Fashion's Renewable Power Play | BoF - The Business of Fashion
Fashion’s Renewable Power Play | BoF
The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
With global temperatures reaching new highs and time running out for brands to deliver on their environmental commitments, here’s what fashion leaders need to know ahead of the start of the UN’s annual climate summit in Dubai Thursday.
Brands are passing the buck on sustainability targets, placing an unrealistic burden on manufacturers, according to a new industry report.
Companies like H&M and Puma are pushing to get coal out of their supply chains by the end of the decade.
Sarah Kent is Chief Sustainability Correspondent at The Business of Fashion. She is based in London and drives BoF's coverage of critical environmental and labour issues.
Big brands like H&M Group, Inditex and Nike are turning to biomass like wood pellets and agricultural waste in a bid to get the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel out of energy-intensive manufacturing processes. Climate groups say it’s not any better.
With global temperatures reaching new highs and time running out for brands to deliver on their environmental commitments, here’s what fashion leaders need to know ahead of the start of the UN’s annual climate summit in Dubai Thursday.
A growing body of consumer surveys suggests interest in sustainable consumption is reaching a tipping point. Those surveys are deeply flawed, writes Kenneth P. Pucker.
Vestiaire Collective will now block 30 brands including Gap, H&M and Zara from its platform, adding to an earlier ban on Boohoo and other low-priced online retailers. It’s an eco-conscious spin on a broader push upmarket by secondhand companies.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”