FASHION AND APPAREL TRANSPARENCY

Fashion and Apparel enterprises have increasingly been using social responsibility standards, a variety of measurement indexes, and are more and more activating transparent exchanges of information with consumers about their “sustainable” actions.

What is moving them in these directions? Is it the recognition of our planetary limits and the need for social equity? Is transparency a new marketing tool for differentiation via “premium” price offer strategies?

Or has it been nudged into being by the concrete perspective of transparency regulations that are now mandatory for the EU food business and similar legislation that is now being developed for the Apparel and Fashion industry?

Apart from these questions, the 2014 TDP conference "Communicating Sustainability: The Elephant Speaks" explores the belief that:

Transparency is not only the prerequisite for companies to measure and manage costs and benefits in every step of their value chain creation, but is also a powerful tool for moving beyond conventional marketing.

Transparency is therefore the instrument to create a new paradigm of communication that honestly shares with consumers the impacts and the meaning of apparel and fashion products. 

As such, Transparency is the first step towards sustainability for both business and consumers.

This conference offers an opportunity to listen to and discuss this matter with leaders of companies who have pioneered and worked on this issue for a long time, as well as high level representatives from the EU Commission, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, and other stakeholder organizations.

For more information: Professor Lisbeth Svengren Holm,  lisbeth.svengren_holm@hb.se
Phone: +46 (0)706756516