
Paul Polman, Unilever House, 2018, London, England.
Despite all of the sustainability buzz within the fashion industry, the lack of collaboration between industry stakeholders has led to only fragmented and incremental improvements thus far. Boston Consulting Group’s pre-Covid assessment predicts industry growth of around 5% per year to 2030, meaning a continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions and waste generation at a time when drastic reductions are needed. As a result of this, in 2019, a Fashion Pact was launched during the G7 Summit by French President Emmanuel Macron and François-Henri Pinault, Chairman and CEO of Kering. All of the pact signatories committed their businesses to science-based targets and to ensuring operational changes to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement on containing global warming.
Yesterday, 12 months after the formation of the pact, an update was delivered during Global Fashion Agenda’s CFS+ online summit, led by Paul