COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 24, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- On 21-23 May, Global Fashion
Summit: Copenhagen Edition 2024 assembled over 1000
esteemed representatives from brands, retailers, NGOs, policy,
manufacturers, and innovators from both the fashion and adjacent
industries to unlock the next level of sustainability. Presented by
Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), the non-profit organisation that
is accelerating the transition to a net positive fashion industry,
the Summit marked its 15-year anniversary at the iconic Copenhagen
Concert Hall.
The event's theme, `Unlocking the Next Level', impelled
participants to urgently act on the learnings from the forum to
support the implementation of solutions to reach both near and
long-term goals. Under this premise, the Summit presented
content centred around evidence-based impact, with much of the
programme dedicated to educational and action-oriented business
case studies.
Each session in the programme targeted a next level barrier to
progress and integrated a solution unlock to overcome the barrier.
The 33 content sessions across the Summit's three stages included:
`Future Fibers: Enabling the Circular Model'. `Lead or Be
Led', `Fragmented Futures: Fashion's Policy Agenda',
`Pathways to Indigenous Partnership', `Reverse Logistics
for Circular Fashion Systems', `Towards Binding Agreements
on Wages', and many more. View the full programme.
Attendees heard from over 110 speakers including Her Majesty
The Queen of Denmark;
Marie-Claire Daveu, Chief Sustainability and Institutional
Affairs Officer, Kering; Mehdi
Benabadji, CEO, Brioni; Ryan
Gellert, CEO, Patagonia Works & Patagonia;
Adam Karlsson, CFO, H&M
Group; Halide Alagöz, Chief Product Officer, Ralph Lauren
Corporation; Paul Polman,
Business Leader, Campaigner, Co-Author of Net Positive;
Kaisa Tikk, Head of Commercial
Sustainability, Maersk; Nicolaj Reffstrup, Founder,
GANNI, Bárbara Peñafiel Durruty, Circular Economy Policy
Implementation Coordinator, Ministry of Environment of
Chile; Fatih Konukoglu,
Chairman, Re&Up; Edwin
Keh, CEO, The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles
and Apparel; Francisco Souza,
Senior VP Global Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Center,
Conservation International; Harish Ahuja, Managing Director
and Chairperson, Shahi Exports Pvt. Ltd.; Nemanthie
Kooragamage, Director - Group Sustainable Business, MAS
Holdings; and many more. View all speakers.
Leadership Roundtables to Catalyse Action
The Summit also facilitated 18 strategic roundtable meetings
that brought together curated groups of executives, policy makers,
leading industry voices, and sustainability experts from across the
value chain and different markets for fruitful dialogues on how to
address pressing sustainability issues and act accordingly,
including: Building Circular Systems for India, co-hosted by SU.RE - Sustainable
Resolution and supported by British Council India; Pay Equity
Interventions in European Value Chains, co-hosted by PwC;
Indigenous Partnership for the Fashion, Apparel and Textile
Industry, co-hosted by Ralph
Lauren and Conservation International; Impactful
Influence, co-hosted by UN Environment Programme;
Accelerating Collective Action for Circular Materials,
co-hosted by Mango; and many more. View the Roundtable
programme.
Previous Summit roundtable meetings held in 2022 and 2023
effectively instigated the formulation of new GFA impact and policy
programmes such as the Renewable Energy Initiative, Global Circular
Fashion Forum, and the Global Textiles Policy Forum.
Prominent brands and organisations unveiled new actions and
initiatives at the event, highlights include:
- GFA launched the Fashion CEO Agenda 2024 - a strategic
resource designed to steer fashion organisations towards achieving
a net positive industry by 2050. In line with the 2024 theme of
Global Fashion Summit, this year's Fashion CEO Agenda presents five
pivotal opportunities for fashion executives and the industry at
large to unlock transformative impact. Read more.
- GFA and PDS Ventures revealed Bloom Labs as the winner of the
Trailblazer Programme 2024 - a project to identify promising
early-stage innovators who are working to accelerate the
transformation of the fashion and textile industry. Eight
shortlisted Trailblazers were showcased at the Summit and the
winner, Bloom Labs, will now receive a significant equity
investment and commercial and operational support to help bring the
innovation to scale. Read more.
- ACT is proud to have announced during the Global Fashion
Summit, that it has successfully supported brands and IndustriALL
in signing individual legally binding support agreements. This
support is tailor made to support the ongoing collective bargaining
process in Cambodia for improved
wages and working conditions. Read more.
