Ready to Wear and Apparel Sector is preparing to implement a road map with sustainability axis after the pandemic to return to its successful days.
Sweden, the world's sustainability leader, is preparing to impose taxes on the use of chemicals in apparel products to ensure sustainability in the Fashion industry, by 2021, while promoting recycling. Suppliers who are manufacturing sustainably will be exempt from taxes.
Cecillia Tall, Secretary General of the Swedish Textile and Garment Industrialists Association, who spoke at the online meeting titled “SUSTAINAIBILITY TALKS: Swedish Fashion Brands Working with Sustainable Manufacturers” after Covid-19, organized by the Aegean Ready-wear and Garment Exporters Association and Business Sweden. In her speech, a warning was communicated to the audience on the harmful chemicals applied to the confectionery products since taxes will be imposed by the locals in these cases by 2021.
Underlining that the purpose of the chemical tax, which will be implemented next year, is to protect the environment and ensure sustainability, Tall said, "If you are producing for Swedish companies, they will give you a list of substances or chemicals that you should not use. The textile industry causes a lot of carbon dioxide. We have a reputation in the industry. Get ready for the new system and do not have difficulty in adapting to it. By 2025, the European Union will have a new legislation on textile waste. "
“We Need to Re-Engineer Our Supply Chain”
“We need to re-engineer our supply chain in order to achieve a sustainable structure after the pandemic as the garment industry,” said Sertbaş and shared the following, “At this point, sustainable production in fashion comes to the agenda again. The core belief of the textile and apparel industry is that it is the industry that pollutes our world the most after oil. In order to change this false assumption, we declared 2020 as the “Year of Sustainability”. We bring together many organizations and projects related to sustainability such as URGE project, Global Compact Membership, Fashion Revolution Exhibition, and even the theme of our EIB Fashion Design Contest, which we planned for the 15th this year but had to postpone to a later date due to the pandemic. I believe that this webinar with the theme of “SUSTAINAIBILITY TALKS: Swedish Fashion Brands' Strategies for Working with Sustainable Manufacturers after Covid-19” will shed light on the search for sustainability after our industry's pandemic. When we talk about sustainability, we will find the opportunity to see the way Sweden handles this issue and the approaches of fashion brands to the subject.
Sweden's global giant fashion brand H&M Europe Sustainability Manager Hülya Sevindik Özyiğit noted that they aim to use resources optimally and reduce waste, and this is a process that starts with design in textile production.
Pointing out that they prefer companies with sustainability goals while starting working with new suppliers as H&M, Özyiğit mentioned that they reward innovation efforts and suppliers that produce new products and that are transparent.
‘’Our 2030 Goal is Sustainability”
Explaining that they strive to use recycled materials in the textile industry, Özyiğit said, "Our target for 2030 is that all materials are recycled and sustainable. 60 percent of all our products are made from sustainable sources. We use fabrics with increasingly recycled yarns in denim products. More We are the brand using recycled cotton.We have been collecting products used in H&M stores since 2013. We have targets set by years.We want to obtain our products with 100 percent renewable electricity sources in 2030. We aim to have 100 percent toxic free (no chemical banned products) in 2030. 16 percent want to buy environmentally friendly products. Companies need to be a sustainability agenda. "
“We want to increase cooperation”
Sweden Turkey Trade and Investment Attaché Erkocevic said that they wanted to create a sustainable fashion industry in Sweden and underlined the importance of recycling they aimed for it to undergo circular manufacturing. Emphasizing that digitalization and sustainability are prominent concepts, Erkoçeviç said, "The way to guarantee the future of the fashion industry is going through sustainability. Sweden and Turkish clothing and textiles have been working together for a very long time. Business people in Sweden know that the Turkish textile industry is strong. We know that there are huge opportunities. We want to increase cooperation. We want to prepare B2B (Business-To-Business) meetings. The more sustainable the Turkish textile and garment industry is, the more cooperation will be achieved between Swedish and Turkish companies.’’
