Prince of Wales's sustainability task force unveils manifesto, regeneration project

By

Sandra Halliday

Translated by
Anne SCHILLING

Published
Apr 20, 2022

The Prince of Wales’s Sustainable Markets Initiative Fashion Task Force on Wednesday unveiled a Manifesto for Regenerative Fashion, which it says is “a commitment to putting the fashion industry on a more regenerative path”.

It starts with a €1 million investment programme in the Himalayas “to restore wildlife and sustainable farming to this degraded landscape”.

It also aims to recover traditional textile craft skills in order to “enhance the local cashmere, cotton and silk economies while addressing global challenges related to climate change and biodiversity loss”. 

Work on the project will begin next month with help on the ground from Reforest Action and the Balipara Foundation. 

The Task force, chaired by Yoox founder Federico Marchetti, said the manifesto has been developed in partnership with the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA) that’s led by scientist Marc Palahi.

And task force members “are committing their brands to a progressive shift towards Regenerative Fashion – a circular bio-based industry that is inclusive, climate and nature-positive, using newly created or restored regenerative landscapes as the basis for circular bio-economy value chains”. 

Members include leadership from big names such as Burberry, Zalando, Chloé, Armani, Selfridges, Vestiaire Collective, Mulberry, Stella McCartney and more.

It’s the second big move by the task force and comes on the heels of last October’s launch of a Digital ID system. This “transformational technology” uses data to inform customers of the sustainability credentials of their clothing purchases and to “facilitate the delivery of circularity at scale”.  

Of the new manifesto and its first project, Marchetti said: “The Regenerative Fashion Manifesto is another concrete step towards creating a much more sustainable fashion industry.  It is not simply empty words, the manifesto comes with a concrete €1 million project for the degraded landscapes of the Himalayas attached. This project will serve as a blueprint for what can be done to shift the fashion industry towards a more equitable, nature-positive future.”

The group added that the Himalayan Regenerative Fashion Living Lab “seeks to demonstrate the potential of regenerative fashion to restore harmony between local communities, nature and the environment while creating sustainable fashion value chains”.