‘That would be a huge mistake’, fashion alliance fears ‘watering down’ of environmental legislation
Cascale CEO Colin Browne emphasises the importance of the textile and fashion industry working together, through brands, manufacturers and retailers, to address climate change.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/04/07/that-would-be-a-huge-mistake-fashion-alliance-fears-watering-down-of-environmental-legisla
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Cascale CEO Colin Browne emphasises the importance of the textile and fashion industry working together, through brands, manufacturers and retailers, to address climate change.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/04/07/that-would-be-a-huge-mistake-fashion-alliance-fears-watering-down-of-environmental-legisla
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:00Plan, source, make, ship, sell.
00:02Each consumer sends about 12 kilos of product to landfill on an annual basis.
00:07There is an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gasses within our industry by 45% by 2030.
00:18Welcome to The Big Question, a series from Euronews where we speak to some of the most
00:23influential people in the world of business.
00:27And today I'm joined in the studio by Colin Brown, the CEO of Cascale,
00:32the global non-profit alliance trying to make the clothing industry better for the planet.
00:38Colin, thank you very much for joining us.
00:40Great to be here, thank you.
00:41First of all, just for our audience as well,
00:44can you just set the context for what Cascale does?
00:47Cascale is a global non-profit alliance that works across the entire consumer goods value chain,
00:54looking to unite manufacturers, brands and retailers in our efforts to
00:58reduce climate change and increase social justice.
01:01Okay, and what percentage of the market does that represent?
01:04We have probably about 50% of the market overall.
01:06We work primarily with sports and fashion, but increasingly we're expanding into other
01:11parts of the industry as well, sporting goods, luggage, other parts of the industry.
01:15The alliance includes manufacturers, brands and retailers and affiliates,
01:19so we have a very broad mix of membership.
01:24And Colin, the fashion and textile industry in Europe,
01:30can you just talk me through the size of the market?
01:32For example, how many pieces of clothing are we as Europeans buying each year?
01:38Well, it's around about 42 pieces.
01:40We estimate it's about 42 pieces of apparel is bought by each consumer on an annual basis.
01:45The bigger concern is the amount that actually goes to the landfill.
01:49We believe that each consumer sends about 12 kilos
01:53of product to landfill on an annual basis, which is significant.
01:56We estimate there are around about 170,000 textile companies in Europe,
02:01and around about 1.7 million people involved in the manufacture of textile.
02:05And in terms of impact this is having on the planet?
02:08Well, we have some figures and we believe our industry is responsible for about
02:13one gigatonne of CO2 emissions on an annual basis, which is
02:17somewhere between 3% and 9%, I think is the figure that is often quoted.
02:21And how far are we from building a sustainable solution?
02:26I think we're a way off, unfortunately.
02:28I spent much of my career in supply chains,
02:30and we've always thought of supply chains as kind of plan, source, make, ship, sell,
02:35which is a very linear kind of process.
02:37But if you think of building a circular supply chain,
02:40it's going to have to be plan, source, make, ship, sell, return,
02:45bring it back into the supply chain.
02:46That last quarter, we've yet to really stand up.
02:49There's legislation in place and being put in place,
02:51which will certainly help do that.
02:53But the industry and society itself needs to figure out
02:56how do we join that last part of the equation.
02:58Until we've figured that out, it's going to be incredibly difficult
03:02for us to build a truly sustainable circular industry.
03:06I think one of the things we have to be careful of is that
03:09we suggest that everything has to be more expensive.
03:13I'm a big believer that if people can make money out of it,
03:17it'll be done a lot quicker.
03:19So working through how can we make sure that anything we do
03:22from a sustainability point of view allows us to still be competitive as an industry
03:26is really important, and not all those solutions have to cost more money.
03:30And Colin, what about, you know, of course,
03:31we have fashion influencers on Instagram and TikTok.
03:35That hunger for fashion doesn't look like it's slowing down.
03:39What's your view on fast fashion and fashion influencers?
03:42The consumers will often dictate what the market needs to produce.
03:45And I think part of the role of organizations and brands themselves
03:48is to communicate the issues that this model perpetrates.
