DESIGN ITALY EDITORIAL by Ranieri: Sustainable Fashion, the positive side of the pandemic

The consumer increasingly cares about sustainability and ESG issues. Read Ranieri's editorial and find out how the pandemic has helped raise this awareness in the fashion industry as well.

There is a link between sustainable fashion and pandemic. It may not seem so intuitive at first glance, but in fact it is there. And it is a link that can also generate a shared positive impact. The trigger is easier than expected: more time at home to shop online during the lockdown phases has broadened the selection criteria of consumers who are progressively more focusing on ESG issues in their purchasing preferences. This is true even within those segments that are seemingly less linked to sustainability issues as, in fact, the fashion world might appear. 

Research conducted by Trustpilot, one of the most established online review platforms, shows that 80% of consumers on a global scale now favour companies that have a greater focus on ESG issues. In Italy, the proportion is even more significant: 92% of the sample in our country is ready to stop buying from a fashion company that is not able to respect ESG standards. 

Nor is there any lack of correlation between the public and private sectors. The industry's goal, in order to be able to talk about sustainable fashion in all respects, is to align with the guidelines sourced from the Paris Agreements. Projections currently show that the fashion industry will produce around 2.7 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2030, more than 4% of global emissions. The first official step on this road has been the Fashion Pact, a document signed to date by over 60 fashion industry players at global level (i.e. equal to about one third of the sector's overall turnover) that focuses on three shared fundamental goals: halting global warming, restoring biodiversity and protecting the oceans. Without neglecting a long-term view of the basic objective: to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Ranieri