Sessions

Achieving economic growth and sustainable development requires that we urgently reduce our ecological footprint by changing the way we produce and consume goods and resources. Encouraging industries, businesses and consumers to reduce, recycle and reuse waste is equally important, as is supporting developing countries to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption by 2030.

The world is changing fast: by 2050, the world population will reach 9.5 billion, 70 per cent of which will live in resource-intensive urban areas. Three billion middle class consumers will join the global economy by 2040.

To keep up with these pressing demographic challenges, it is critical that we decouple economic growth from resource use. This requires going beyond "business as usual" and catalyzing the transition to a circular economy: a loop system that delivers better economic, societal, and environmental outcomes by ensuring products (such as clothes) re-enter the economy after use and never end up as waste. To make this happen, we need to accelerate our transition to a circular economy, at pace and scale. This requires an all hands, on deck approach, with SDG #12 providing us the North Star to aspire to.

Featuring special guest contributors, we focussed our live, online discussion on ways to accelerate our transition to a circular economy – at pace and scale – inside and outside the fashion industry.

The event comprised of two sessions, scheduled to cover different time zones. We focussed on the same topics in both sessions to ensure the event allowed for a truly global discussion. All sessions featured special guest contributors and were moderated by GlobeScan CEO Chris Coulter and GlobeScan Associate Director, Perrine Bouhana.