Innovation Forum Blog

Last week, I attended the Innovation Forum, Sustainable Apparel and Textiles Conference in Amsterdam. 

There was a buzz of energy walking into the conference on that first evening. Discussions were already happening between CFOs, sustainability leaders, sourcing experts and policymakers to name a few. What struck me was the lack of hierarchy between stakeholders, everyone's voice mattered and more importantly, everyone was willing to listen. I felt it set the tone of the conference in a good way!

One of the first sessions was kicked off by Christine Goulay, of Sustainabelle, who introduced the concept of love languages in business. In sustainability we often fail because we use a universal script for a diverse audience. Christine highlighted that to drive real change, we must become translators. This resonated with me in particular as the work we do at WEFT spans across multiple teams across brands, SMEs and the recycling sector, each with different priorities. Optimising how we communicate concepts such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to different roles could be the difference between pushing the industry forward or staying stagnant.

Policy was the thread that wove through the entire conference. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation (ESPR) was a focus of many of my conversations with other attendees. The consensus was abundantly clear: “We are disappointed”. 

With a background rooted in garment durability, I was not particularly surprised by the frustration surrounding the 3rd milestone of the ESPR. Compared to the ambitious goals of the previous iterations, the latest milestone felt significantly scaled back.

For those of us who believe the most sustainable garment is the one already in your wardrobe, this could potentially become a major industry setback. Without a more rigorous, mandatory framework for physical durability and repairability we risk the ecodesign tag becoming a shallow compliance exercise that adds onto brands’ already long list of reporting tasks, rather than a catalyst for making clothes that actually last. 

Interestingly, the pushback isn’t just coming from activists in the space but from the brands themselves. In my conversations, I saw a radical shift. Brands are pushing for the harder road because they recognise that clear, ambitious regulation is the only lever strong enough to move the entire industry. They want a level playing-field where quality and longevity are rewarded, rather than undercut by cheaper, disposable alternatives. 

This theme of regulatory urgency carried over to EPR. As a company based on a foundation of EPR compliance, we are seeing the interest in EPR rapidly increase. More businesses are seeing the benefit of preparing for upcoming legislation as opposed to waiting until it is knocking on their doorstep. 

One of my personal highlights was the session titled EPR Readiness: How do we build resilient strategies as national frameworks evolve? It featured progress on textiles EPR in the Netherlands. With many uncertainties it was reassuring to hear more about how much of a success EPR has been and what the key future takeaways for the Netherlands, in particular, are. For example, the introduction of eco-modulation under the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) framework rules and what this might look like across a country which has multiple Producer Responsibility Organisations (PRO).  

The overarching call to action was simple: EPR needs to be harmonised. We need a unified system where the fees collected from brands are transparently reinvested into the textile recycling infrastructure that the industry so desperately needs. Textile-to-textile recycling and the practical scalability of this sector were other hot topics. 

While "Collaboration" and "Opportunity" were the buzzwords of the week, they come with an important message. A practical acknowledgement that we cannot fix the industry in silos, we need to work together. One of the most useful insights I found from the Forum was hearing from the manufacturers themselves. This is a rare voice at these types of events, but I would argue one of the most crucial in the room last week. 

They shed light on what de-growth actually means from a social perspective and the impact climate is having on their bottom line as well as their sustainability targets. I hope this is the type of collaboration that Innovation Forum continues to introduce in future events and I commend them for providing a platform to champion these voices. 

To leave you with a final reflection, the quote from the event that has been echoing through my head over the past few days is from one speaker, who said:

“There is no fashion on a dead planet.”

I think this is a simple but illustrative depiction of why these events are so important. We are trying to ensure the industry has a future at all. If we wait for the perfect systemic overhaul, we will run out of time, but focusing on small-incremental progress, that's the ticket that is going to propel us in the right direction. My hope and takeaway from the Forum is that legislation could be one of the most impactful levers we have to pull.