– Director of Danish Fashion Institute Eva Kruse shares her thoughts on the prospects for a sustainable fashion industry
It is no secret that the fashion industry has a big impact on the environment. At Danish Fashion Institute we want to reduce damage to the environment and, looking at the landscape, there are many ways to do this using new, alternative textiles such as milk fibers, bamboo, or crab fibers, and sustainable technologies such as enzymes.
Getting consumers to buy new styles is an intrinsic driver for the fashion industry. This means that there is a lot of surplus clothing around. Instead of disposing of it all, the industry currently sees a trend in innovating and developing new ideas where clothing can be used in new, interesting contexts, such as worn-out jeans becoming insulating material. This is just one direction we can take to continue to innovate and prolong the life cycle of fashion materials. Another is to rethink the manufacturing process itself to become more environmentally friendly, and this is what makes Novozymes
an interesting partner.
Educating the industry with Novozymes
Danish Fashion Institute is working with Novozymes to create awareness among designers and retailers of the many sustainable possibilities for processing textiles. We want to make sure they know that they do have options – and the ultimate goal is to create a more ethical fashion industry where, for instance,
enzymes replace chemicals.
Working with enzymes, Novozymes is one of the most innovative players in terms of developing new ways of dealing with established environmental issues that we are facing globally, including in the fashion industry. Our collaboration started with the I do 30 campaign and next up is the Fashion Summit. Together we focus on educating the industry, and making knowledge of sustainability and enzymes accessible to fashion companies. This is how we encourage textile manufacturers to use enzymatic solutions because – at the end of the day – if there is no demand for enzymatic solutions from designers or retailers, there will be no call for suppliers either.
Knowledge-sharing is NICE
In recent years Danish Fashion Institute has experienced a growing interest from fashion companies in behaving more ethically and focusing on CSR in a wide social and environmental perspective. Where the environment is concerned, the problem is that designers are having a hard time finding suppliers throughout the value chain who are sustainable and use enzymes.
Inspired by an increasing number of enquiries about knowledge-sharing, Danish Fashion Institute has inaugurated the Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical project (NICE) in cooperation with the Nordic countries. Becoming responsible in company practices is a learning process for everyone, and sharing intellectual capital is a way of breaking down barriers and opening up to a more ethical way of doing business. Through this project, we want to encourage companies to help themselves by helping each other, and we are working together to guide companies and pave the way for a more sustainable fashion industry worldwide. Our biggest ambition for NICE is to establish a movement that can get companies started on behaving responsibly. We cannot force companies to do so, but we can inspire and motivate
them, something which the collaboration with Novozymes enforces.
NICE will be kicked off at the Fashion Summit
during COP15, when we will introduce a “code of conduct” for Nordic fashion labels, including a long-term plan for making the industry more sustainable. This is our contribution to the COP15 agenda.
Read more
www.danishfashioninstitute.dk
www.nordicfashionassociation.com