When: 22 August 2023, 17:00-18:30.
Where: Room 201.
Amidst the rise of globalisation, fashion supply chains have become progressively long and complex – and highly degrative. The industry accounts for between 2-8% of global GHG emissions, generates large quantities of waste due to the short lifespan of products and is resource intensive. Wet processing factories use 0.58 kg of chemical inputs for every 1 kg of fabric produced. These compounds leak into the environment at all phases of the lifecycle, polluting water and soil, even food.
This session organised by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Conservation International (CI) and the Fashion Pact (TFP), seeks to highlight the need for accelerated action on fashion supply chains, examining the role of global public institutions and funding in working with the private sector to improve design, sourcing, production and consumption in the industry. The discussion will generate new ideas and strategies to establish pollution free, nature positive and net-zero supply chains, informing the newly approved Integrated Programme (IP) on Eliminating Hazardous Chemicals from Supply Chains” moving forward.
Welcome Remarks: Anil Sookdeo, Coordinator for Chemicals and Waste at the GEF.
Moderator: Apoorva Arya, Founder and CEO of the Circular Innovation Lab and Coordinating Lead Author for the 7th Global Environment Outlook.
Keynote: Derrick Emsley, Co-Founder and CEO of tentree and veritree.
Panellists:
Ludovic Bernaudat, Head of UNEP’s Knowledge and Risk Unit and development lead for UNEP’s GEF Chemicals and Waste Unit. Ludovic led the Chemicals IP and is working to expand on this with CI and TFP in GEF8.
Helen Crowley, Partner at Pollination and former Head of Sustainable Sourcing and Nature Initiatives at Kering. Helen has over 30 years of experience in biodiversity conservation and corporate sustainability.
Derrick Emsley, Co-Founder and CEO of tentree and veritree. Derrick has co-founded three businesses in the climate and nature space. Today, tentree is one of most sustainable apparel businesses on the planet, planting ten trees for every product sold.
Kristen Nutall, Head of Programmes at TFP. Kristen has over a decade of experience on improving industry sustainability and led the GEF-funded CI project on mitigating biodiversity loss, climate change and ocean pollution.
Yuly Fuentes-Medel, Project Manager for Fibre Technologies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Founder of Value of Science. Yuly is an expert on the future of fabric and a disruptor in the industry.
Sebastian Troëng, Executive Vice President of Conservation Partnerships. Sebastian oversees CI's work on philanthropy, multilateral partnerships and private financing, enabling the scale-up of conservation investments.
