H&M, Burberry, Nike & more team up to Make Fashion Circular
London – Burberry Group plc, Gap Inc, H&M, Nike Inc, Stella McCartney and
HSBC – some of the largest names in the fashion industry – have joined
forces to develop a future, circular industry. These industry leaders have
been named core partners of the initiative Make Fashion Circular and will
work with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to redesign the fashion industry.
The core partners of the initiative were revealed during the second day of
the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, the world’s largest conference focusing on
sustainability in the fashion industry. Together these companies aim to
deliver solutions which are needed to meet the change demands and
expectations of society and address the core issues which have led to the
fashion industry becoming one of the most polluting and wasteful sectors
today.
Industry leaders team up for the second phase of the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation initiative to create a circular economy
“Realising the vision of a circular model for fashion will take true
collaboration and bold innovation from all corners of our industry,” said
Pam Batty, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, Burberry in a
statement. “As a core partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make
Fashion Circular initiative we are proud to champion the conversation about
circularity, and encourage others to take the opportunities to rethink
their approach for the benefit of the environment, our communities and the
global economy.”
The initiative, launched in May 2017 at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit as
the Circular Fibres Initiative, is supported by the C&A Foundation and
Walmart Foundation. The revamped initiative includes an additional 16
stakeholders, such as city authorities, fashion producers, designers and
brands, which have joined Make Fashion Circular as participants. Together,
the initiative will led the way towards the vision for a circular economy
for fashion, as set out in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s 2017 report.
The participants of the Make Fashion Circular initiative are set to untie
under three key principles to create a system that offers benefits for
citizens, the environment and businesses. The first of which is creating
business models that keep clothes in use, the second is using materials
that are renewable and safe and the third, focuses on creating solutions
that turn used clothes into new clothes. Social rights and human rights
concerning working conditions for workers are not mentioned under the
principles.
DuPont Biomaterials, Fung Group, Hallotex, I:Collect, Inditex, Kering,
Lenzing Group, London Waste and Recycling Board, Nanushka, Primark,
RadiciGroup, Solvay, Texaid, Tintex Textiles, VF Corporation, W.L. Gore and
Associates have already signed on as participants and others are invited to
join. The new initiative aims to ensure the fashion industry is able to
recapture the 460 billion USD lost due to the underutilisation of clothing,
as well as an additional 100 billion USD from clothing that is thrown away
and incinerated.
“For the fashion industry to thrive in the future we must replace the
take-make-dispose model, which is worn out,” said Ellen MacArthur, founder
of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in a statement. “We need a circular
economy for fashion in which clothes are kept at their highest value and
designed from the outset to never end up as waste. By joining forces to
Make Fashion Circular we can harness the creativity and innovation that is
at the heart of this USD 1.3 trillion industry to create a system that
delivers benefits for everyone.”
Photos: Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2018