CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies Guide to Sustainable Strategies CFDA.com P. 1 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies Steven Kolb President & CEO Sara Kozlowski Director of Education & Professional Development Council of Fashion Designers of America Publisher Domenica Leibowitz Author Lauren Croke Contributor Aldo Araujo Cal McNeil Jackie Shihadeh Johanna Sapicas Joseph Maglieri Kelsey Fairhurst Marc Karimzadeh Mark Beckham Sofia Cerda Campero Stephanie Soto Editors CFDA.com P. 2 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies SUSTAINABILITY GUIDE Introduction This CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies provides a “how to” overview for sustainable fashion with a focus on helping our members and community create, meet, and exceed their own unique sustainability goals. Our goal is to take the complex idea of sustainability and simplify it into clear, digestible resources and actions. In order for the industry to change we need to work together. This guide is available to public as a critical educational resource. Through this project we seek to shift sustainable practices among members as well as across the entire industry. CFDA.com P. 3 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies SUSTAINABILITY GUIDE How to use this guide Your sustainability journey is uniquely your own. While this guide has been created to help you succeed, how you choose to use it is entirely up to you. We like to think of each sustainability section as one component of good design; there is no linear order to how you need to implement it. Start with the big questions about your company: Who are we? Why do we create? What do we care about? What does sustainability mean to us? The answers to these questions will determine where you will begin. CFDA.com P. 4 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies CFDA.com P. 5 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies TABLE OF Contents P. 03 Introduction P. 04 How to use this guide P. 09 A letter from CFDA P. 11 About the CFDA P. 12 What is Sustainability? • Overview • Global concensus • Sustainability can be approach at multiple levels P. 27 The Business Case for Sustainability • Overview • Tools & resources P. 40 Create a Company Sustainability Strategy • Overview • Worksheet: Create a company sustainability strategy • Tools & resources P. 51 Design for Sustainability • Overview • Worksheet: Sustainable design strategies • Tools & resources P. 60 People • Overview • Your company - Tools & resources • Your community - Tools & resources • Your supply chain - Worksheet: How to source ethically - Tools & resources P. 89 Materials • Overview • Worksheet: Questions to ask for all materials • Tools & resources TableCFDA.com of Contents P. 6 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies TABLE OF Contents P. 105 Materials Processing & Manufacturing • Overview • Worksheet: Sustainability at production facilities • Tools & resources P. 122 Jewelry, Accessories & Footwear • Jewelry - Overview - Worksheet: Ethical Metalsmiths’ - Worksheet: The ‘Golden Rules’ Gold & Precious Metals Sourcing Policy • Accessories & footwear - Overview - Tools & resources P. 143 Sustainable Buildings & Offices • Overview • Worksheet: Sustainable Buildings • Tools & resources P. 160 Packaging • Overview • Worksheet: Make packaging more sustainable • Tools & resources P. 171 Transportation & Logistics • Overview • Worksheet: Make your transportation and logistics more sustainable • Tools & resources P. 182 Customer Care & Repair • Overview • Worksheet: Design for and educate your customers about sustainable use • Tools & resources CFDA.com P. 7 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies TABLE OF Contents P. 193 End of Use, Reuse, and Recycling • Overview • Worksheet: Reuse, recycling, and proper disposal • Tools & resources P. 204 Event production • Overview • Worksheet: Make your event more sustainable • Tools & resources P. 212 Communication & Marketing Strategies • Overview • Tools & resources P. 220 Appendix • Philanthropy & civic engagement • Child labor • Circularity CFDA.com P. 8 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies SUSTAINABILITY GUIDE A letter from CFDA We aim to instill a heightened sense of community, empowerment & purpose by enacting principles to change design through inspiration, innovation & imagination. As American fashion continues its journey to a more sustainable future, transformative innovation of materials, processes and systems is about more than mindfulness, it is a change imperative. Last October, following General Assembly Week at the United Nations, a U.N. & Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report highlighted how global warming is accelerating and threatening the Planet Earth’s health faster than we thought. This is directly linked to CO2 emissions, as well as the impact of single use plastics to our land and oceans. Without a radical rethinking, the ocean will contain more plastic than fish by 2050. At a time when numbers and reports are so daunting, the CFDA is more optimistic than ever and sees 2019 as a year of progress – with every step counting towards substantial change. We are closer than ever to opportunities and solutions to create and consume with less impact, to employ circularity, and to ultimately end production of single use plastics. We believe in the power of people unified by shared vision, and in the power of design. We see a call to action in action led by our 500+ member community by embracing conscious design, responsible sourcing, and committing to building safer, ethical, more efficient value chains. Through the CFDA’s Educational Initiatives, we also see a generation of educators, students, and graduates applying collaboration, ingenuity and systems thinking to sustainable fashion prototyping and new models of social entrepreneurship and material innovation. Within professional development programs such as the Elaine Gold Launch Pad, expert mentors work with early emerging talent to create new business models that are scalable and embedded with principles of sustainability, technology and innovation. Through our longstanding partnership with Lexus business development program, the Fashion* Initiative inspires thought leadership, facilitates commitment to sustainable innovation, and advance positives change with the highest-impact potential. CFDA.com P. 9 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies SUSTAINABILITY GUIDE A letter from CFDA cont’d Now, we are pleased to share this first edition of the CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies as part of CFDA’s expanded Sustainability Initiatives in 2019. With this open-access guide authored by Domenica Leibowitz, we have a single intention: to empower through education. Within this 16-topic guide, we consider impacts related to land, water, air, energy, human capital {people} and natural capital {all living things} using pillars of environmental, social, cultural, and financial/economic. Our methodology aligns to the core principles of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Thank you for joining us as we strive to come closer to the goal of sustainable fashion as a new normal. I hope you enjoy this guide created by the CFDA, with gratitude to the CFDA staff and teams, Domenica Leibowitz, and consultant Lauren Croke. As the industry and resources contained in this guide are constantly evolving, please let us know if we are missing anything or if updates are required. If you need assistance or have specific questions, please contact the CFDA. - Sara Kozlowski, January 2019 Sara Kozlowski Stephanie Soto Jackie Shihadeh [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] CFDA.com P. 10 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies ABOUT The CFDA The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) is a not-for- profit trade association, founded in 1962, whose membership consists of more than 500 of America’s foremost womenswear, menswear, jewelry and accessory designers. Our mission is to strengthen the impact of American fashion in the global economy. CFDA.com P. 11 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies What is Sustainability? CFDA.com P. 12 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY? Overview Sustainability is great design. It is based on a deep understanding that all things are interconnected in this world. Sustainability provides the ability to design and produce indefinitely. This requires that the design, development, production and use of fashion products meets today’s needs, without preventing them from being met by future generations. The fashion industry is not currently sustainable. We are using up natural resources and exploiting people in ways that will deplete future generations of the resources they need, impacting future profitability and business opportunities. We have the power to change the way fashion is made and consumed by creating a sustainable industry with greater influence and increased profit. While many sustainability initiatives exist, there is no way to be 100% sustainable… yet. Failure to embrace sustainable practices neglects a key factor for long- term success in business, you could read about The Business Case for Sustainability section of this guide. CFDA.com P. 13 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies Innovation Creativity How can you ake the world better through design? Water Energy Air Environment Cheicals Waste Sustainability Fundamentals Biodiversity Eployees Suppliers People Custoers Communities & Culture Copany Culture Company Policy & Governance Guidelines Financial Model CFDA.com P. 14 CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY Global consensus Now is truly an exciting time for the sustainability movement in fashion.