00:00Plan, source, make, ship, sell.
00:02Each consumer sends about 12 kilos of product to landfill on an annual basis.
00:07There is an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gasses within our industry by 45% by 2030.
00:18Welcome to The Big Question, a series from Euronews where we speak to some of the most
00:23influential people in the world of business.
00:27And today I'm joined in the studio by Colin Brown, the CEO of Cascale,
00:32the global non-profit alliance trying to make the clothing industry better for the planet.
00:38Colin, thank you very much for joining us.
00:40Great to be here, thank you.
00:41First of all, just for our audience as well,
00:44can you just set the context for what Cascale does?
00:47Cascale is a global non-profit alliance that works across the entire consumer goods value chain,
00:54looking to unite manufacturers, brands and retailers in our efforts to
00:58reduce climate change and increase social justice.
01:01Okay, and what percentage of the market does that represent?
01:04We have probably about 50% of the market overall.
01:06We work primarily with sports and fashion, but increasingly we're expanding into other
01:11parts of the industry as well, sporting goods, luggage, other parts of the industry.
01:15The alliance includes manufacturers, brands and retailers and affiliates,
01:19so we have a very broad mix of membership.
01:24And Colin, the fashion and textile industry in Europe,
01:30can you just talk me through the size of the market?
01:32For example, how many pieces of clothing are we as Europeans buying each year?
01:38Well, it's around about 42 pieces.
01:40We estimate it's about 42 pieces of apparel is bought by each consumer on an annual basis.
01:45The bigger concern is the amount that actually goes to the landfill.
01:49We believe that each consumer sends about 12 kilos
01:53of product to landfill on an annual basis, which is significant.
01:56We estimate there are around about 170,000 textile companies in Europe,
02:01and around about 1.7 million people involved in the manufacture of textile.
02:05And in terms of impact this is having on the planet?
02:08Well, we have some figures and we believe our industry is responsible for about
02:13one gigatonne of CO2 emissions on an annual basis, which is
02:17somewhere between 3% and 9%, I think is the figure that is often quoted.
02:21And how far are we from building a sustainable solution?
02:26I think we're a way off, unfortunately.
02:28I spent much of my career in supply chains,
02:30and we've always thought of supply chains as kind of plan, source, make, ship, sell,
02:35which is a very linear kind of process.
02:37But if you think of building a circular supply chain,
02:40it's going to have to be plan, source, make, ship, sell, return,
02:45bring it back into the supply chain.
02:46That last quarter, we've yet to really stand up.
02:49There's legislation in place and being put in place,
02:51which will certainly help do that.
02:53But the industry and society itself needs to figure out
02:56how do we join that last part of the equation.
02:58Until we've figured that out, it's going to be incredibly difficult
03:02for us to build a truly sustainable circular industry.
03:06I think one of the things we have to be careful of is that
03:09we suggest that everything has to be more expensive.
03:13I'm a big believer that if people can make money out of it,
03:17it'll be done a lot quicker.
03:19So working through how can we make sure that anything we do
03:22from a sustainability point of view allows us to still be competitive as an industry
03:26is really important, and not all those solutions have to cost more money.
03:30And Colin, what about, you know, of course,
03:31we have fashion influencers on Instagram and TikTok.
03:35That hunger for fashion doesn't look like it's slowing down.
03:39What's your view on fast fashion and fashion influencers?
03:42The consumers will often dictate what the market needs to produce.
03:45And I think part of the role of organizations and brands themselves
03:48is to communicate the issues that this model perpetrates.
03:51And so I think we encourage brands to be responsible
03:54in the way they think about that.
03:55Industry decarbonisation roadmap is a big one
03:58that we're leading at the moment to try and bring manufacturers together
04:01and brands and affiliates to kind of work on this issue.
04:05So we know that it has to be solved,
04:07but it's not necessarily only going to be reliant on the consumer.
04:10And who are the culprits for perpetuating, you know, the fast fashion?
04:14I'm not sure if there's any culprits.
04:16I think it's just the way the world and the industry has developed
04:19with social media and other things has required
04:22that there was an always on kind of culture that we have out there
04:25that you always want what the next person has.
04:28And one of the challenges we have as an industry
04:30is because supply chain lead times are so incredibly long.
04:34It means the industry has to work much further ahead.
04:37I think as we move towards a more circular, sustainable supply chain,
04:41ultimately, we will unpick that.
04:43And I think we'll get to a more fast moving kind of model.
04:47But the question is, if we're fast moving,
04:49does that mean people buy more often?
04:51And so it's a question.
04:51So it's a bit of a dichotomy that we're going to have to unpick.
04:54Do you think there are any other huge issues with the industry right now?
04:58Having the industry work together to address climate change
05:01is where we feel that there's a huge opportunity.
05:04And we feel that if we can bring the industry together,
05:07there is an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gases
05:09within our industry by 45% by 2030.
05:12We can do it. We know how that needs to be done.
05:1570% of the emissions from our industry comes from the manufacturing of goods,
05:19but we can't abdicate responsibility to addressing that just to the manufacturers.
05:23We need to work across the industry to work through
05:27how do we actually unlock that?
05:28Remember, many of the brands retailers work with the same manufacturers.
05:32And so if they each talk to the manufacturers individually,
05:35the manufacturers cannot be successful
05:37because they're being pulled in so many different directions.
05:39One of the pieces of work that we've done recently
05:42is looking at where the emissions come from at an industry level.
05:46And approximately 80% of the emissions come from around about 10% of the facilities.
05:52And we know if we actually really target that and really address that,
05:56then we can drive meaningful change.
05:57And Colin, can we talk about what else needs to be done
06:00on a policy level in Europe to help promote change in the industry?
06:04Well, both the CSRD and the CSDDD are landmark pieces of legislation,
06:09which we were incredibly excited about.
06:12From the point of view, they start to put in some real targets
06:15and real benchmarks and processes
06:17that holds businesses accountable for addressing the issues.
06:19I think Europe in itself sets the cadence of how these initiatives evolve.
06:25And we were all pretty excited about how they were evolving.
06:28I understand that any legislation can be onerous on businesses,
06:32and we need to find a way in which we ensure they develop
06:35in a more efficient and less onerous way.
06:38But just recently, the omnibus discussions that we're starting to hear more about
06:42is that it does look as if they are looking to water down that legislation.
06:46And that would be a huge mistake.
06:48It's something we're really concerned about,
06:50because we have an opportunity to lead,
06:52and it does feel as if we are abdicating our responsibility
06:56to lead on sustainability.
06:58And so we would encourage the legislators here in Europe to lean into it,
07:02understand that it's difficult,
07:03but all progress depends upon unreasonable men,
07:06I think, as George Bernard Shaw said,
07:07and we need to lean into it.
07:08And as Cascale, we'll continue to hold our members accountable
07:12and work with our members to ensure that they meet
07:14the requirements that we believe are appropriate.
07:17But I would encourage legislators to lean into it
07:19and actually have the courage of their convictions.
07:21Colin, thank you.
07:21And just finally, why do you think forming an alliance like Cascale
07:26is important for achieving these aims in the industry?
07:29We are not going to solve this if we work alone.
07:32These issues can move from being an addition sum
07:34to a multiplication sum if we really work together.
07:36We actually do know how to solve it.
07:38We know how to address it.
07:39The technology is not beyond us.
07:40We know the answers.
07:42The question is, do we have the courage, capacity, and commitment to do it?
07:45The big question.
07:46Colin, thank you very much for joining us on the show.
07:48Thank you very much indeed.
07:49It's been a pleasure.
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