Leadership & Sustainability – Karin EkbergLeadership & Sustainability – Karin EkbergLeadership & Sustainability – Karin EkbergLeadership & Sustainability – Karin Ekberg
  • Home
  • Solutions
    • SAC services
    • Consulting
    • Empowerment
    • Sustainable Business Models
    • Software & Tools
    • Benefits
    • References
  • Webinars & Trainings
  • About us
    • Our Team
    • Career
  • Contact
    • Appointment Booking
  • Blog
  • Shop

Sustainability Reflections from ISPO 2016

    Home Blog Sustainability Reflections from ISPO 2016
    NextPrevious
    Sustainability Reflections ISPO2016

    Sustainability Reflections from ISPO 2016

    By Karin Ekberg | Blog | 0 comment | 5 February, 2016 | 0

    Outdoor industry, sports and fashion professionals are asking themselves a lot of questions. Questions like: how risky are chemicals used in durable water repellency for outdoor products? Does Greenpeace have a message and a case for the outdoor industry? Which criteria do you need to follow in order to develop a truly open sustainability standard or sustainability rating approach? Why can an open data approach be dangerous? Does every organization need to develop its own sustainability standard and rating approach? If all organizations do that, which one’s example should you follow? ISPO 2016 has some answers, or at least some data, to inform these questions. Here we offer sustainability reflections from ISPO 2016.

    Last week more than 80,000 industry professionals from some 120 countries came to ISPO 2016. Hosted in Munich, the event is the world’s largest sports business exhibition, held from January 24 to 27. ISPO is always a great opportunity for managers and sustainability professionals from the outdoor, sporting goods and fashion sectors to come together and discuss different sustainability topics. In this article we will discuss some of the topics covered in the different sustainability sessions organized by Pamela Ravasio at the European Outdoor Group, including:

    • Durable Water Repellency (DWR) and Perfluorinated Compounds (PFC)
    • Greenpeace’s latest report about DWR, which targets outdoor brands
    • How to develop a truly open standard
    • Open Data
    • The divergence between different approaches to standards and ratings in the apparel sector
    • How Leadership & Sustainability can help navigate the veritable jungle of standards out there

    Durable Water Repellency, DWR

    Stefan Posner from Swerea provides important insights

    Durable water repellency has become a controversial topic ever since the use of so-called “long-chain Perfluorinated Compounds” was criticized due to the toxicity with which such PFCs afflict on both humans and the environment. In the session about DWR organized by European Outdoor Group Stefan Posner of Swerea, an excellent presentation about current research related to chemicals used for DWR was exposited. Posner explained differences between water repellency and soil repellency, and why soil repellency may only be needed in extreme circumstances. One such circumstance would be workwear. However, every so-often outdoor products are treated with the purpose of attaining good soil repellency in addition to water repellency. But Posner maintains this is unnecessary, as durable water repellency is easier to achieve through alternatives to long chain PFCs, or even with chemistries that do not contain any perfluorinated chemicals at all. Posner went on to describe different PFC and non-PFC chemistries, about what research has been done and shown results, and the research that has been done that demonstrates knowledge gaps. The takeaway was that there is still a lot of research required, both at the university level and through research organizations – not to mention within the brands themselves.

    Greenpeace Publishes a New Report Related to DWR / PFC

    The DWR presentation was held in the wake of Greenpeace publishing their report about DWR/PFC, “Leaving Traces – the hidden hazardous chemicals in outdoor gear.” Greenpeace says that out of 40 tested products, only 4 were free of the perfluorinated chemicals or polyfluorinated compounds investigated—at least, according to the detection limits applied. With the exception of the Norwegian limit, Greenpeace does not relate the concentrations detected to the actual legal limit in a finished product. Their meter is the limit at which any perfluorinated chemicals or polyfluorinated compounds are detected, which is lower than the legal limit.

    Further Reading on DWR and PFCs

    You can read more about Durable Water Repellency (DWR) and Perfluorinated Chemicals (PFCs) here:

    • “Durable Water and Soil repellent chemistry in the textile industry – a research report” is a study made by Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC), European Outdoor Group (EOG) and Outdoor Industry Association (OIA).
    • “Outdoor jackets with durable water repellent finish: a consumer & brand perspective on product features, usability & product aftercare” is another study ZDHC, EOG and OIA put together with De Montfort University (School of Fashion & Textiles) and the German Sporting Goods Association. The study examines consumer perspectives on durable water repellency and perfluorinated chemicals.
    • “Ask the Innovators: How Green is your raincoat?” This is a discussion the American Chemical Society organized online about DWR and PFC on January 27, 2016. The contributors to the discussion were Stefan Posner, Swerea, Robert Buck, Chemours, Matt Dwyer, Patagonia, and Philippa Hill, University of Leeds.

