TOP FIVE THEMES FROM CFS+ 2020

Across the two days of CFS+ 2020, live interviews with visionary leaders together with impact conversations between brand leaders and policy makers highlighted some overarching themes that will inform our next steps as an industry and, ultimately, define our success. Avery Dennison explores and unpacks the key themes and what we took away from them.

1. Redesigning Value

The theme Redesigning Value was at the core of the summit’s content, reflecting the urge to rethink and reconsider the meaning of value in the fashion industry post-Covid-19. What do we mean when we talk about Redesigning Value? In fashion, this concept is linked to systemic processes, which many are calling to transform in 2020 and beyond, in order for the industry to become truly sustainable.

In a live interview with Eva Kruse, Bill Foudy, president of Target’s sourcing services, spoke on how the need for business to operate in an ethical and responsible way is apparent now more than ever. In a panel discussion around The Fashion Pact – a pact of 62 signatories by CEOs for CEOs around climate change and biodiversity – Bruno Pavlovsky of Chanel spoke around how the product needs to encompass the values laid out by the Pact, through improving materials and accelerating responsible labor, water, and chemical use.

Value is also about financial resilience. “The key is that circularity will bring profitability otherwise it’s not sustainable at all. I truly believe that’s the future”, says H&M CEO, Helena Helmersson. In a 1:1 Impact Conversation with Professor Johan Röckstrom, Helmersson speaks to the need to diversify revenue streams through different business models that are more circular in themselves, such as rental and repair. Röckstrom remarks that decoupling growth from the use of natural resources is the holy grail for showing that we can have good economic growth while reducing negative impact.

We believe fashion can do better than its current track record, and further that we can find new opportunities for both a more sustainable and more prosperous business. This explainer gets to the heart of the CFS+ headline theme – exploring value from social to sartorial while stopping at a few key points on the way – and diving into new ideas of how value can be redesigned.

2. Partnership

Can the idea of equal partnerships change the industry mindset and advance collective progress? The importance of collaboration has been a central theme to the Copenhagen Fashion Summits to date, and was no less so this year. The Global Fashion Agenda Explainer digs deeper into two different types of supply chain partnerships: Transactional vs. Relationship-based.

Covid 19 has resulted in $3 billion unpaid orders with manufacturers in Bangladesh alone. Broken relationships across the value chain have exposed an urgent need for more transparent supply chains and close relationships with partners which amount to shared financial advantage. The future belongs to forward-looking brands, who through forging strong relationships will be better suited to the next disruption that we will inevitably face.

3. Biodiversity

Fashion is fun, fabulous and fancy, but did you know that fashion is also closely linked to biodiversity? This explainer explores the substantial negative impact that the fashion industry has had on the total variety of life on Earth, known as biodiversity. From there, it goes one step further by explaining how fashion can evolve from being part of the problem to being part of the solution – by highlighting different solutions.

When asked the question “How can we make fashion’s biodiversity crisis more tangible?”, the summit’s group of global leaders called for a simplification of language. Transparency and education around the origins of products and the importance of the ecosystems that support them is going to be critical for us to share stories and narrative around biodiversity. What’s more, innovation around new materials and processes can only be a success if they are made commercially viable. It is time to invest in biodiversity, and go from being a problem to being part of the solution.

4. Transparency

“You can’t improve what you don’t measure,” quoted Kate Heiny, Global Director Sustainability, Circularity and Corporate Social Responsibility at European e-commerce company, Zalando, in conversation with Amina Razvi from the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. In a bold move, Zalando has made a decision to make sustainability assessment mandatory for brands selling on its platform.

The topic of transparency is part and parcel of protecting human rights. Jide Osifeso, Creative Director of streetwear label HYMNE, called for mandatory transparency. He hopes for a generation of change-makers that will scrutinize, ask the right questions, and hold the industry and governments accountable for protecting the rights of the many people who touch our clothes.

Labels help inform customers, not only telling a story about a product but offering facts that help people make a decision about their purchase. Yet almost half (48%) of consumers feel that they do not know enough about a product despite reading the label (source: Label Insight).

People are now demanding more from brands. 70% feel trust in a brand is more important than in the past (Edelman’s Brand Trust 2020 special report) and 69% want retailers to be more transparent about their sustainability efforts (sources: Label Insight/Food Marketing Institute/Hartman Group).

Avery Dennison can enable a level of transparency that gives businesses complete control over their supply chains. AD Trace is a transparency and traceability solution for apparel and footwear using a unique digital ID-enabled label and blockchain technology. Visit our Enabling Circularity Microsite to learn more and connect with us.

5. Waste

We are wasting at an astronomical scale. Part of redesigning value is recognizing this reality, and responding with new business models and innovation. In one 1:1 Impact Conversation, Samata Pattinson of Red Carpet Green Dress and Omoyemi Akerele the founder and artistic director of Style House Files, cite the common phrase “waste is only waste if you waste it”. A number of times in the summit we heard a celebration for African design, where creating things that last for a long time is embedded in culture and heritage. A mindset shift is essential, as well as innovation around matching production with demand, building scalable business models that enable circularity, and bringing designers together at the point of creation.

At Avery Dennison, we are actively enabling the process of returning, remaking and recycling garments to retain material value. Clothing labels traditionally tell you how to care for your product during its life. But what if it can also do the reverse and tell you how to activate its next life too? Our digitally connected labels enable brands to clearly inform consumers of the end-of-life recycling options for items they no longer need, and cannot resell or re-use. They also inform recyclers of the material content of garments for safe and efficient processing.

Check out the Avery Dennison Microsite to learn more about how using a digital trigger, such as a QR code, on the garment label can help to divert materials from being disposed of as waste and reduce associated emissions.

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Let's Continue the Conversation...

CFS+ might be over but working towards sustainability and circular systems in the fashion industry is ongoing. As our focus shifts back to Zoom calls and our day jobs, we must not lose sight of the urgency of our actions and the opportunities at our fingertips. Avery Dennison is committed to working together with the industry to demystify circularity and technology. Remember, every garment has the potential to be circular. It just has to be connected.

To learn more about how we can help you work toward circularity,

Visit the Avery Dennison Microsite and Connect with us