I had the immense pleasure of visiting the most bike-friendly city to attend the Copenhagen Fashion Summit this year which is a day devoted to learning and sharing about how global leaders in the fashion industry are trying to move the needle on environmental and social sustainability issues.

Circular economy

There was a big focus on the circular economy (Ellen MacArthur of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation presented) as well as supply chain transparency, collaboration across traditionally competitive business sectors and educating the next generation of designers. The Global Fashion Agenda released the first Pulse of the Fashion Industry Report which is a critical examination of the impacts of the fashion industry on the planet, its people and the global economy.

Free sustainability toolkit

I was honored to be invited to present at the Fashion Educators Summit which was a convening of leaders in sustainable fashion education to share lessons learned and to create the collective “Voice of Academia” on how educators and academic institutions have a critical role to play in shaping the fashion industry toward a sustainable future through their training of future designers. I presented about the Inventing Green Sustainability Toolkit for Innovators that I co-created with VentureWell and that is available for free to educators here.

Image courtesy of Cindy Gilbert