Achieving Net Zero Fashion: VCI Launches inaugural Apparel & Footwear Working Group

Bringing climate and apparel experts together to create & share best practices to deliver on Scope 3 commitments and meet ambitious climate targets.

The Value Change Initiative is pleased to announce it launched its Apparel & Footwear Working Group yesterday. This brought together Scope 3 experts and leading textile and fashion organisations including H&M Group, lululemon, Bestseller, Apparel Impact Institute, Better Cotton and Textile Exchange to co-develop actionable, sector-specific guidance & solutions for the industry’s most pressing challenges to reduce emissions in the value chain.

Estimates show that the apparel sector is responsible for 1.025 gigatons CO2 emissions per year – which is expected to at least double by 2030. The majority of these emissions comes from upstream activities such as materials production and processing.  Action to reduce the industry’s GHG emissions is urgently needed, but in a sector with dynamic and fragmented value chains, this proves to be a real challenge.

Tackling Scope 3 (or value chain) emissions is key to the fashion industry becoming Net Zero, but Apparel & Footwear companies have a hard time finding guidance to determine whether they are credibly reporting and claiming the positive impacts they are realising. The Value Change Initiative is the first multi-stakeholder initiative to help companies deliver on Scope 3 commitments and meet their climate targets.

The output of the VCI sector Working Groups is to deliver clear, consistent and sector-specific approach to Scope 3 emission reductions, enabling corporates to credibly account according to the GHG Protocol, report impact up and down their value chains, and show progress towards Science-based Targets.   

The Working Group members will meet throughout 2023 to collectively learn, co-create and test guidance, tools and implementation trajectories to solve practical, sector-specific Scope 3 challenges and achieve ambitious targets. It creates the space and environment and provides the value chain expertise to facilitate co-developing actionable guidance that solve some of the most pressing Scope 3 challenges in the apparel & footwear value chain.

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact us at info@valuechangeinitiative.com