03:51And so I think we encourage brands to be responsible
03:54in the way they think about that.
03:55Industry decarbonisation roadmap is a big one
03:58that we're leading at the moment to try and bring manufacturers together
04:01and brands and affiliates to kind of work on this issue.
04:05So we know that it has to be solved,
04:07but it's not necessarily only going to be reliant on the consumer.
04:10And who are the culprits for perpetuating, you know, the fast fashion?
04:14I'm not sure if there's any culprits.
04:16I think it's just the way the world and the industry has developed
04:19with social media and other things has required
04:22that there was an always on kind of culture that we have out there
04:25that you always want what the next person has.
04:28And one of the challenges we have as an industry
04:30is because supply chain lead times are so incredibly long.
04:34It means the industry has to work much further ahead.
04:37I think as we move towards a more circular, sustainable supply chain,
04:41ultimately, we will unpick that.
04:43And I think we'll get to a more fast moving kind of model.
04:47But the question is, if we're fast moving,
04:49does that mean people buy more often?
04:51And so it's a question.
04:51So it's a bit of a dichotomy that we're going to have to unpick.
04:54Do you think there are any other huge issues with the industry right now?
04:58Having the industry work together to address climate change
05:01is where we feel that there's a huge opportunity.
05:04And we feel that if we can bring the industry together,
05:07there is an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gases
05:09within our industry by 45% by 2030.
05:12We can do it. We know how that needs to be done.
05:1570% of the emissions from our industry comes from the manufacturing of goods,
05:19but we can't abdicate responsibility to addressing that just to the manufacturers.
05:23We need to work across the industry to work through
05:27how do we actually unlock that?
05:28Remember, many of the brands retailers work with the same manufacturers.
05:32And so if they each talk to the manufacturers individually,
05:35the manufacturers cannot be successful
05:37because they're being pulled in so many different directions.
05:39One of the pieces of work that we've done recently
05:42is looking at where the emissions come from at an industry level.
05:46And approximately 80% of the emissions come from around about 10% of the facilities.
05:52And we know if we actually really target that and really address that,
05:56then we can drive meaningful change.
05:57And Colin, can we talk about what else needs to be done
06:00on a policy level in Europe to help promote change in the industry?
06:04Well, both the CSRD and the CSDDD are landmark pieces of legislation,
06:09which we were incredibly excited about.
06:12From the point of view, they start to put in some real targets
06:15and real benchmarks and processes
06:17that holds businesses accountable for addressing the issues.
06:19I think Europe in itself sets the cadence of how these initiatives evolve.
06:25And we were all pretty excited about how they were evolving.
06:28I understand that any legislation can be onerous on businesses,
06:32and we need to find a way in which we ensure they develop
06:35in a more efficient and less onerous way.
06:38But just recently, the omnibus discussions that we're starting to hear more about
06:42is that it does look as if they are looking to water down that legislation.
06:46And that would be a huge mistake.
06:48It's something we're really concerned about,
06:50because we have an opportunity to lead,
06:52and it does feel as if we are abdicating our responsibility
06:56to lead on sustainability.
06:58And so we would encourage the legislators here in Europe to lean into it,
07:02understand that it's difficult,
07:03but all progress depends upon unreasonable men,
07:06I think, as George Bernard Shaw said,
07:07and we need to lean into it.
07:08And as Cascale, we'll continue to hold our members accountable
07:12and work with our members to ensure that they meet
07:14the requirements that we believe are appropriate.
07:17But I would encourage legislators to lean into it
07:19and actually have the courage of their convictions.
07:21Colin, thank you.
07:21And just finally, why do you think forming an alliance like Cascale
07:26is important for achieving these aims in the industry?
07:29We are not going to solve this if we work alone.
07:32These issues can move from being an addition sum
07:34to a multiplication sum if we really work together.
07:36We actually do know how to solve it.
07:38We know how to address it.
07:39The technology is not beyond us.
07:40We know the answers.
07:42The question is, do we have the courage, capacity, and commitment to do it?
07:45The big question.
07:46Colin, thank you very much for joining us on the show.
07:48Thank you very much indeed.
07:49It's been a pleasure.