26 Sustainability efforts of the fashion industry in February 2020 – FashionUnited UK

In February, it was heartening to see that the industry is reaching outto partners outside the fashion realm to make more sustainable products orto simply tackle social and environmental problems together. Even recentfashion weeks and other industry events were used to push the sustainablefashion agenda. FashionUnited has put together 26 such efforts that wereannounced in February 2020 alone.

Alt Mat, Block Texx, Descatuk, Indra Water, Infinichains, JSP, PurFi,Sasmira and Textile Genesis are the nine start-ups selected for Fashion forGoods first innovation programme focused on South Asia, which will takethem on a nine-month journey including mentoring, coaching and support fromFashion for Good and its partners. Additionally, the start-ups will receivesupport from Indian manufacturers Arvind and Welspun to test the viabilityof their ideas to make the fashion industry more sustainable.

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Swedish outdoor heritage brand Tretorn is teaming up with charity SeaLife Trust for 2020 to launch a special collection to conserve the planetsendangered sea life. The Tretorn x Sea Life Trust collection is part of thebrands spring/summer 2020 Eco Essentials, an initiative launched in 2016that reinvents its classic jackets and footwear into fully sustainableproducts.

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British luxury lobby group Walpole said 40 members have becomesignatories to its Sustainability Manifesto. Earlier this year, Walpolelaunched the British Luxury Sustainability Manifesto a commitment tohelping the British luxury sector become the global leader insustainability with a focus on four key pillars. The pillars includetackling plastic packaging and circularity initiatives to extend productlife and waste reduction to safeguard the environment, addressing carbonemissions, renewable energy usage, water consumptions and discharge ofchemicals.

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London-born heritage brand Hi-Tec Sports is putting sustainability firstin a new capsule collection in collaborating with Sealand Gear, the SouthAfrican-based upcycle and ecocycle brand renowned for its environmentallyand socially responsible products and accessories. The collection featuresan environmentally conscious limited-edition release of Hi-Tecs iconicSierra Re:Flex trail shoe, which marks Sealands footwear debut.

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German multinational corporation Puma has teamed up with First Mile tolaunch a co-created sportswear collection made from recycled plastic, whichgoes beyond recycling as it also rooted in social impact and humanconnection. The co-branded collection has been designed to help consumersperform their best during any workout and features shoes and apparelincluding T-shirts, shorts, jackets and leggings, which have been made fromrecycled yarn that is manufactured from plastic bottles collected in theFirst Mile people-focused network in Taiwan, Honduras, and Haiti.

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German e-commerce company Zalando announced that its private label Zignis now fully dedicated to sustainability, with all its new productscontaining 50 percent more sustainable materials or at least 20 percentrecycled content. All products in its SS20 collection are manufactured inthe top 50 percent of Zalandos supply base when it comes to socialperformance, according to the company. The brand said it also requiresthese factories to submit environmental data to the Higg Index to allow itto monitor and improve its performance in areas such as greenhouse gasemissions, water use and waste.

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French brand Szane, the countrys first online-only label, hasreimagined its denim line to be completely eco-friendly, just three yearsafter launching its first-ever denim collection. The new eco-friendly denimrange, called Szane (R)evolutions, has completely overhauled itsproduction process at every step to create the sustainable collection,where 85 percent of materials used are from natural origins.

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American denim brand Wrangler has launched a sustainable cotton programin Europe that will see the brand collaborating with farmers to promotesustainable agriculture production. This program builds upon an existinginitiative that the Kontoor Brands-owned company had previously launched inthe United States.

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Swedish retail giant H&M Group has said it is to become the firstretailer to use Circulose, a newly patented material made from discardedtextiles, in a dress in its upcoming Conscious Exclusive collection -marking the first time chemically recycled fibres are used in garments soldat scale.

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Swedish fashion brand Gant has announced it is bolstering itssustainable credentials with a number of new environmental targets, thelaunch of a rental service, and The 7 Rules by Gant - an initiative toeducate consumers on how to better care for their clothes. For 2020, nearly80 percent of its collection will be sustainably sourced. Additionaltargets include using 100 percent sustainably sourced cotton by 2022;reducing water use in manufacturing by 50 percent by 2025; using 100percent sustainably sourced key materials by 2025; and reducing its climatefootprint by 30 percent throughout all operations by 2030.

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English fashion accessories designer Anya Hindmarch has once againforegone a catwalk show or a presentation for London Fashion Week in favourof something a little more experimental, and this time launched the 'I Am APlastic Bag collection and filled up her London stores with plasticbottles to make a statement on waste. The I Am A Plastic Bag is made froman innovative new fabric created from recycled plastic bottles and coatedwith recycled plastic windshields.

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American footwear brand Teva is working to keep plastic out oflandfills. Going forward, 100 percent of the polyester straps used in Tevafootwear will be made from recycled materials. The footwear brand haslaunched a new sustainable initiative to reduce its impact on theenvironment.

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Burberry has doubled down on its sustainability efforts and announcedthe launch of a new 'carbon insetting' project which was marked by acarbon-neutral AW20 runway show. In a push to reduce its carbon footprint,the label said it hosted its AW20 runway show in a certified sustainablevenue and prioritised electric vehicles and avoided air freight. Anyremaining carbon emissions from the show will be offset through a savannafire management project which aims to reduce the risk of wildfires thathave been ravaging Australia in recent months. Instead of gifting theevents guests, the brand also opted to collaborate with PUR Projet andtheir local partner to plant trees in Australia on guests behalf.

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British heritage brand Mulberry used its London Fashion Weekpresentation to highlight its Made to Last initiative inspired by thebrands responsibility commitments to the past, present and future withan immersive installation that brought the brands craft and design ethosto life. Set within the brands Bond Street store, the three-day programmefeatured live music, exclusive events, craft workshops, a pop-up caf, aswell as the brands new M Collection, a capsule of bags and outerwearcrafted from a blend of Econyl regenerated nylon and sustainable cotton.

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Amy Molyneaux rejoined the London Fashion Week schedule to showcase hernew collaboration with Frankie Phillips, creative director of sustainable,affordable fashion brand, ToBeFrank. The new label, ToBeFrank x Molyneauxhas sustainability at the core, with a collection that is 90 percentsustainable, using no virgin materials, and was born out of both creativedirectors wanting to prove that consumer dont have to compromise style tosave the earth.

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The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has launched new guidelines toensure that vegan fashion items really are 100 percent free of animalproducts. The Voluntary Guideline on Veganism in Fashion sets out a numberof questions retailers should ask themselves before labelling something asvegan. The BRC said companies should not only cut out the use of leather,wool and natural silk in vegan products, but they ensure that no animalproducts are used in other components such as glues, dyes, andchemicals.

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Creative agency Superimpose has launched a new educational programmewith a focus on sustainability for aspiring creative talent in partnershipwith University of the Arts London: London College of Fashion. Itsnon-commercial creative platform Services Unknown is looking to pioneer anew educational format by switching up the creative curriculum with itsweek-long crash courses aimed at inspiring the next generation of creativechange-makers.

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Environmental charity Redress and TV director Lindsay Robertson haveteamed up to launch the fourth season of Frontline Fashion, anaward-winning YouTube docu-series following emerging fashion designers asthey tackle one of the industrys biggest issues: waste. Set in Hong Kong,a hotbed for Asias ever-growing fashion industry, the five-episode seriestracks the 10 finalists of the Redress Design Award in the days leading upto the grand finale of the sustainable fashion competition.

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The rest is here:

26 Sustainability efforts of the fashion industry in February 2020 - FashionUnited UK