Apparel Online India Magazine July 2nd Issue 2018 | Page 15

SUSTAINABILITY
“Previously, the Summit, with all its inspiring and thought-provoking
speeches, panel and roundtable discussions, primarily centred on
words, but we felt that this time the focus was more proactive and
the direction was to add more action to the event. With the new
exhibition space, we’ve made it easier for our guests to actually take
the next step, to go from words to action, and to accelerate their
sustainability journey.”
– Eva Kruse, CEO of Summit and Organiser, Global Fashion Agenda
in your life,” she said. Issues like
recycling, second-hand purchasing were
also highlighted in some discussions
and were treated as a concern also,
as currently less than 1 per cent of
clothing is recycled into new ones
and 80 per cent of clothing end up in
landfills or are incinerated. On almost
similar lines, the concept of circular
economy was also a point of discussion.
“If we have a pair of jeans, 140 years
old that we can still wear today – the
circular economy can work,” said
Paul Dillinger, VP and Head of Global
Product Innovation and Premium
Collection Design, Levi Strauss & Co.
William McDonough, Founder of
the Fashion For Good initiative (in
association with the C&A Foundation),
highlighted that being less bad is not
the same as being good. We should
buy less and care for it better. It was
also highlighted in the event that
second-hand purchasing of garments
is on the upward trajectory and the
concern is that 70 per cent of their
sellers have never consigned before,
and 50 per cent of buyers have never
bought consignments previously. As
disruption is a buzzword, various
changing aspects and modules of fashion
were also discussed at the event. “In
fashion, we need to move from a linear
model towards a circular model, where
we don’t consume any new resource
and limit our negative impacts,” said
Marie-Claire Daveu, Chief Sustainability
Officer and Head of International
Institutional Affairs, Kering. Kering is
known for its luxury products.
Some of the panel discussions like
the one on ‘How do we talk about
sustainability outside this room’,
brought together interesting people
like Tonne Goodman, Fashion Director,
Vogue US; Lily Cole, Actor and
Entrepreneur; and Amber Valletta,
Actress, Model and Entrepreneur on
to a single platform. In his keynote
address, Eric Sprunk, COO, NIKE
highlighted that ‘to power and protect
the future of sport’, a collective
approach and reinventing of the supply
chain is must. “I am more convinced
than ever that the successful CEO and
COO of the 21st century will be the ones
who have sustainability at the heart
of all activities, compared to other
strategies,” he said.
Recognising that it is critical to keep
the future and technology together, the
event also had a season on ‘the robots
are coming’. Pete Santora, CCO, SoftWear
Automation and Pamela Mar, Director,
Supply Chain Futures, Fung Academy,
were the key speakers of the session.
The session highlighted that automation
doesn’t kill jobs but in actual fact creates
jobs and also has positive impact on
sustainability. Pamela Mar stressed,
“Regarding the responsible approach
towards automation, we need to educate
the factories, supported with confidence
building, to train and upskill workers,
build a new corporate culture…; it will
be empowering for the workers. We have
observed that workers want to evolve
with time and technology.” At the same
time, it was also pointed out that having
technology, and having leadership that
adopts it, are two very different things.
This isn’t a technology problem, it’s a
leadership one, stressed the speakers.
The changes that are needed in the
world, and in the fashion industry
specifically, were under discussion.
David Roberts, well known expert on
technology disruption, innovation, and
exponential leadership insisted that the
time for change has come.
Amazon and H&M
trying to ease out
the plastic ban in
Maharashtra
Global retailers such as Amazon Inc. and H&M are
reportedly persuading to ease a ban against single-use
plastic imposed by the Maharashtra Government last
week. The ban by the state could rapidly increase the
costs for companies that use plastic for their packaging
processes, such as retailers, beverage makers, and sellers
of bottled water. Maharashtra’s emphatic move has come
in-line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to
entirely eliminate the use of single-use plastic by 2022.
The Deputy Commissioner of Mumbai has said that they
have collected over Rs. 1.3 million as penalty so far. It is
important to mention here, that a report by United Nations
states that 50 per cent of the plastic waste is generated
from plastic packaging which is thrown away within
minutes of its use. Reportedly, the representatives from
these global retailers held a meeting ahead of the ban with
Government officials, seeking relaxation in norms and
urging the governing body to implement the ban in phases.
Neemit Punamiya, General Secretary, Plastic Bags
Manufacturers Association of India said that the demand
put forth to the Government states that the industry must
be given at least seven years to find an alternate. “It is
not something that will happen overnight; the people
who have invested, the loans that need to be paid and the
people who are working for us, will all suffer from this
implementation,” he added. Furthermore, Amazon and
Flipkart refused to comment on the development, while
H&M, the Swedish fashion retailer said that it supports
the re-usage of plastic and is seeking Government’s
response to simplify the rules and regulations of the ban.
Additionally, Ramdas Kadam, Environment Minister of
Maharashtra, recently said that the Government can
provide relaxation to the department stores if they
can make sure that their buyers return the packaging
for recycling.
Some of the recommendations from
the Pulse of the Fashion Industry 2018
Report (released the week prior to the
Summit) were also discussed during the
event. The report claims that 2017 was a
turning point for sustainability. Overall
75 per cent of fashion companies have
improved