In precisely six months from today, the international top summit on sustainability and social responsibility in the fashion industry, Copenhagen Fashion Summit, will be held. The conference takes place on the one year anniversary of the worst tragedy in the history of clothing manufacturing, which cost more than 1,100 people their lives.
Copenhagen Fashion Summit takes place in exactly half a year, on April 24, 2014, marking the one year anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory accident in Bangladesh, which cost 1,129 factory workers their lives and left another 2,515 wounded. Since the catastrophe, a long line of initiatives have been set in motion. First and foremost with a focus on improving safety and working conditions for the employees in Bangladesh’s thousands of clothing factories, but also to promote greener manufacturing.
But the road ahead is still long. And not just for Bangladesh, but for the world as a whole. The list of the fashion industry’s social, ethical and environmental challenges is vast. But fortunately, in large parts of the fashion industry there is a strong will to effect change, something the international event Copenhagen Fashion Summit is testimony to.
Eva Kruse, CEO of Danish Fashion Institute, says: “The factory accident in Bangladesh is one among many terrible examples of the fashion industry’s dark side. It affected me deeply, and it reminds me of the importance of addressing both social and environmental challenges through our biennal international event, Copenhagen Fashion Summit.”
Copenhagen Fashion Summit is the world’s largest and most significant event on sustainability and social responsibility in the fashion industry under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. It will be held for the third time in the spring of 2014, this time with the theme ”Solutions”.
With prominent speakers such as Vanessa Friedman from Financial Times, Marie-Claire Daveu from Kering and Livia Firth from Green Carpet Challenge, the coming Copenhagen Fashion Summit will highlight the global fashion industry’s most innovative solutions to its critical environmental, social and ethical challenges.