Dive Brief:
- Forty-three brands, retailers and organizations — including Adidas, Gap, H&M and Target — launched the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, seeking to address climate impact across the fashion supply chain.
- Signatories to the charter set up six working groups that will outline implementation steps to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Issues to be addressed include using sustainable materials, low-carbon transport, improving consumer awareness and working with financial and government entities to spur innovation.
- The charter members also set up initial targets to phase out coal sources in their own operations and direct suppliers' by 2025 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2030.
Dive Insight:
Some cynics may find the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action to be nothing more than a marketing campaign, allowing an industry with a checkered history of human rights abuses to gain some positive news around an issue like climate change.
But a deeper look into the charter shows an industry coalescing around a critical issue, demonstrating that business can take the lead.
Grassroots efforts are often the most successful when dealing with emergent situations, creating opportunities for enthusiasm, action and momentum.
The charter demonstrates the influence of the growing social supply chain movement. The supply chain managers working for the 43 charter members already have a mandate to assist in the efforts to mitigate climate change. That influence will create positive changes throughout their extended supply chains. And those changes may permeate through other supply chains as well.
Supply chain managers often underestimate, or abdicate, their power in engaging a supplier community that supports the common good, not only in dealing with climate change, but other social issues such as strengthening environmental regulations, supporting human rights and narrowing economic inequality.
The ethos of low cost at all cost might finally be on the run, replaced with a focus on the critical issues of our time.
