The initiative, named The Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition, is being established with convening support from the World Economic Forum and will collaborate with over 60 signatories, including fashion brands, manufacturers, retailers, and technology firms.
The coalition will seek to aggregate demand for materials and production methods that its founders say can reduce environmental impacts but remain costly, limited in supply or difficult to adopt at commercial scale.
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Its focus includes organic, recycled and next-generation fibres, as well as manufacturing technologies intended to cut water use, chemical inputs and emissions.
In addition, The Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition will develop financing structures with the World Economic Forum.
The Climate Pledge said the structures intend to combine de-risking by development finance institutions with private investment, helping suppliers and material innovators secure funding where longer-term demand commitments are available.
A new Fashion Coalition Lever Library will also give members guidance on more than 100 established and emerging interventions, covering materials by fibre type and a directory of innovators.
The library was developed in consultation with more than 30 brands and suppliers, said the coalition.
The partnership will also draw on Canopy’s Next Gen Now programme to connect participating companies with next-generation fibre producers and technologies considered ready for commercial adoption.
Amazon chief sustainability officer Kara Hurst said: “Fashion has no shortage of ambition on sustainability. People are already looking for more sustainable options when they shop, and now the industry needs to deliver at scale. Through The Climate Pledge, we’re bringing together more than 60 fashion and retail brands, manufacturers, and innovators to help make that happen.”
The coalition said it would use experience from production-stage projects to inform environmental policymaking. It is targeting interventions earlier in the product lifecycle, rather than concentrating solely on the reuse, recycling or disposal of garments.
Fashion-sector Climate Pledge signatories include Selfridges, Vestiaire Collective, Brooks Running, Circ, unspun, Another Tomorrow and Anna Sui.
Canopy founder and executive director Nicole Rycroft said: “Transitions of this scale don’t happen brand by brand; they happen when an industry moves together. By diversifying fashion’s fibre basket with emerging Next Gen materials, this coalition builds more resilient supply chains, reduces sourcing risk, and keeps vital forests standing.”