    Being Open About Standards and Data – Sustainability Reflections

    What does “open” mean in relation to standards?

    Dr. Marcus M. Dapp, Executive Director of the Institute of Public Information Management (IPIMA) at Fortiss, made a presentation assessing the openness of a sustainability standard with the help of 10 criteria:

    • Open meeting
    • Consensus
    • Due Process
    • One World [1]
    • Open IP Rights [2]
    • Open Change
    • Open Documents
    • Open Interface
    • Open Access
    • On-going support

    These criteria are indeed quite challenging, and it would be interesting to know how organizations that develop sustainability standards would rate themselves according to them. Regardless, the list is great to use whenever you wish to ensure the highest level of participation and transparency. Your degree of openness can then be paired with your level of quality and voilà, now you can assess different standards authoritatively. A great example can be seen in a matrix form. Given the high activity level that comes with developing standards worldwide, the above-described approach is quite helpful. If you are a standard developer, ask yourself whether or not you should apply these criteria.

    Open Data

    The next topic that Dr. Marcus M. Dapp covered triggered a good discussion with the audience. The topic was “open data,” i.e. data generated and posted on public websites. Such data can be posted by governments, companies, organizations or any other data-collecting entity. For example, the US government open data website, and its complimentary UK counterpart give users access to a substantial volume of information. Just take a look at the US ecosystems site.

    Beyond governments, there are certainly a variety of other operations that could, and perhaps should, be covered with open data: corporations, supply chains, production data, product data, et cetera. Openoil.net hosts most of the world’s publicly-available concession data, with some 20,000 concessions, 2,000 companies and 69 countries. Sustainability rating and sustainability standards would both be easier to work with if there was open data to use in the construction of policy. Dr. Marcus M. Dapp went on to describe 10 open data principles:

    • Completeness
    • Primacy
    • Timeliness
    • Ease of physical and electronic access
    • Machine readability
    • Non-discrimination
    • Use of commonly owned standards
    • Open Licensing
    • Permanence
    • No usage costs

    These items definitely facilitated a discussion toward the end of his presentation, several extremely important questions being:

    • What about intellectual property rights?
    • What if the data is used for criminal acts?

    There was certainly interest in open data, but also resistance among some participants. It is a controversial portion of ISPO 2016, no doubt, but no less crucial because of it.

    Roundtable: Transparent Sustainability Performance  and Sustainability Rating Tools

    Participants and topics
    The next EOG session covered a roundtable discussion hosted by Dr. Marcus M. Dapp regarding sustainability performance. After all, sustainability rating is definitely related to sustainable performance! You’ve got to follow things like the Higg Index, an apparel and footwear standard that businesses use that helps them self-assess social and environmental sustainability in a given supply chain. Two groups were invited to the roundtable discussion about transparent sustainability performance tools like the Higg Index: one with representatives from organizations developing and applying indices—i.e. performance tools—and one with representatives from sustainability analysts.


    The Indices Group:

    • Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC)
    • Fair Wear Foundation
    • Greenroom Voice

    The Analysts Group:

    • Sustainalytics
    • Bank J. Safra Sarasin Ltd.
    • OEKOM

    The roundtable started with five minutes of introductory remarks from each participant. Subsequently, several questions were given to the two groups from the moderator, and then questions from the audience were solicited. Issues raised were things like how such organizations collaborate, the transparency of their methods, how long it would take to standardize output in similitude to that found in the corporate financial accounting sector, etc.

