Explore how the Sustainable Fashion Collaboration, a national multi-sectoral platform, is creating ethical and sustainable fashion in Brazil.
The challenge
The fashion value chain in Brazil, as in other countries, faces social, economic and environmental sustainability challenges.
These challenges include:
- Labour issues and working conditions
- Social inequalities
- Unsustainable consumption patterns
- Impacts along the product life cycle
- Quality of education and training
- Use of technology
- Predominant business model
The approach
Bringing together 40 leaders in Brazil, among them garment workers, retail giants, the public sector, academia, associations and unions, institutes and foundations, international organisations, civil society organisations, media and others, Reos Partners has supported a process in which participants are prototyping initiatives with systemic-level impact focused on the challenges listed above.
Transformation
The results of the Sustainable Fashion Collaboration / Colabora Moda Sustentável include new and strengthened relationships and partnerships between the different stakeholders in the supply chain, a shared commitment to addressing common concerns such as sustainability, fair working conditions, and reduction of gender, ethnicity and class inequalities in the sector, tested solutions for the core challenges, financial mechanisms including the creation of a fund to support SMEs in the fashion industry to survive and thrive, and a resilient platform for collaboration.
22 initiatives have been prototyped, of which 9 received seed funding and 3 impact businesses were provided mentoring. As part of a public call, 175 solutions and impact businesses that address the challenges in the fashion industry were mapped, 10 were selected and integrated into the lab and 3 were awarded.
