In 2016 the Global Fashion Agenda – GFA – was founded. GFA is a non-profit initiative, which joins forces with different partners to set common sustainability goals for the fashion industry. In 2018 we have committed to the Global Fashion Agenda Commitment. In this post, you’ll learn what the GFA is all about and what our own goals are in this commitment.
The start of the Global Fashion Agenda
The Copenhagen Fashion Summit established itself to be the leading event on sustainability. Since the first one in 2009, it set out targets and drove ‘agenda-setting discussions on the most critical environmental, social and ethical issues facing our industry and planet’. At the 2017 Copenhagen Fashion Summit, Global Fashion Agenda together with the brands came up with a commitment to accelerate to a circular fashion system. The commitment consists of four different action points and up until now, 94 brands have already committed to this on 204 different targets. These action points focus on design strategies, collecting used garments, increasing reselling of used garments and increasing the amount of recycled post-consumer textile fibres.
Kuyichi’s Commitment
At this moment 1% of all jeans contain recycled fibres, we are very proud to be amongst this 1% but always want to move forward. This is why we’re now working to achieve the targets of the action points we committed to. We’ve committed to action point 1, 2 & 4, which means that by 2020 we’ll:
– Have ‘designing for cyclability’ principles incorporated into our collections.
– Increase the number of jeans we collect with take-back actions in at least 10% of our stores.
– Use (post-consumer) recycled fibres in at least 75% of our jeans.
But how will we get there? We’re already working on these action points because we know circularity it is the future. We should stop relying on our linear system where we extract, make, use and dispose. Instead, we should focus on a system where we can keep re-using our resources in a closed loop. There are major steps to take before we can reach this kind of system, but this commitment is a move forward industry-wide. We’ve already introduced our Classic Blue denim, in which we use 20% post-consumer recycled denim. This style will continue over the seasons and new styles with post-consumer recycled fibres will be landing soon. Besides, an exciting collaboration is coming up!
Why the GFA is important
Fashion is one of the largest industries in the world, but also one of the most polluting. The environmental, social and ethical challenges the industry faces today are not only a threat to the planet, but also to the industry itself. Therefore, sustainability should be an integral part of any company’s business strategy. The fashion industry generates €1.5 trillion in global revenue, a value which could be plummetting if no action is taken. If the fashion industry continues the way they are working now a decline of 3% is forecasted by projections from the Pulse of the Fashion Industry 2017 report. This decline will mainly be due to a lack of customer engagement and business innovation. Customers increasingly demand ‘cleaner’ clothes. So let’s make this happen together.
For more information about our sustainability practices and the status of our action points, make sure to read our sustainability report.
Source: http://www.globalfashionagenda.com/