Uniqlo & its supply chain auditing efforts: Some insights.
5th of an article series that analyses Uniqlo and why it joint forced with Bangladesh's Grameen Bank.
In the last post I wrote about one of the most historic inter-governmental landmark decisions: At the ‘Biodiversity’ COP (COP15) 200 countries had agreed on 4 Goals and 23 Targets.
It goes without saying though that the interesting piece is the enforcement and implementation mechanisms of the mentioned agreement.
Hence, the focus of this article is: How exactly – if at all – will the goals and progress measures reached in December 2022 be enforced and tracked?
For retail, Brazil is the ‘next hot’ place to go to.
For a variety of reasons: For one, the country’s economy has been for a long time up and raising. Brazil is one of the 4 BRIC countries – the 4 most dominant raising economies, and ranks forth among them. Its retail sector is expected to boom tremendously over the next few years owing largely to the two major global sport events – the 2014 FIFA World Cup and Rio 2016 Summer Olympics that will take place in the country.
Over 100 million people rely on inshore subsistence and small-scale artisanal fishing for their daily food and livelihood. But it’s not them that we’ll talk about in this post – because they are the unfortunate ones at the end of the short stick in the global game of industrial subsides.
In this post we talk about the industrial fishing industry, the subsidies that go into it, the really sticky WTO negotiations to make away with them.
It's not all doom and gloom. There is hope - just that it comes from elsewhere than governments.
The 'Everything must go' exhibition, that took place from January 20 to 22, 2012, introduced the wider public to the details of the global value chain for discarded clothing. Drawing from the results of 5 years of research, the numbers and facts are staggering, and intriguing at the same time.
Australia is a little bit like a big blank spot of knowledge as far as many of us here in Europe (and the US) are concerned.
The recently launched ‘Australian Fashion Report‘ is the first piece of work that looks very specifically at the sustainability and ethical trade practises of brands that are retailed in Australia, both local Australian as well as global brands.
The world, by and large, operates based on land-filling. The only way to improve the situation any time soon is: not to landfill. At all. Or at least as little as possible, and that asap.
To that extent, 2 reports on textiles the circular economy have been published, both of which look at the issue from different, and complementary perspectives.
What is it that we can learn from these 2 reports, side by side?
One, the old adage could not be any truer: One Man’s Rubbish is another Man’s Treasure. And: True cost accounting would make a huge difference.
Looking at the sales figures of luxury brands a single conclusion can be drawn: The luxury sector is doing well.
The structure of its customers, and the brands' efforts to maintain expert craftsmanship suggests that the luxury sector is where ethical brands really can start changing the world.
Uniqlo & UNHCR's Global Clothing Recycling Initiative.
3rd of an article series that analyses Uniqlo and why it joint forced with Bangladesh's Grameen Bank.
While the relevance and criticality of COP26 is hammered home in the global media, the news reporting on COP15, as an effort possibly and reality more important than its Scottish climate conference peer, was rather subdued and unspectacular.
Let’s therefore get the most context-relevant questions straight out of the way: What is COP15? And why are there two COPs? And what has biodiversity to do with it?
Does sustainability, or not, impact share price? Does it, or not, make for a profitable bottom line business case? Does it, or not, help increase efficiencies? Here the insights from research, and what they mean.
Mid last year, an interesting campaign piece was delivered to my mailbox: London based Offset Warehouse launched a capsule collection of T-shirts retailing at £4.99 (app. Euro 6, plus P&P). Now, the point is, that even if these T-shirt were sold through a major retailer, they would hardly have retailed at more than £10 - and this at a vastly superior quality then is often case.
The design stage is usually the longest, most expensive and riskiest part of the chain. Additionally, research has shown that at least an estimated 80% of a product's environmental (and to a lesser degree also social) impact is locked at the design stage into a product. By integrating the product design with the supply chain, companies can compress non-value adding time and costs in their supply chains, increase responsiveness and mitigate supply chain risks – while simultaneously managing (improving) their sustainability performance without added costs or efforts.
It is end of March / early April 2020 as I write this. Corona (Covid19) increases its grip onto the world. Draconian, tough policy measures are being put in place limiting people's lives ... and rattling the global economy.
Could it hall happen again in the future? And if so - in what way?
One by one European manufacturers go out of business, and with them a vast quantity of skills and knowledge is lost. The most recent example is Switzerland's Weisbrod silk weavery. Yet: it seems the tide is changing, for good reason.
A week or so ago, the latest, sixth, IPCC report dropped.
My suggestion hence is simply read it.
Even if only the executive summary.
But just read it.
All I would like is to grab the opportunity to give a HUGE thank you to all the scientists involved.
Thank you dear IPCC scientists!
Thank you for all the work, the patience, and the glimmer of hope that despite it all remains a firm part of the reports.
Even this latest one.
There exist basic assumptions that are commonly, but wrongly, accepted as universal truths. Shirahime has cherry-picked 6 myths and will examine them close up and outside in over the course of 3 article instalments. Part 1.
The first question time discussion in the House of Lords on the topic of sustainable fashion took place on March 3rd, 2011. On March 19th 2013, nearly 2 years later to the day, the 2nd edition took place, again initiated by Baroness Lola Young from Hornsey. The summary
When will Corona 'be over'? never. There are historical moments when the future changes direction. We call them bifurcations. Or deep crises. These times are now. Matthias Horx discusses what that means concretely.
A phenomenon: National borders segregate markets. Ethical fashion brands don't know much about what is happening abroad.
2nd of 2 part posts, incl. event listing.
