Crafting a Way Forward for Fashion Companies
Yvonne Lui
While the environmental impact of industries such as flying, is well known, fashion uses up more energy than both aviation and shipping combined! Thus accounting for about 10% of global carbon emissions and 20% of wastewater.
After spending nearly a decade at a luxury group, Dr Helen Crowley started a year-long sabbatical as a Lui-Walton Technical Fellow at Conservation International in October 2019. She is collaborating with other Lui-Walton Technical Fellows and experts in Conservation International, crafting a way forward for fashion companies to make clothes that have a positive impact. This includes a focus on developing ways for companies to measure their impact on biodiversity across their supply chains and designing strategies and approaches to mitigate these.
Dr Crowley is also instrumental in lobbying fashion companies to step up to the challenge by signing onto The Fashion Pact – announced at the G7 Summit in France. There are currently 60 companies across the globe representing more than 250 Brands and 35% of the sector.
With Dr Crowley’s leadership, the fashion sector has the potential to emerge as a leader in business action for biodiversity conservation, regenerative agriculture and restorative production of key raw materials.