by Paris — Five years ago, a small but significant group of industry stakeholders came together to create Good Paris Fashion with the aim of pushing the Paris-based fashion industry towards more sustainable practices. It had around 10 founding members, including LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Galeries Lafayette, with an initial roadmap to be completed this year before the Olympics.
“We set ourselves the challenge to be the sustainable capital of fashion, and we think we have achieved our mission,” said former fashion journalist Isabelle Lefort, co-founder of Paris Good Fashion, before leaving earlier this week to track achievements and project outline. its roadmap for the next half century. “Now, more than 100 companies are part of the association; our members account for about 60 percent of the sector’s revenue,” said Lefort.
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The aim is to share best practices and concrete initiatives, and to co-create new ideas to allow the industry as a whole to reduce its impact on the environment. The voice of all members, from start-ups to luxury conglomerates, has equal weight, facilitating exchanges on an equal footing. This approach has resulted in about 40 different concrete actions over the past five years, Lefort said. “Working together on specific, concrete issues, we can move the needle for the sector.”
For example, a pilot in the Paris region to reduce and recycle plastic bags and coat hangers at retail resulted in a reduction of 21 tonnes of plastic waste. Members also created a glossary of sustainable fashion with 355 definitions agreed upon by all members to ensure everyone was speaking the same language. Learning from the initiative is available to members and non-members alike through the organization’s website or open source tools. “There are a lot of things that we can increase and share,” Lefort said.
The organization is also supported by the office of the mayor of Paris, the IFM, the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the creative platform Eyes on Talent and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Among its largest corporate members are Chanel, Etam, Kering and Richemont.
Although Lefort believes that the organization has fulfilled its initial ambitions, it now intends to go further, setting out a new roadmap for 2030. One of its first initiatives will be the creation of a so-called “ACT Methodology” for the fashion and luxury sectors. for those built for the energy or paper industries, for example, a framework to help industrial actors with concrete measurement tools to reduce their environmental footprint.
“It is an internationally recognized methodology to measure the credibility of companies’ decarbonisation strategies,” explained Lefort. “It has been done in sectors including energy, paper and this is a first for fashion. Today, around 12 companies are working on this, including LVMH, Chanel, Richemont, Etam, Galeries Lafayette and La Poste. Starting in February, we will launch a public consultation for two months so that all companies in France and abroad can participate. The second part will involve around 15 international companies, in April and May, who will try out the methodology so that it can be made available internationally,” she continued.
This is particularly important, given the new European regulations regarding traceability and sustainability reporting that will make their mark on the fashion players operating across Europe in the next few years.
“We did a survey a year ago on the progress of all our members. In five years, everyone has progressed on eco-design, traceability, etc. But there was no common framework, there was no harmonization,” said Lefort. “Today, traceability and measurement with the ACT Methodology means that everyone must be aligned. If we want to make progress, we need to be able to measure. We need to be able to provide tangible proof of our actions.”
She continued, “In order to convince people, you need to be able to measure the impact of the transition, how much it will cost, what the result will be, and what the added value of the products will be.”
Having completed a questionnaire with members, one major priority for the next five years is to work on inclusiveness, with the possible implementation of training programs to help the industry tackle the issue better.
Another goal for 2030 is to set an example for the rest of the world. “We aim to make Paris an example of a sustainable fashion capital,” said Lefort. Sustainable fashion expert François Souchet, who previously worked with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, joined the organization in January with that in mind. “We need to promote and expand these tools internationally,” said Lefort.
“There is an exceptional dynamism in France, thanks in part to the legislators, who, compared to the EU and the rest of the world, have among the most exciting, and large French companies, with a strong representation in the luxury industry -goods, meaning financial means. and reporting obligations,” Lefort said. “We need to be able to create measurements that are relevant to everyone, not only in France, but internationally. That is why Paris must set an example for him.”
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