Management's review
Beskrivelse af virksomhedens væsentligste aktiviteter:Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) is a non-profit organisation that fosters industry collaboration on sustainability in fashion to accelerate impact. With the vision of a net positive fashion industry, it drives action by mobilising, inspiring, influencing and educating all stakeholders.
The organisation has been leading the movement since 2009 and presents the renowned international forum on sustainability in fashion, Global Fashion Summit in core fashion regions around the world. GFA influences policy through its advocacy efforts including the Global Textiles Policy Forum, publishes thought leadership including The GFA Monitor, Fashion CEO Agenda and Fashion on Climate, implements impact programmes including the Circular Fashion Partnership and the Global Circular Fashion Forum, presents educational guidance through the GFA Academy, and connects companies with solutions through the Innovation Forum,
Working in partnership with a wide ecosystem of companies and organisations across the value chain, GFA spearheads the fashion industry’s journey towards a more sustainable future. Through its work, GFA reaches thousands of stakeholders including brands, innovators, NGOs, policy makers, manufacturers, investors and more.
Strategic focus and activities
In a time of polycrisis, 2023 has been an immensely challenging year for many around the world. It is set to be the hottest year on record, fuelling extreme weather events and we’ve faced economic uncertainties and geopolitical conflict, with environmental and social adversities reaching unprecedented levels. With the fashion industry grappling with these turbulent times, GFA emphasised the need for unity and action as we work towards a more secure future that cultivates prosperity and resilience for our planet and its communities.
In 2023, GFA worked to ensure that sustainability did not become an afterthought for fashion leaders by implementing more initiatives that enable companies to make a tangible business case for sustainability investment. We continued to work towards our ambitious vision of a net-positive fashion industry for people and planet that we set out in 2022. While significant progress has been made, industry actions are still not sufficient to meet the existing 2030 and 2050 targets, so ushering in this new era for the industry will demand a different type of leadership that urgently addresses societal and environmental impacts and challenges the status quo.
To reach our vision, we are on a mission to evolve the business model by inspiring, educating, influencing, and mobilising all stakeholders. This is manifested through multiple activities including our Global Fashion Summit, Innovation Forum, thought leadership reports and masterclasses, impact programmes, policy and advocacy efforts, alliances and partnerships, and media/communications. Please see below for a summary of 2023 activities.
Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition
Hosted in the DR Concerthall on 27-28 June and gathering +1100 guests and 137 speakers, Global Fashion Summit 2023 was held under the powerful theme ‘Ambition to Action’. The Summit galvanised participants to transform ambitions into concrete actions that can drive the industry towards more sustainable practices, both socially and environmentally. Under this premise, the event presented content experiences focused on tangible and evidence-based impact, with over half of the programme dedicated to educational and action-oriented business case studies.
This edition included more speakers and content than ever before, with the dynamic and action-orientated sessions spanning across four different stages. The Summit also facilitated more than 10 strategic roundtable meetings that brought together executives and policy makers for productive dialogues on how to address pressing sustainability issues and act accordingly. An unprecedented number of high-profile policymakers were present, highlighting a key shift away from voluntary efforts within fashion towards legislative definitions of sustainability impact. Many global initiatives were also launched, including a guide for fashion communicators to align efforts to sustainability targets from UNEP and UN Climate Change. More than 350 facilitated business meetings between fashion companies and sustainable solution providers took place as part of the renowned Innovation Forum platform within Global Fashion Summit.
Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition was supported by Principal Sponsor, Mærsk - a globally renowned leader in logistics. The engagement helped to create cross-industry collaboration and knowledge sharing that aimed to help the fashion and lifestyle industry reach its sustainability goals.
Global Fashion Summit: Boston Edition
Hosted in Boston, Massachusetts - a renowned hub for technology, innovation, and education - on 27 September, Global Fashion Summit: Boston Edition convened hundreds of esteemed representatives from brands, retailers, NGOs, policy, manufacturers, and innovators to transform ambition into action. This Summit marked the first edition in North America since the forum’s launch in 2009, and as the second international edition, facilitated inspiring exchanges around key themes for sector executives including: Policy, Finance and Retail. The Summit also platformed Indigenous Peoples voices within the programme, acknowledging Native American leadership on sustainability strategy.
Impact
Fashion CEO Agenda:
In 2023, GFA published its sixth Fashion CEO Agenda report, which presents the sustainability priorities that all decision makers working in the fashion industry need to prioritise to futureproof their company, while protecting people and the planet. In 2023, the Fashion CEO Agenda for the first time included concrete actions specific to brands, retailers and manufacturers. The publication was downloaded close to 1000 times by EOY ‘23.
