As the decarbonization of textile supply chains worries environmentalists, the delegates at the Planet Textiles Conference in June would learn from apparel industry leaders on how to catalyze investments to support climate goals.
The climate goals include closing the loop on circularity, greenwashing, LCA data collection, and the EU proposal on substantiating claims besides apprising delegates on the progress achieved on the textile microfibre release problem.
Among the speakers would be Vidhura Ralapanawe, executive vice president at Hong Kong-based apparel supplier Epic Group and Richard Wielechowski, senior investment analyst at Planet Tracker They will be joined by Giovanni Zenteno, director of sustainable finance at the Apparel Impact Institute, who would explain how the fashion industry can hit its stated climate targets.
Finance is the main worry of the experts on reducing carbon print from textile operations. Textiles doubt are a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions and the stated target is to cut it by half by 2030. The industry would need billions of dollars in new investments to achieve this aim.
Planet Textiles will take place from 12 – 13 June at ITMA 2023 – the world’s largest international textile and garment technology exhibition – in Milan, Italy, and is being organized by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. It comes four years after the previous edition of this annual event, in Barcelona in 2019, after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brands representatives that will give their input also include Pascal Brun, head of sustainability at H&M, Delman Lee, vice chair, of Hong Kong apparel firm TAL Group; and Sean Cady, vice president, of global sustainability, responsibility, and trade at VF Corporation.
Sophie Mather, founding director at The Microfibre Consortium will look at the impact of textile fiber fragmentation and release on the environment and will ask the question: is this a problem? Other sessions to be presided over by industry experts include ‘steering clear of Toxins and beyond’ and “Circularity for Systemic Change.”
The International Sustainability Conference ‘Planet Textiles’ to guide industry on climate goals
