No recession for sustainability?

Being part of the Organic Exchange staff, the question of how the financial and economic recession is affecting the social and environmental policies and practices of brands and retailers comes to mind frequently, especially when meeting with CSR managers, product developers and buyers from our member companies.

I was especially concerned about the success of our Organic and Sustainable Textiles seminar held in Düsseldorf just this week. Would there be enough interest? Would we have enough brands joining? I have to admit it came as quite a surprise to see the overwhelming response from European brands and retailers as we launched the invitation. The seminar was almost overbooked with over 90 people representing around 60 companies from countries such as Germany, The Netherlands, Macedonia, Turkey, Austria, Switzerland and Hong Kong. Stunningly, a greater participation than in most o four previous trainings, with a good number of pressing issues to be addressed, but with a consistent commitment and a growing interest in how to implement environmentally friendly collections and socially responsible programs. The seminar covered topics ranking from the different sustainable cotton options to certification and customer related topics. The marketing session on Wednesday morning was certainly one of the most popular ones, where we tried to identify the ethical consumer for fashion brands. Also the success cases from C&A, Jackpot and Kuyichi raised the participants interest.

As we were told, the seminar offered a good opportunity for networking and learning from each other. These events are also an excellent platform for the OE team to listen to growing concerns and interest, in order to be able to serve the sustainable textile community better. For me in particular, the Düsseldorf seminar proved that, despite the troublesome times, sustainability is here to stay and grow.