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The Scandinavian Textile Initiative For Climate Action (STICA)
Climate Action Week
for Fashion & Apparel
March 18 - 22, 2024
The Scandinavian Textile Initiative For Climate Action (STICA)
Climate Action Week for Fashion & Apparel
March 18 - 22, 2024
The Paris Agreement aims to hold temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, as recommended by the IPCC. This translates into achieving net-zero emissions by the second half of this century. The fashion and apparel industries currently account for between 2-8% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, depending on which studies are referenced and where industry boundaries are drawn. Given current industry growth projections and trends, the industry will struggle to reduce its emissions inline with the 1,5C pathway unless more progress is made.
We all know the daunting nature of this task. Our progress is too slow and the challenges ahead are many. But we must stay the course. During this week we interrogated the topic from various perspectives, with contributions from global experts and practitioners. We heard from government representatives, policy designers and policy makers, brands and manufacturers, industry organizations and watchdogs, researchers, investors and journalists. We explored what we should keep doing, what we should stop doing and what more we can still do.
You can learn more about the climate impact of the fashion and apparel industry in these reports: Taking Stock of Progress Against the Roadmap to Net Zero (Aii), Fashion on Climate (McKinsey/GFA) and Sustainability and Circularity in the Textile Value Chain (UNEP).
“This was a very important week for learning, inspiration and ideas for action!“
Michael Schragger, Initiative Co-founder & Director, STICA
International Contributors
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Webinar Program
The webinar presentations and conversations from Climate Action Week are now available as recordings for your review. Should you have any questions about the week or the information on this site, please contact Nina at nina@sustainablefashionacademy.org.
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MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2024
March 18, 2024
13.00-14.30 CET
What Gets Measured Gets Managed: But Are We Measuring the Right Things And Are We Measuring Them Right?
The current methods for calculating emissions for fashion and apparel companies and assessing impact and progress have their strengths and weaknesses. Are they sufficiently accurate, effective and fair? If not, how can we improve them and what recommendations can we give to standard setting organizations and policy makers?
March 18, 2024
15.00-16.30 CET
Fibre Production & GHG Emission Reductions: How Important Is What Is Made VS. How It Is Made? Are Natural Fibres and Synthetics Equally Problematic?
Fibre Production (raw material production, material processing and sorting, and fibre prepration) and yarn and fabric production of both natural fibres and fossil-based synthetic fibres contribute to emissions. Some studies estimate that 12% of the industry’s total emissions come from fibre production and around 22% from yarn and fabric production.
TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2024
March 19, 2024
09.30-11.00 CET
We Have Set Science-Based Targets for GHG Reductions, But How Feasible & Realistic Are Our Climate & Energy Goals?
Ambitious targets are necessary, but if they are not currently feasible in the current countries where the majority of current global production takes place, what does this mean for industry decarbonization? During this session experts and practitioners summarize the current state of play when it comes to the potential for energy efficiency and renewable energy in countries where a majority of today’s production takes place and discuss the implications of this analysis for accountability and investment.
March 19, 2024
13.00-14.30 CET
Show Me The Money – For Financing the Transition
Previous analysis from the Apparel Impact Institute and Fashion for Good estimated the price tag, or to reframe, the economic opportunity, for climate action at one trillion dollars. If financing is crucial for enabling climate action, where do we currently stand and what more is needed? How do we make it happen?
March 19, 2024
15.00-16.30 CET
Voluntary Industry Organizations & Climate Initiatives: How Effective Are They & What More Can They Do?
During the past decade a number of global and regional voluntary industry initiatives and members organizations emerged to help accelerate climate action in the apparel and textiles industry, including STICA.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 2024
March 20, 2024
11.30-12.30 CET
Is the Current Climate Strategy, as Currently Defined By Brands, Doomed to Fail? A Select Group of Manufacturers Weigh In
It has become more common in the industry to discuss the power imbalances between buyers and manufacturers and the need for equal partnerships, and that this power imbalance continues in the context of climate action. The argument is that the current approach to climate action by brands and buyers, with science-based targets as their measure of success, shifts the main responsibility to reach climate goals on manufacturers. Is this approach unfair, unrealistic and impractical? Who will pay for these investments? Will US and EU legislation help or hinder progress? Who should pay for climate action? We hear perspectives from a select group of manufacturers, including why some think the current approach is likely to fail and what they think are better strategies.
