Fashioning Rio+20 - changing the world through fashion?

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• Publié par: danish-fashion-institute
• Nombre de lectures: 23
• Langue: English

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Fashioning Rio+20 - changing the world

through fashion?

PR Newswire

COPENHAGEN, June 15, 2012

COPENHAGEN

,

June 15, 2012

/PRNewswire/ --

Gucci, H&M, Katharine Hamnett, Novozymes andthe Danish Minister

for Climate and Energy are among the speakers at the Rio+20

Fashion Summit organised by Danish Fashion Institute. The Danish-

led event showcases innovative solutions for sustainable development

put forward by the global fashion industry.

The fashion industry, one of the world's most polluting and resource-intensive

industries, uses vast amounts of water and energy. Both the production of

clothes and the way we use clothes have a huge impact on our climate.

Washing clothes, for example, at 30° instead of 40° would, simply on a

European scale, mean annual savings equivalent to

Ireland's

entire energy

consumption. Both the industry and consumers, in other words, exert a heavy

influence. According to Danish Minister of Climate, Energy and Building Martin

Lidegaard, one of the things that makes the fashion industry's initiative so

interesting is the opportunity it provides to articulate the options consumers

have to act proactively on climate change:

"

Fashion is a highly visible industry that people can relate to and understand.

The climate debate has a tendency to only deal with technical interventions

such as turbines and heat pumps, but fashion can make everything more

tangible for the individual. The fashion industry also affects social currents and

thus other industries, which is why the fashion industry is unique when it comes

to spreading sustainable change to the rest of society. Meanwhile, fashion is

also great in terms of focusing on our consumption and its effect on the

climate

".

Next stop Rio

As a follow-up to the world's largest summit on sustainable fashion,

Copenhagen Fashion Summit, which was held in

Copenhagen

last month, the

Danish Fashion Institute will be running an official event during the upcoming

United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, in

cooperation with the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building.

Conference speakers include international fashion houses such as Gucci,

Katharine Hamnett and H&M, as well as other members of the industry ready

with specific solutions to the challenges the industry faces, for example

Novozymes. The director of the Danish Fashion Institute, Eva Kruse, who will be

opening the event in Rio, would like to see the green profile

Denmark

has been

known for for many years spread to the fashion industry. She explains:

"

We are proud that Denmark is leading the way in developing a more

sustainable and socially responsible global fashion industry. We will bring,

among others, two major initiatives with us to Rio: one is the fashion industry's

recommendations on how consumers can become involved in driving change in

the fashion industry and the other is the first-ever industry-specific code of

conduct initiative under the UN Global Compact programme. Both initiatives are

products of a Danish-led international process that has significant global

perspectives and may become a landmark for how governments, industries

and communities take action in the future

".

The Danish Fashion Institute event at the Rio+20 summit will take place on 18

th

June 2012

in Rio from

9:00 am to 12:30 pm

at Windsor Barra Hotel. The full

programme is available at:

http://www.nordicfashionassociation.com

For further information:

Johan Kryger, Project Manager

Danish Fashion Institute

[phone]

[e-mail]

Claus Kaae-Nielsen, Head of Press

Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building

[phone]

[e-mail]