Copenhagen Fashion Week Launches New Sustainability Plan
Copenhagen Fashion Week is undergoing a massive overhaul to reduce its environmental impact. Beginning January 28, the fashion week [organizers] will work on a complete rethinking of its sustainability approach, aiming to reduce the fashion week's climate impact by 50 percent and become a zero-waste event by 2022.
"Copenhagen Fashion Week is the cultural and commercial meeting place of the Scandinavian fashion industry. This gives us an enormous responsibility and the potential to create impactful change in the industry at large," explained Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of the event. "By taking this direction we go from being a traditional event to being a platform for industry change."
The change laid out in Copenhagen Fashion Week’s new Sustainability Action Plan is not solely dependent on organizers; a major aspect of the plan’s rollout relies on the designers.
By 2023, all brands applying for a show or presentation during Copenhagen Fashion Week will be required to meet certain sustainability standards. These standards include "pledging not to destroy unsold clothes, using at least 50 percent certified, organic, upcycled or recycled textiles in all collections, using only sustainable packaging and having zero-waste set designs for their shows," according to a press release.
From that point, labels will have six parts of their value chains graded for sustainability: strategic direction, smart material choices, working conditions, design, shows, and consumer engagement. If a label can’t meet these criteria, it won’t be allowed to participate.
"The action plan and its sustainability requirements reflect my conviction that highly ambitious goals are required to fully leverage Copenhagen Fashion Week's influence and impact on the industry," said Thorsmark. "The urgency of the situation we find ourselves in today pushes me to believe that we can no longer simply hope that progress will occur of its own accord."
As concerns about the fashion industry’s environmental impact grow, Thorsmark hopes that this move will push the gravity of the issue to the forefront. "The timeframe for averting the devastating effects of climate change on the planet and people is less than a decade, and we're already witnessing its catastrophic impacts today," she said. "Put simply, there can be no status quo."
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