– All industry players and fashion weeks, have to be accountable for their actions and be willing to change the way business is done. 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. Put simply, there can be no status quo, said Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week
– 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. By taking this direction we go from being a traditional event to being a platform for industry change, urged Cecilie Thorsmark.
Sustainability Action Plan 2020-2022 presents how the event will transition to becoming more sustainable, for example by reducing its climate impact by 50% and rethinking waste systems in all aspects of event production, with zero waste as the goal by 2022. Importantly, the plan also focuses on the bigger picture by outlining how Copenhagen Fashion Week will implement sustainability requirements and set new standards for participation to push the industry toward necessary, comprehensive change.
Sustainability Action Plan 2020-2022 was developed in 2019 with Copenhagen Fashion Week’s knowledge partner, In futurum. Copenhagen Fashion Week’s Board of Directors and Sustainability Advisory Board, comprising industry profiles such as Ganni’s founder Nicolaj Reffstrup, Global Fashion Agenda’s CEO Eva Kruse and Vogue Australia’s Sustainability Editor-at-Large Clare Press, were also actively involved in the process.
The 2023 Sustainability Requirements presented in the action plan were reviewed by a panel of internationally acknowledged experts, including Orsola de Castro of Fashion Revolution, Professor Dilys Williams from the Centre for Sustainable Fashion and Professor of Biological Oceanography Katherine Richardson.
