The resource was launched during the New York Climate Week on 25 September.
The Fashion CEO Agenda 2025 encourages executives to take action based on GFA's five-priority sustainability framework. The priorities include respectful and secure work environments, better wage systems, resource stewardship, smart material choices, and circular systems.
However, this edition has introduced new priority accelerators. These include innovation, capital, courage, incentives, and regulation.
According to GFA, these accelerators amplify themes from the Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition and are presented as cross-cutting levers to drive rapid, systemic change across all five priorities.
The Fashion CEO Agenda 2025 is divided into two parts. The first one outlines collective ambitions for the sector's future, while the second provides actionable steps for brands and retailers to make immediate progress.
The 2025 edition expands on the goals set out in the 2023 Fashion CEO Agenda, which were shaped by years of stakeholder consultation and endorsed through the Fashion Industry Target Consultation led by GFA and the UN Environment Programme. Two years later, those objectives continue to underpin progress across the industry, said GFA.
New priorities have been added to address issues like fair treatment of migrant workers and inclusive automation strategies that empower workers through reskilling. The focus is said to be squarely on transformative actions that benefit both the planet and its people.
To facilitate implementation, GFA has released additional resources including a toolkit that directs companies to established industry tools, guidelines, and programmes.
The launch of the Fashion CEO Agenda 2025 marks a critical step for fashion executives to align their business strategies with environmental stewardship and social responsibility as they navigate an increasingly complex global landscape.
The report is released at a critical time, halfway through the decade, with under five years left to achieve the UN's goals for sustainable development.
Scientists have also issued warnings that we have just three years to change our actions to prevent worsening global warming.
GFA CEO Federica Marchionni said: "Climate change is the defining certainty in an uncertain global world, impacting all lives and communities. The investments needed to future-proof businesses will keep increasing and the cost of inaction will inevitably become greater than the investments needed to address it.
“This year’s Fashion CEO Agenda provides leaders with a clear path to embed sustainability at the heart of corporate strategy, supported by enabling conditions that make bold action both possible and necessary."
In February this year, GFA launched a non-exhaustive document designed to track the emergence and growth of textile Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes worldwide.
