French Fashion Federation Starts Measuring Its Ecological Impact

 

 

The Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion unveiled two digital tools that allow luxury houses to measure their ecological impact.

 
 

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Fashion is implementing new initiatives to reduce its ecological impact. The latest project comes from the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, FHCM (Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion), which is launching two tools for measuring environmental, social and economic impact to help luxury houses improve their performance in this area. One for the organization of events and the other for the production of collections.

The project started back in 2019 thanks to the support of DEFI, a platform created in 1984 to accelerate and transform the 3,500 French fashion and clothing companies. Aimed at FHCM member brands, who will be provided with tools developed by the British consultancy Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), all free of charge.  Both tools will be ready to operate for this falls’ edition of Paris Fashion Week.

The first one is dedicated to events, ranging from fashion shows to presentations and corresponds to the event value chain. “It offers each participating house the possibility to make this calculation before the organization of its fashion show/ presentation/ showroom and others, as well as to make the best choices with its service providers to reduce its environmental impact and optimise its social impact (micro level)”, stated FHCM.

 
 
 
 
 

PwC combined the expertise of data analytics teams and the PWC Experience Center, to form its sustainable development teams. They will be working closely with the Federation with one common goal; to calculate 120 KPI quantitative and qualitative data. The steering committee, made up of senior executives from LVMH, Kering, Chanel and Hérmes (among others) included Bureau Bétak, the show producer, DLX the press agency and the Palais de Tokyo, where the organization stages Sphere, its incubator for fledgling talent. 

Pascal Morand, execute vice president of the federation unveiled the project on June 4, on the eve of “World Earth Day”: “All of the ecosystem's stakeholders have been involved in its development:

 

"All of the ecosystem's stakeholders have been involved in its development: Houses of all sizes, production agencies, press and communication agencies, modeling agencies, the main places where PFW events take place, institutions. It was developed in 2020, tested in early 2021 and will be fully operational in September 2021.” 

 
 

The second tool is centered around collections and the industrial chain of value. According to FHCM it’s a management tool that provides an overview of a season at the scale of a collection, both in terms of CSR commitment and environmental and social performance. These instruments could be widely used in the fashion and tailoring professions.

The Federation compromised to reduce their impact during Fashion Weeks using ecologic transport and recycling waste, decorations and other materials used for the event in question. It seems that the fashion industry is realising they have to step up their game in order to help taking care of our planet.

 

 +  Words: Ane Briones, Luxiders Magazine 

Journalism graduate | Basque Country based writer

IG: @anebriones