In on-going discussions about who is responsible for bearing the cost of sustainability investments in the supply chain, one issue emerges repeatedly: that there are power imbalances between buyers and manufacturers and that more equal partnerships are needed if manufacturers are going to be able to invest in more sustainable solutions. It is therefore not surprising that this debate continues in the context of climate action. A growing group of stakeholders argue that the current approach to climate action by brands and buyers shifts the main responsibility to reach climate goals on manufacturers, and that this approach is not only unfair, but unrealistic and ineffective. Michael invited Dr. Vidhura Ralapanawe, Executive Vice President for Innovation and Sustainability at the Epic Group, Saqib Sohail, Responsible Business Lead at Artistic Milliners, and Kim van der Weerd, representing the newly launched Fashion Producer Collective, to discuss if and how this debate has evolved during the past year, what they see as the main problems with the current approach, and why they believe a paradigm shift is needed, moving from a brand directed manufacturer executed model of climate action to a manufacturer driven brand supported model.
Fashion’s climate strategies are failing because they weren’t designed with manufacturers. They’re supposed to execute plans they didn’t help create.
We need a complete ecosystem shift. Until then, manufacturers alone can’t carry the climate burden for the entire value chain.
