During Easter, the Hot or Cool Institute launched a series of policy briefs on resizing the fashion system, known as the SAFE (Sufficiency Approaches to Fashion and the Environment) project. This is a transformative policy mix with interventions that address each of the structural lock-ins driving overproduction and overconsumption in the fashion sector.
Sufficiency Approaches to Fashion and the Environment (SAFE)
Klepp and Tobiasson have contributed to this launch, through participating in a meeting in Brussels alongside FIVH as the other Norwegian contributor and as selected reviewers of one of the policy briefs related to the fiber market.
This specific brief argues the connection between synthetic fibers and overproduction, and thus for reducing the plasticization of textiles. This has been a central element in the Wasted Textiles project and is also an important ingredient in the feedback on the EU’s planned Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation that Klepp and Tobiasson have just delivered (link). It is possible to boil the discussion about apparel and the environment down to two main perspectives, where reduction (of quantity and plastic) is opposed to a growth perspective that argues for the growth in lifespan and recycling and more “green” products, where plastic is largely perceived as a green alternative.
The Hot or Cool institute shows a clear position in this debate with its new policy briefs. We applaud this.