Welcome back! For new readers, this is a weekly curation of the latest news and insights covering the intersection of sustainability and fashion, created exclusively for Adore Me.
Note: A quick apology to those confused by receiving Issue #3 as their first edition last week – we had been gradually adding more people as a test, and now, everyone should be receiving the newsletter.
This is currently at the 4th edition, and for reference, here are links to all past editions:
- Vol 1: Every meeting should be about sustainability
- Vol 2: Hangers are the new Plastic Straws
- Vol 3: Silk made from citrus fruit
The goal of this newsletter is to keep everyone thinking about the topic and how it affects our industry. For many companies, sustainability is a walled-off department or a top-down push, but change is most effective when it’s a collective effort. This quote from Forbes (the “ESG Notebook” piece you will find further down) captured it best:
I’d argue that to get there, it’ll take much more than the appointment of a Chief Sustainability Officer. Rather, to achieve a shift whereby sustainability is fundamentally built into a company’s DNA, beyond strategy, where the company has made the shift from add-on value to core value, everyone from the directors to the janitor must think like a Chief Sustainability Officer. Companies that put their resources, ingenuity, and muscle behind making sustainability part of their culture, are likeliest to survive well into the future, and thrive.
Happy Reading,
Ranjan
P.S. If you have multiple @adoreme.com emails and are receiving this multiple times, please reply with the email(s) you’d like removed.
Recycled plastic won’t save the fashion industry from its waste crisis
Fast Company examines how the competition between the CPG and fashion industries has sent the price of recycled plastics soaring.
After all, the world is drowning in plastic. Since the material was first invented in 1907, 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced to date. Of this, 6.3 billion metric tons was waste. Only 9% of this plastic has been recycled, and a further 12% has been incinerated, a process that spews carbon and toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. The rest now sits in landfills and our oceans, where it will stay for hundreds of years, since plastic does not decompose.
Tights Are The Plastic Straws Of Fashion – Here Are 6 Sustainable Options
Last week, this newsletter told you that hangers were fashion’s “plastic straws” (i.e. single-use and terrible for the environment).
Well….this week, it’s tights.
Two Guys In Mexico Just Created Vegan Leather From Cactus
Adrián López Velarde and Marte Cázarez, entrepreneurs from Mexico, recently launched Desserto, organic leather made entirely from the nopal (or prickly-pear) cactus, the first of its kind.
(Slacked in by Cristina I. Thank you and submissions are always welcome!)
Save the Duck, vegan outerwear alternative to Moncler and Canada Goose
This is quite the story: a vegan outerwear brand was contacted by an Indian mountaineer, who wanted to scale Everest wearing only animal-free gear.
Enter the brand: Save the Duck.
With Drest, digital clothing is one step closer to mainstream
Digital clothing is the idea of selling “clothing” that only exists in the virtual sense. It represents both a possible antidote to the physical material demands of the fashion industry, along with a way to thoroughly confuse your parents.
It’s thus far, been constrained to the world of creative, one-off campaigns and blockchain dresses, but appears to be becoming just a tiny bit more mainstream.
This article profiles Drest, a new app that seeks to combine gaming and digital clothing. An even more intriguing nugget from the piece:
Last week, it [LVMH] became the first luxury brand to partner with video game League of Legends by offering in-game “skins” and a corresponding capsule collection designed by Nicolas Ghesquière.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, Louis Vuitton is making “skins” (or virtual clothing) that are available for purchase to adorn your favorite League of Legends video game character with.
Welcome to the future 🤯
Prada becomes first luxury brand to sign loan tied to sustainability targets
A promising sign that the fight for a sustainable fashion future could receive help from the world of financial engineering.
Prada announced that they had signed the first “Sustainability Linked Loan” with Credit Agricole. In the same way for that mere mortals can lower their credit card interest by demonstrating specific, positive behaviors, Prada can see the rate on the EUR 50mn, 5-year debt lowered if they achieve specific environmental targets.
One of those targets is increasing the utilization of Prada Re-Nylon, a material for which they released this nicely done 9 minute promo video.
ESG Notebook: How Companies Are Getting To Profitable Sustainability
A smart piece that outlines the 3 stages of corporate evolution in the execution of any sustainability strategy:
- Compliance: characterized by a focus on making adjustments to existing business practices.
- Efficiency: starting to look at sustainability through a more strategic lens, with new measures beginning to impact the company’s bottom line. This is also where its key to gain legitimacy with external stakeholders.
- Innovation: a reframing of the corporate identity to introduce sustainability as a defining characteristic of the organization (this is the stage where, for example, a Chief Sustainability Officer, might be brought in).
