There Is A Gap Between The Pursuit And Practicality Of Sustainable Fashion: Transformers Foundation
The Transformers Foundation is an organization addressing sustainable practices within the denim industry. It publishes a report to show how there is a gap between the fashion industry’s aim for a science-backed target and the practicality of it. There are also challenges related to financing.
The report from the Transformers Foundation is called A Collective Approach: Rethinking Fashion’s Doomed Climate Strategy.
It shows how the fashion industry internally faces many problems to stay true to its climate initiatives. Further, the industry must go for collaborations if it wants to become successful in its pursuit of decarbonization.
To highlight the gaps and create a roadmap for the fashion industry to make its carbon initiatives fruitful, the Transformers Foundation conducted interviews with denim suppliers, producers, and other stakeholders of different nations that produce garments on a large scale.
These interviews have further provided necessary insights into sustainable practices within the fashion industry. It also highlights the need for re-evaluation to make the climate initiatives successful.
The Transformers Foundation has gotten in touch with twenty-seven people working for organizations or associations related to garments. Some of these major organizations or associations include Advance Denim, Artistic Milliners, and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters (BGMEA).
The Foundation has also talked to six individuals associated with educational institutions or NGOs related to the garment industry.
EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the New York Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act are some of the major developments in the regulatory field of sustainable fashion. Keeping their guidelines and pursuit in mind, the Transformers Foundation asks for a more equitable, feasible, and long-term effort to achieve decarbonization.
Transformers Foundation says that it agrees with the Paris Agreement and the collective objectives it had set. However, there is a need for evolution to ease the burden off the shoulders of the suppliers. The efforts should be equitable to achieve decarbonization.
The report again highlights the need for funding. Otherwise, the efforts of decarbonization can be in vein with the huge burden and a lack of financial feasibility on the part of suppliers.
Kim van der Weerd, the intelligence director of the Transformers Foundation, says,
“This report articulates how and why the sector’s current approach to climate action makes it a supplier responsibility, rather than a collective responsibility. It also offers evidence for why this is not only inequitable but also impractical and doomed to fail. At the same time, by putting forward a definition of collective action, I hope this paper gives a framework for how we could accelerate action.”
Overall, the recommendations of the Transformers Foundation are:
- Shifting the mindset from I to We
- Centre equity
- Collective funding
- Considering potentiality and context
- Rapid expansions of potential through collaborations
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