BFC, Vivienne Westwood and Mayor team up for Fashion Switch to Green campaign

The British Fashion Council, Dame Vivienne Westwood and the Mayor of London have teamed up for a campaign to bring the fashion industry together "to lead in ambitious climate action, for a safer and greener future".

Fashion Switch to Green is part of the BFC's wider Positive Fashion initiative and aims to encourage fashion brands and businesses to commit to switch to a green energy supplier by 2020. The year 2020 is significant as it ties the campaign to the Paris Agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; whose goal it is to prevent what scientists regard as dangerous and irreversible levels of climate change.

Brands already committed to the campaign, launched on day one of London Fashion Week, include Belstaff, Christopher Raeburn, Child of the Jago, E.Tautz, Harvey Nichols, Kering, Marks & Spencer, Oliver Spencer, Positive Luxury, Selfridges, Stella McCartney, steventai, Teatum Jones and Vivienne Westwood.

The campaign includes a number of videos made with prominent fashion figures including model and activist Adwoa Aboah, designer Christopher Raeburn, writer and editor Kenya Hunt and Dame Vivienne discussing what Positive Fashion means to the them.

Talking about the significance of launching the initiative at London Fashion Week Justine Simons, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries commented: "London Fashion Week is the greatest fashion showcase in the world, and illustrates our city’s truly global appeal and leadership in creativity and innovation. This Fashion Week, I’m delighted to see the industry also showing wider leadership in the fight against climate change – bringing together culture and the environment, two of the Mayor’s key priorities."

"At City Hall, we want the capital to become a zero-carbon city by 2050 and to achieve this, we need Londoners and businesses to get on board. I’m proud to support Vivienne Westwood and the British Fashion Council in their call to Switch to Green today – now is the fashion industry’s chance to make going green the number-one trend this autumn," Simons added.

Dame Vivienne who has been an active campaigner for a more sustainable industry said: “People ask, ‘what can I do to help save the environment?’ In all my time as an activist, I’ve never had a satisfactory answer. Now we know: switch to a green energy supplier.”

Although the UK is about half-way towards its climate change target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, it is uncertain if the UK will meet its target to source 15% of all energy (electricity, heating and transport) from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Caroline Rush, CEO British Fashion Council said: “We are proud to launch this ambitious campaign to encourage our industry to be leaders of global change. It is our hope that the Fashion SWITCH campaign encourages brands and businesses to increase the demand for green energy; helping accelerate investment and the rate and scale of renewables in the UK.”