- The Ellen MacArthur Foundation announced The Fashion
ReModel, a demonstration project that involves leading brands
from across high-end, activewear, retailers, mid-range,
and high-street. It aims to identify solutions and unlock barriers
in order to scale circular business models and begin to decouple
revenue from production. Read more.
- GFA co-hosted a roundtable with Copenhagen Infrastructure
Partners to progress the Renewable Energy Initiative. During
the session, participants identified manufacturing countries that
could benefit from renewable energy infrastructure, what current
barriers are preventing renewable energy uptake, and what
opportunities there are to shape solutions with the renewable
energy sector. Read more.
- The Fashion Pact in partnership with Apparel Impact Institute,
Guidehouse, and DBS Bank, announced brands commitment to the Future
Supplier Initiative - a collective financing model for brands to
support suppliers in accessing affordable loans to decarbonise
their factories. Full details launch 13 June 2024. Read
more.
- Launched at the Global Fashion Summit, the Indigenous
Partnership Principles for the Fashion, Apparel and Textile
Industries were developed in partnership between Conservation
International and Textile Exchange with direct input and
leadership from Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The
principles include 12 criteria to guide companies to better center
Indigenous Peoples and local communities' rights and perspectives
across product development initiatives and supply chains. Read
more.
- The eight members of GFA's Next Gen Assembly programme
participated in a closed-door Roundtable `How Can Fashion Value
Economies of Wellbeing?', co-hosted by Centre for Sustainable
Fashion and Target. Building on the Next Gen Assembly programme's
topical focus, the Members explored the power of economies of
wellbeing for driving change in the fashion industry and took
inspiration from the experiences of the participating industry
leaders. Read more.
Innovation Forum connected fashion companies with sustainable
solution providers
This year's Summit also presented an Innovation Forum, enabling
small and large companies to meet with 31 sustainable solution
providers - equipping them with the concrete tools to quickly turn
words into meaningful actions. More than 400 facilitated
introductions and business meetings between fashion companies and
sustainable solution providers took place during the Summit.
Federica Marchionni, CEO,
Global Fashion Agenda, says: "For 15 years GFA has used
the Summit to activate impact and forge new initiatives while
educating and mobilising the fashion industry. Sustainability has
moved from a peripheral concern to a central focus becoming an
agenda-setter even in boardrooms. However, the pace of
sustainability progress has not accelerated enough to respond to
our changing world and this year's Summit was focused on
identifying the barriers to Unlock the Next Level and accelerate
further implementation. We have reached a polarisation point where
the geopolitical environment around us is threatening to stunt our
progress and I must emphasise that we need to unite to meet the
2030 and 2050 agenda. Whether we differ in geographies, cultures or
political mindsets, sustainability must be a unifying bond among
all of us. The Summit championed evidence-based strategies poised
to reshape the business ethos, placing net positivity as the
overarching goal. Now, each and every company must depart from
business as usual and as intentions meet determination, I eagerly
await the next level of fashion's systemic transformation."
Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition 2024 was supported by
Principal Sponsor, RE&UP, a circulartech company reshaping the
traditional textile-to-textile paradigm. Together with affiliated
company ISKO, one of the world's leading global textile companies
with over a century of textile innovation experience, they are
committed to a more responsible and technologically evolved future
for textiles and fashion.
For more information about the Summit visit
globalfashionsummit.com. Learn more about Global Fashion Agenda at
globalfashionagenda.org.
For more information
contact: press@globalfashionagenda.org
This information was brought to you by Cision
http://news.cision.com
https://news.cision.com/global-fashion-agenda/r/unlocking-the-next-level--esteemed-fashion-leaders-assemble-in-copenhagen-to-catalyse-and-accelerate,c3987635
The following files are available for download:
https://news.cision.com/global-fashion-agenda/i/global-fashion-summit--copenhagen-edition-2024---federica-marchionni--ceo--global-fashion-agenda,c3303681
|
Global Fashion Summit:
Copenhagen Edition 2024 - Federica Marchionni, CEO, Global Fashion
Agenda
|
View original
content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/unlocking-the-next-level-esteemed-fashion-leaders-assemble-in-copenhagen-to-catalyse-and-accelerate-sustainability-progress-302155119.html
SOURCE Global Fashion Agenda