuses in UK, Europe
What means ethical in the fashion business? The lack of 1 widely accepted label is an issue. Yet: The principle problem is the lack of a consensus of what ethical business practises really are.
This is the second post of a two article series. It will look at what we can say about the 'ethics behind a brand' from how they practically do business.
The jewellery industry still generally lacks clear certification standards. Here some definitions used to describe responsibly sourced & manufactured jewellery.
Nearly a year ago I wrote about how the terminology we use abstracts from the fact that there are living and sentient human beings doing 'supply chain' work. Listening to a recent podcast it dawned on me that language can be just as useful to gloss over the seriousness and impact of scientific facts. And the resulting necessary actions. Climate Change vs Climate Emergency? Green energy vs renewable energy vs clean energy? Hence, some more thinking about the role of language.
Fall 2010, Summary: London Fashion Week, the dream destination of fashionistas. Insights from LFW about sustainability and commitment of fashion brands.
In the retail gazette’s article ‘Fashion retailers work towards green future’, dating from August 19th 2011, the following was quoted...
