News > The Foundation sponsors the “Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum 2022” (Venice, October 27-28)
The Italian fashion industry gathers in Venice on October 27-28 for the “Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum 2022,” the first international summit dedicated to a sustainable future for the sector, to launch a shared appeal among key supply chain players to enable this necessary ecological transition.
The event, sponsored among others by Fondazione Venezia Capitale Mondiale della Sostenibilità/Venice Sustainability Foundation, will take place at Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Isola di San Giorgio): two days to understand the present and future of a key sector of the Italian economy through an extensive program of debates, trend analysis, data, market behavior, and best practices. Promoters of the initiative are Confindustria Venezia Area Metropolitana di Venezia e Rovigo and The European House – Ambrosetti, with additional sponsorship from Assocalzaturifici, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, and Sistema Moda Italia (SMI). The main objective of the Forum, which will feature institutions, brands, supply chain professionals, industry and business leaders, and NGOs, is to accelerate a sustainable transition path in a sector currently lacking standardized data and measurement tools.
According to findings by The European House – Ambrosetti, carbon emission estimates for the fashion sector show discrepancies of up to 310% among various sources consulted; similarly, estimates on annual freshwater extraction by companies show variations up to 172% from one another and up to 429% compared to data on water use for denim production.
Against this backdrop of inconsistent data, upon which political and business leaders are called to make key decisions daily, nearly 1,000 European companies in the fashion and luxury sectors face a mandate to publicly report their quantitative sustainability performance annually starting from fiscal year 2023 or, at the latest, 2024, under standards introduced by new European directives. Italy ranks first in Europe by number of companies affected by this deadline – nearly 300 – followed by France with over 130 and Germany with 110, while all other EU countries average around 25 affected companies. These figures confirm that the sustainable transition is a strategic priority for the national fashion industry, which, with a turnover of roughly €100 billion, over 500,000 employees, and more than 60,000 companies, holds both the duty and responsibility to sit at the center of the global industry debate and chart a path toward reducing the environmental, social, and economic impacts generated by this sector.
Europe, moreover, has set the ambitious goal of becoming the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050 and has outlined a roadmap of measures with intermediate targets for 2030. The “Fit for 55” package, approved by the EU in July 2021, for instance, targets a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels by 2030, a rise to 40% in renewable energy share in the energy mix, and a 36% energy efficiency target. Under the Green Deal, which foresees €1,000 billion in investments over the next 10 years for ecological transition, the European Commission adopted a Circular Economy Action Plan in March 2020. The plan focuses on resource-intensive sectors, including the fashion supply chain, placing circularity at the core of achieving the EU climate neutrality goal by 2050.
“Venice Sustainable Fashion Forum 2022” will unfold across two days: the October 27 session titled “Just Fashion Transition” will analyze the environmental and social impacts of the fashion system, giving voice to stakeholders exerting pressure on the system and supply chain representatives, while delivering for the first time the results of a sustainability assessment conducted on Italian fashion supply chain companies. The day will conclude with recommendations and proposals to be presented to Italian and international institutions aimed at fostering a just transition.
The October 28 session titled “The Values of Fashion” will address the most current issues regarding fashion sustainability and supply chain responsibilities. Fashion companies and supply chain partners will engage to assess the sector's current state on sustainability, define new challenges, and map out the path forward. Companies will demonstrate how they are transforming value chain activities through best practices toward a genuinely sustainable industry, discussing the critical challenges met and overcome along with the benefits achieved. The supply chain thus takes center stage in a high-level conference reflecting on progress made so far and ongoing efforts driving the evolution of a sector that remains vital to the global economy. In doing so, the Italian fashion industry steps into a leading international role.
