PVH Corp. has plans to advance its own—and the apparel industry’s—transition to a sustainable operating model based on circular economy principles by joining three key initiatives.
For one, PVH has joined the Global Fashion Agenda, Fashion for Good and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Make Fashion Circular Initiative, recognizing its role in moving the apparel industry in a positive direction. One of the world’s largest apparel companies, operating brands like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Van Heusen, Speedo, Warner’s and Izod, PVH said collaborating with these organizations will bring about opportunities to reduce waste and pollution in apparel supply chains.
“These three organizations are all focused on innovation, collaboration and system change, which is the foundation of our corporate responsibility strategy at PVH,” Melanie Steiner, chief risk officer at PVH Corp., said, adding that the new partnerships will “support the move to a truly sustainable industry.”
Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) is a non-profit initiative founded in 2016 with the goal of setting a common agenda for focused industry efforts on sustainability in fashion. Tommy Hilfiger was PVH’s first business to sign the GFA 2020 Circular Fashion System Commitment in 2017.
PVH has now signed the commitment on behalf of all its businesses, meaning it has made a pledge to set specific targets for 2020 and report on progress annually. The pledge addresses four areas: designing for circularity, increasing the volume of used garments collected, increasing the volume of used garments resold and increasing garments made from recycled post-consumer textile fibers.
Related Stories
Fashion for Good (FFG) is a global platform for sustainable innovation that provides start-ups access to the funding and expertise to drive a shift to more sustainable production methods. The FFG Innovation Hub works to accelerate early stage companies and provides support to companies on the path to sustainability to achieve scale.
PVH will join FFG as a principal partner, which includes helping to drive systemic change in the fashion industry, access to the FFG Experience and a board seat. As a principal partner, PVH will also play a leading role in setting FFG’s innovation agenda, defining focus areas, participating in the selection of new innovators, and providing expertise and mentorship to circular apparel startups.
Since its founding in 2010, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has been focused on working with businesses, government and academia to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. The Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular Initiative, which launched in 2017, brings together stakeholders in the fashion industry to adopt a circular vision by reimagining the current take-make-dispose model.
The goal of the initiative is to establish a new fashion system based on three circular economy principles: business models that keep clothes in use, materials that are renewable and safe, and solutions that transform used clothes into new clothes. As a core partner and member of the initiative’s advisory board, PVH said it will work to address issues that lead to preventable pollution and waste in the industry, and deliver solutions to meet shifting global demands and expectations.