University of Cambridge Releases Nature-Based Primary Fashion Report – WWD

At Wednesday’s Copenhagen Global Fashion Summit, the University of Cambridge released its report on nature-based fashion targets.

The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability, or CISL, jointly released the report with French President Emmanuel Macron’s Fashion Pact (which represents a third of the industry) intended as a primer in establishing a science-based — and nature-positive — framework for biodiversity in fashion. More than 60 fashion companies were involved in the report, including Kering, H&M Group, Chanel, Burberry and Adidas.

Nature-positive is defined as ambitious goals and a better-than-present future state of nature through biodiversity or conservation. The pay-to-access report addresses fashion’s high dependence on natural resources and is accompanied by webinars and face-to-face sessions at the GFS Summit. The report includes basic guidance for defining and measuring impact along the value chain (through to retail), guidance for sourcing materials, and guidance for working with technical experts and industry collaborators. (While phases like consumer use and resale are currently out of scope, the report says future iterations are “expected to change”).

The report is part of a two-year project, which closed this week, called “Transforming the Fashion Sector With Nature” and funded by a $2 million grant from the Global Environment Facility, implemented jointly by Conservation International and The Fashion Pact. This biodiversity target follows similar calls to action in recent years such as those from the Textile Exchange, Canopy, Carbon Disclosure Project, and most recently, the Science-Based Targets Initiative.

Under the Science-Based Targets Network, SBTi officially released science-based targets for nature in May. To note, the Science-Based Targets Network, The Fashion Pact, Conservation International and Textile Exchange are collaborating on this latest effort, which calls for fashion to adopt SBTN’s five-step nature-based targets, including to assess, interpret and prioritize, measure, regulate and disclose. , act and track.

In practice, this guidance covers activities such as identifying inputs of crude oil or petroleum and other “high impact commodities” (including pulp, iron, zinc, steel, leather, cotton, liquefied natural gas) or not clearing forests or polluting water, among others. other site-specific criteria. This is a practice that has been seen in industries such as construction.

As WWD reports, more than half (or 61 percent) of Pact Mode members have either “committed to setting” science-based goals or have had their targets approved. According to the 2022 grant progress report, 24 signatories to the Mode Pact (out of 100 companies) said they plan to align with the SBTN framework.

Eliot Whittington, chief systems change officer at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, said the hope was to offer “clear guidance on what needs to be done” to prevent deepening the existing ecological crisis.