GFA Monitor:
In 2023, GFA also published its second GFA Monitor report at COP28, which is co-created with GFA’s five Impact Partners, its Insight Partner, Worldly, and 30 leading industry experts to take stock of industry proress and guide individuals working in fashion companies towards taking steps to achieve a net positive fashion industry. Complementary to the Fashion CEO Agenda, the GFA Monitor is far more comprehensive and presents concrete tools, resources and case studies that can be used by fashion brands, retailers and manufactures to set fact-based sustainability strategies and take action. This year, it also included indicators of industry progress utilising content from the Fashion Industry Target Consultation. The publication was downloaded close to 1000 times by EOY ‘23.
Fashion Industry Target Consultation & 2030 Sector Vision:
GFA established a new partnership with the UN Environment Programme in 2023 to conduct a global Fashion Industry Target Consultation through workshops and an extensive survey. Over 900 stakeholders form 90+ countries participated and findings were used to moreover inform GFA’s publications and a new 2030 Fashion Sector Vision to provide guidance to the whole sector, including policymakers and the financial community on how to achieve Net Positive.
Renewable Energy Initaitive:
GFA partnered with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners in 2023 to facilitate collective funding from fashion companies in renewable energy infrastructure in manufacturing regions, and raised commitments for a $100Mn investment from BESTSELLER and H&M Group in Bangladesh’s first wind park, which was announced at COP28. The project has the potential to significantly increase the availability of renewable energy in one of the fashion industry’s most important manufacturing countries.
Global Circular Fashion Forum (GCFF) & National Circular Fashion Partnerships:
After launching its first Circular Fashion Partnership in Bangladesh in 2021 and the Global Circular Fashion Forum in 2022, GFA’s activities to spur local & global action in textile manufacturing countries to accelerate and scale recycling of post-industrial textile waste, in an effort to achieve a long-term, scalable, and just transition to a circular fashion industry continued. It continued its work in Bangladesh as part of the UNIDO Switch to Circular Value Chains programme and started work engaging stakeholders, unpacking the current situation and designing a pilot solution in Cambodia, and initiated preliminary activities in Vietnam in partnership with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit).
As of November 2023, the GCFF and its National Circular Fashion Partnerships had recycled 10685 tonnes of textile waste (equivalent to approximately 60 million t-shirts).
Policy & Advocacy
During 2023 GFA further leveraged its convening expertise and facilitated policy roundtables addressing issues such as eco-design, consumer empowerment, and corporate sustainability, among others. This engagement extended to COP28 in Dubai, where GFA led two extensive sessions on collective financing and taking stock of industry progress towards net positive.
At Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition 2023 GFA facilitated insightful discussions with influential figures such as Virginijus Sinkevicius, European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries and Dr. Anna Kelles, Member of Assembly, New York State Assembly. Also, through the new “unpacking policy” series, GFA pulled back the curtain on how policy happens and answered to how fashion is shaping the future of mandatory regulation first in the EU during our Copenhagen Summit and later in the year in the US at the Boston edition of GFS.
Furthermore, GFA published useful overviews of policy developments in the Policy Matrixes for the EU and the Americas, with our commitment to knowledge-sharing underscored by the policy content in the Fashion CEO Agenda and The GFA Monitor. Together with the Policy Hub-Circularity for Apparel and Footwear, GFA contributed to the development of regulations like Eco-design for Sustainable Products, Green Claims, Empowering Consumers, Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence, Waste Framework, and the upcoming Textile Labelling Regulation revision, among others.
GFA Academy
The GFA Academy is dedicated to fostering a global shared understanding of challenges within the fashion industry and the solutions to drive collective action. During 2023, GFA joined forces with the London College of Fashion’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion to establish the global youth advocacy programme Next Gen Assembly, leading to the publication of the report ‘Interwoven: Storytelling in the Time of a Climate Crisis’. Furthermore, GFA Academy fostered collaboration between the fashion industry and academic institutions by hosting a series of roundtable discussions, including ‘The Future of Sustainable Fashion Education’ in partnership with CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) and Parsons School of Design. Additionally, GFA Academy promotes innovative solutions within the fashion value chain through the Innovation Forum, which showcased 53 solutions at the 2023 Global Fashion Summits. To inspire the adoption of innovative practices, four Creative Directors participated in the GFA Designer Challenge, collaborating with solution providers to develop sustainable design processes and products to be showcased to the Global Fashion Summit audience. Moreover, GFA Academy contributed to industry education by hosting masterclasses for a wider audience. In 2023, GFA hosted two masterclass series of 3-5 classes each – one series focusing on the recommendations from the GFA Monitor report and another in collaboration with BBC Storyworks following the release of the digital film series ‘Fashion Redressed’ to navigate the complex landscape of sustainability narratives.
