The Fashion Pact, a coalition of more than 60 fashion companies to protect the climate, biodiversity and the oceans, has appointed H&M boss Helena Helmersson as its new co-chair. According to its own statements, the pact represents “a third of the global fashion industry”.
Helmersson’s background is in sustainability and manufacturing, and she succeeds the pact’s co-founder, Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault, who presented the coalition at the 2019 G7 summit in Biarritz. He will remain part of the steering committee.
According to a press release, Helmersson will work closely with Fashion Pact co-founder Paul Polman, who has been re-elected as co-chair of the steering committee for another three years.
“I am proud and honored to take on the role of Co-Chairs of the Fashion Pact and together bring our industry closer to a sustainable future. In today’s urgent climate situation, we must work together to address challenges that one company cannot solve alone. Now is the time to build on the great strides made so far and accelerate emission reduction and decarbonization across the value chain. Only together can we bring about real change, and the unique collective power of the Fashion Pact has the ability to accelerate our collective action,” commented Helmersson.
Measures
“The Fashion Pact aims to accelerate and scale up the industry’s transition to renewable energy, biodiversity protection and the use of sustainable sourcing, and is now targeting greater advances across the value chain,” the statement said.
“He calls for an industry-wide approach to improving the environmental impact of the fashion industry, with an increased focus on reducing Scope 3 emissions. Decarbonizing the fashion industry supply chain – where most of the emissions occur – at the pace and scale will be critical for brands and players across the industry to meet their science-based goals.
It aims to accelerate the adoption of renewable electricity by creating the fashion industry’s first Collective Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (CVPPA), and the project will add more than 100,000 megawatt hours of new renewable electricity to the grid.
It will also further build on the biodiversity baseline for companies in the sector to measure their impact on nature and enable the development of biodiversity strategies. More than half of the members are said to have already developed strategies that can be implemented.
In addition, procurement channels are to be improved and more sustainable materials are to be integrated directly into the supply chains.
What may sound good at first glance, however, hides the fact that the main problem of overproduction is not addressed. The business model of all Fashion Pact members is based on boosting their sales through increased production. Not one of them addresses a slowdown in production in favor of a shift towards slow fashion – fewer, more durable garments. The appointment of the boss of one of the largest fast fashion companies as co-chair of a coalition that clearly puts fashion and not the environment in the foreground, by name, is therefore more than appropriate.