Our 2010 Annual Conference on sustainability redefined and truly energized this network. It will happen again May 3-5 at the 2020 update on sustainability. Gen Z demands nothing less of us.
Now, about the following article - it is one of the most thunderous and right things I've read in a long time. I'll tell you one massive supply chain that's not 'fragmented' - The Americas, the AAPN, the 200 companies who's cumulative interaction about every major issue we face has been ongoing ahead of the curve for many years.
If this article and this network inspires you, bring your passion to our Annual Conference - https://www.aapnetwork.net/2020-pro-americas-annual-conference
I read this in 1990: HBR, 1990, WHO ARE THEY? “.....it was not the size of the companies in Taiwan that mattered, it was how they organized industrially that gave them a competitive advantage.” For 25 years, this little quote has driven me and us. We have worked to make us competitive the way Asia is - by being organized industrially, working together, by connecting a net that works
Mike
P.S Please take the time to read the article that follows, it really is worth the time.
H&M made its former sustainability chief its CEO. Now it wants to help other fashion houses become sustainable—for a fee
Fortune: March 4, 2020
Sweden’s Hennes & Mauritz, one of the world’s top three fashion retailers, has been on a sustainability kick in recent years. Now it wants to share its progress with rivals—for a price.
In one of its first major moves since appointing former sustainability chief Helena Helmersson as CEO in January, H&M on Wednesday launched an initiative called Treadler that will give other companies access to H&M’s global supply chain and even help them with product development.
H&M’s aim here is—in the words of Treadler managing director Gustaf Asp—to “utilize the full potential of H&M Group’s extensive investments and progressive sustainability work by catering to clients’ needs and contributing to driving long-term growth for H&M Group, while driving change in our industry.”
The company is not providing many details, but said Treadler’s clients will be able to draw on its expertise and its established supplier partnerships. A spokesperson also said some “midsize” companies had expressed a demand for services such as these.
There is certainly a need out there for sustainable supply-chain expertise and access. This is an industry that, according to United Nations estimates, may be responsible for as much as a tenth of the world’s carbon emissions. Almost three-quarters of its output ends up burned or dumped in landfill. Big investors are increasingly calling for fashion houses to be able to demonstrate accurate monitoring of their supply chains, in order to fix these problems.
But, as Zilingo CEO Ankiti Bose wrote for Fortune last year, the supply chain’s fragmentation makes it difficult and overly expensive for smaller fashion brands—who lack serious economies of scale—to produce environmentally and socially responsible garments. Read More