Innovation Forum:
Since 2018, the Innovation Forum has turned words into action by presenting a curated selection of the world’s most promising solutions covering the entire supply chain.
At the Global Fashion Summit 2023: Copenhagen Edition, 26 solution providers presented their solutions spanning the entire supply chain, from smart materials to processing, manufacturing, end-of-use, and traceability and transparency solutions. Over 350 matchmaking meetings were organised as part of the Matchmaking Programme, along with 26 Social Media interviews between the Innovation Host and exhibiting solution providers. Additionally, the event application featured 36 Virtual Exhibition Booths.
At the Global Fashion Summit 2023: Boston Edition, the Innovation Forum showcased 14 solution providers, facilitated more than 90 connections between exhibiting Solution Providers and attending organisations through the GFS Connect programme, and integrated one Innovation Forum member into the programme. Furthermore, 15 Solution Providers hosted Virtual Exhibition Booths.
In 2023, the Innovation Forum comprised a total of 53 solution providers, with 23 solutions exclusively part of the Digital Innovation Forum. Four new solution providers joined the Digital Innovation Forum, while 19 Solution Providers renewed their Digital Innovation Forum agreement. Additionally, three solution providers were part of the BBC series.
Media
In 2023, GFA continued to grow its media engagement and content output with the intention to inspire and educate both B2B and B2C audiences. In September 2023, it launched Fashion Redressed – an online series, produced by BBC Storyworks. Through human-centric storytelling, the series showcases how brands and innovators are developing creative approaches to help the industry become more sustainable. GFA also gained significant traction in media coverage in 2023, following a concerted effort to strengthen press relationships and share timely and relevant news about GFA’s impact and events with journalists. As a result, GFA’s online media reach increased 17% YOY, with 74% more online media articles mentioning GFA. GFA also wrote and distributed more content than ever before by introducing new newsletter formats editorial articles – resulting in 54 newsletters and 54 articles across the year (over 1p/w on average respectively). GFA also grew its reach by launching a new Global Fashion Summit website, resulting in a 44% uplift in Summit website traffic.
Partnerships
GFA is proud to work with a diverse ecosystem of some of the world’s leading organisations. Through these alliances, we spearhead the fashion industry’s journey towards a more sustainable future.
Grantors:
In 2023, GFA secured funding from grantors to develop its impact work even further. H&M Foundation confirmed a three-year partnership, commencing in 2024 that will not only infuse substantial funding of 5M EUR into GFA’s circularity impact initiatives but will also serve as a catalyst for the expansion of the National Circular Fashion Partnership programmes, currently active in Bangladesh, in development in Cambodia and Vietnam, and set to include Turkiye and Indonesia.
Strategic Partners:
GFA continues to engage with our longstanding partners in agenda setting topics with the fashion industry. The Strategic Partner Circle consists of Holding Groups: BESTSELLER, H&M Group, Kering, Nike, Ralph Lauren Corporation and Target.
Associate Partners:
GFA’s Associate Partner group consists of leading brands within the sustainability space that interact with each other and GFA on how to move together toward net positive fashion indsutry. The Associate Partner Circle consists of: Allbirds, Asos, Erdos, GANNI, PVH Corp. , Puma, TAL Apparel, Neiman Marcus Group and Zalando.
Alliances:
GFA continues its alliance with UN Climate Change secretariat (UNFCCC) to accelerate the fashion industry’s climate action. GFA also continues its collaboration with Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). GFA and SAC hosted the SAC Annual Meeting and Global Fashion Summit: Boston Edition 2023 back-to-back in order to complement each organisation’s strengths. GFA is an Affiliate Partner of the SAC. Furthermore, GFA and the Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030 initiated cross-industry learnings to tackle unequal power structures and unlimited use of natural resources within the global jewellery and watch industry.
Thanks to our supporters
The Board of Directors, management team and the employees wish to thank our Strategic Partners, Grantors, Associate Partners, Innovation Forum partners, sponsors and grantors for their generous support.
LoginOpret gratis brugere-conomic integration