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The Fashion Pact: does it go far enough?

Marcus Jaye
28 August 2019

A large bulk of the fashion industry is feeling pretty pleased with itself right now. The just-gone G7 summit in Biarritz, France, a meeting of the world’s largest economies, saw French President Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by Economy and Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Labour, Muriel Pénicaud, and Deputy Minister of Ecological and Solidary Transition, Brune Poirson, launch "The Fashion Pact”.

An initiative to minimise the environmental impact of the fashion industry, the Fashion Pact, signed by various fashion companies and brands, made numerous commitments regarding sustainability, renewable energy and biodiversity.

The launch made plenty of noise, and, while anything moving in the right direction, (particularly while the Amazon rainforest is burning) is welcome, it’s worth looking at some of the detail.

Some 32 companies representing around 150 brands and roughly 30% of the fashion industry committed to:

  • 100% renewable energy across own operations with the ambition to incentivise implementation of renewables in all high impact manufacturing processes along the entire supply chain by 2030.
  • Protect the oceans: by reducing the fashion industry’s negative impact on the world’s oceans through practical initiatives, such as gradually removing the usage of single-use plastics.
  • Restore biodiversity: by achieving objectives that use Science-Based Targets to restore natural ecosystems and protect species.
  • Stop global warming: by creating and deploying an action plan for achieving the objective of zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in order to keep global warming below a 1.5°C pathway between now and 2100.

These all feel like the least they can do. Words like “gradually” and “ambition” make most of this wishful thinking. But, waiting until 2050 to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions is laughable. Most of the signatories will be dead by then. It’s 31 years away! Who’s to say any of these companies will still be in business?

We live in a very stressful and confusing time. Environmental paralysis is understandable among consumers not sure exactly what they can do to combat climate change. But businesses waiting until 2050 to “possibly” make that new handbag zero carbon emissions, ain’t going to help. Green lip service is becoming increasingly frustrating and brands are going to have to give definite and distinct decisions while updating consumers on progress and fact-based information much faster than this. People want to see something.

The brands involved include adidas, Bestseller, Burberry, Capri Holdings Limited, Carrefour, Chanel, Ermenegildo Zegna, Everybody & Everyone, Fashion3, Fung Group, Galeries Lafayette, Gap Inc, Giorgio Armani, H&M Group, Hermès, Inditex, Karl Lagerfeld, Kering, La Redoute, Matchesfashion.com, Moncler, Nike, Nordstrom, Prada Group, Puma, PVH Corp., Ralph Lauren, Ruyi, Salvatore Ferragamo, Selfridges Group, Stella McCartney and Tapestry.

In April 2019, ahead of the G7 meeting, Emmanuel Macron gave François-Henri Pinault, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kering, a mission to bring together the leading players in fashion and textiles, with the aim of setting practical objectives for reducing the environmental impact of their industry. And the Fashion Pact was born.

This goes someway to explain the most noticable luxury absentee from the list, the LVMH Group. LVMH, Kering's main luxury competition, announced in May that it was partnering with Unesco on a five-year deal, allowing the fashion houses in the group access to “a network of experts at the regional level and in different disciplines to drive the development and success of their initiatives to protect biodiversity” and secure transparent supply chains. It has also recently cemented a tie-up with British designer Stella McCartney to lead their charge in sustainable luxury.

The majority of these brands don’t know what the eco-future looks like, but they know they need to start making the right noises yet want to continue to generate billions of dollars in yearly turnovers. Signing up to things like the “Fashion Pact” focuses minds, but the time-frame makes it a case of “we’ll start tomorrow”, which goes against the current urgent “Climate Emergency” feeling among the wider population.

Kering issued a statement saying: “Private companies, working alongside nation states, have an essential role to play in protecting the planet. With the Fashion Pact, some leading players in the fashion and textile sector are joining forces for the first time to launch an unprecedented movement. A collective endeavour by its nature, the Fashion Pact is open to any company that wants to help to fundamentally transform the practices of the fashion and textile industry, and to meet the environmental challenges of our century.”

If these luxury companies worked as quickly as they did when chucking money at Notre-Dame, after its fire, then we’d really be getting somewhere. Pinault found €100m (£90m) down the back of the sofa and the Arnault family stumped up €200m within hours of the flames being put out.

Governments will need to bring in legislation much sooner to force these companies to do more. We’re going to look back at this period of history and wonder how we got through it sanely, but what we know is, we have to start today.

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