March 20, 2024
13.00-14.30 CET
The Legislative Race Is On: Legislation & Regulation in the European Union
Finally a consensus is emerging that smart regulation and legislation is essential for ensuring the fashion and apparel industries take responsbility for their environmental and social impacts. The EU is one of the world’s largest markets for fashion and apparel, which means its a big deal when it proposes and begins to implement a significant number of pieces of legislation to end what it calls “Fast Fashion”. So where does climate action fit in this legislative agenda?
March 20, 2024
15.00-16.30 CET
The Legislative Race Is On: Legislation & Regulation in the USA
Finally a consensus is emerging that smart regulation and legislation is essential for ensuring the fashion and apparel industries take responsbility for their environmental and social impacts. In the United States, one of the world’s largets markets for fashion and apparel, a number of pieces of legislation have been adopted or proposed. The New York Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act is currently the only legislative proposal we know of that will require bands to meet their Science-based climate targets or risk being penalised financially. What can we learn from this legislative proposal and where does climate action fit in to textile legislation in the USA overall?
THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2024
March 21, 2024
13.30-14.30 CET
Climate Action Means Transition – But How Do We Ensure This Transition Is Just?
Global warming is already having negative impacts on companies, workers and communities in countries where a majority of global production currently takes place. And recent analysis indicates that these impacts will continue to grow. But while buyers set targets to reduce their emissions, are they also taking responsibility for the impacts on the people and communities impacted today and those who will be impacted in the future?
March 21, 2024
15.00-16.30 CET
Circular Business Models Are Critical for Climate Action – So What Is Preventing Them From Becoming Mainstream?
To reach their greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and to transform their businesses, many companies are relying on replacing revenues from their current business models with circular business models – that is repair, resale or subscription services. The idea is that is they will reduce their revenues from traditional business models while increasing revenues from circular services – and in turn reduce their emissions. But although the hope for these new revenue models exists, in practice they are far from replacing traditional linear take-make-waste models due to weak financial incentives and underoptimised infrastucture for reverse logistics.
MARCH 21, 2024
17.00-18.30 CET
Keeping the Pressure On: Watchdogs & Climate Action
A variety of NGOs and watchdog oriented organizations have rightly been pressuring fashion and apparel companies and other industry actors to be much more accountable when it comes to climate action. What do they want and how will they get it?
FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2024
March 22, 2024
13.00-14.30 CET
Green-growth, Overconsumption & Degrowth: Can Sufficient Emissions Reductions Be Achieved within the Current Paradigm?
The idea that the fashion and apparel industry can continue to grow through a green-growth model has been questioned by many leading thinkers. It is argued that for the apparel and fashion industry to reduce its emissions at the pace and scale required and to operate within the planetary boundaries, overproduction and overconsumption must be stopped. This especially challenging because the dominant economic business model relies on growth, and business growth usually nuetralizes gains in emission reductions. If this is true, what can we do?
March 22, 2024
15.00-16.00 CET
Taking Stock of Climate Action Week – A Conversation between Michael Schragger, STICA, and Ken Pucker, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
As we wrap up the week, Michael Schragger, founder of the Sustainable Fashion Academy and Director of The Scandinavian Textile Initiative for Climate Action (STICA) sits down with Ken Pucker, Professor of Practice at Tufts University. Ken’s credentials include his role as COO at Timberland and, more recently, as a leading independent expert whose analysis cuts clearly through the sustainability noise in fashion and apparel. His opinion pieces can be found in publications such as the Harvard Business Review and The Stanford Social Innovation Review. Ken and Mike will use this opportunity to discuss insights from the week, including voluntary commitments and the role of legislation, the misalignment of incentives (growth) that hinder climate action, the rise of instant fashion made possible by companies like Shein and Temu, circularity, investor pressure, etc. This will surely be a rich conversation to end this important week.
The Scandinavian Textile Initiative for Climate Action (STICA) was established to ensure the fashion and apparel industries in Scandinavia and Europe do their fair share to reduce their emissions and transform the industry for the betterment of people and the planet – well before 2045.
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