    Our sustainability reflections and takeaways from this roundtable discussion were:

    • There are many diverging standards in many sectors, and this is true for textiles as well. Despite the wish to collaborate, these organizations sometimes undermine one another’s work. We raise a call for more collaboration and preparedness in joining forces. This is for the benefit of customers, and to facilitate the streamlining of focus necessary for actual impact across the vastness of value chains.
    • There’s an ardent wish that, especially regarding sustainability rating agencies, there would be a greater drive toward affecting a harmonization process that is more stringent. As evidence, none of the participants mentioned PRI, (Principles for Responsible Investment), or the Global Initiative for Sustainability Ratings (GISR). This is especially telling when you consider that GISR says of themselves: “GISR’s mission is to design and steward a global sustainability (i.e., Environmental, Social, and Governance – ESG) ratings standard to expand and accelerate the contribution of business and other organizations worldwide to sustainable development. GISR will not rate companies. Instead, it will accredit other sustainability ratings, rankings or indices to apply its standard for measuring excellence in sustainability performance.” Responsible investments are important to correctly apply. Do we have a harmonized approach to invest where it makes most sense from a sustainability perspective? Or is the whole thing dissonant?
    • The indices and rating approaches are heading toward a more data-driven putsch. This will probably benefit quality, if the data collected is actually qualitative; however, there’s definitely work to do throughout the vastness of textile supply chains. Sustainability rating and sustainability standards are going to require data to be truly qualitative. They also need to rely on a solid understanding of supply chain management and strategy-setting. Read more about supply chain management here, and about sustainability strategy here. Register for our webinar about sustainability strategy here.
    • The question was also raised whether or not it would make sense for brands to publish certain datasets, and this is definitely something to consider.

    We hope that the collaboration on all the above topics continues. The level of collaboration in general through the textile industry as exposited at ISPO 2016 deserves applause. As a whole, this industry has made a significant journey – and yes, there’s still a long way to go.

    Contact us to discuss more.

    You can access all presentations here.

     

    [1]  Same standard for the same capability worldwide

    [2]  Intellectual property rights

    Bank J Safra Sarasin, BSI, Durable Water Repellency, DWR, EOG, Fair Wear Foundation, Greenroom Voice, Higg, ISPO 2016, OEKOM, OIA, Perfluorinated chemicals, PFC, SAC, Sustainability rating, Sustainability standards, Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Sustainalytics, ZDHC

    Karin Ekberg

    More posts by Karin Ekberg

    Related Post

    • Free Webinar: Preparing Your Business for the EU and German Supply Chain Due Diligence Acts

      By Vanderlei Ekberg | 0 comment

      We at Leadership & Sustainability aim to provide you with guidance on the European and German Supply Chain Due Diligence Acts. Therefore we are inviting you to our free webinar on Friday, December 9th atRead more

    • Sustainability days celebration

      Days of Environmental Importance – Highlighting Sustainable Action

      By Vanderlei Ekberg | 0 comment

      Several critical environmental action days are approaching, including Sustainability Day in October and Climate Action Day in November; how will you respond?   Environmental action Sustainability Day is an annual event celebrating the notion ofRead more

    • Exciting News: Our CEO Karin will be a speaker at the TPS Conference

      By Vanderlei Ekberg | 0 comment

      The team of Leadership & Sustainability is proud to announce that our CEO will be a keynote speaker at the ESMA Textile Printing and Sustainability (TPS) Conference in September (8th-9th at Dorint Kongresshotel in Düsseldorf).Read more

    • Coming Soon: Leadership & Sustainability’s NEW E-Learning Website

      By Vanderlei Ekberg | 0 comment

      Leadership & Sustainability is now in the process of creating our very own e-learning website, which will include a variety of courses to meet the needs of your organization. Our highly trained instructors will giveRead more

    • Contributing to the Long-term Vision of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition!

      By Sophia Wolf | 0 comment

      Leadership & Sustainability is a longstanding and proud member as well as a supporter of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC)! We are members at a strategic level and therefore demonstrate industry leadership by driving impact.Read more

    Leave a Comment

    Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    NextPrevious

    Recent Posts

    • Happy Holidays
    • Free Webinar: Preparing Your Business for the EU and German Supply Chain Due Diligence Acts
    • Days of Environmental Importance – Highlighting Sustainable Action
    • Exciting News: Our CEO Karin will be a speaker at the TPS Conference
    • Coming Soon: Leadership & Sustainability’s NEW E-Learning Website

    Recent Comments

    • Nikunj on New ZDHC Trainings from Leadership & Sustainability
    • Nikunj on Recording & Presentation: Learn what is new in Higg FEM 2020, Section 5 Wastewater
    • Nikunj on Recording & Presentation: Learn what is new in Higg FEM 2020, Section 5 Wastewater
    • Karin Ekberg on Recording & Presentation: The Higg FEM Verification Trail, Chemicals Management
    • Palanisamy on Recording & Presentation: The Higg FEM Verification Trail, Chemicals Management

    Archives

    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • March 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015

    Categories

    • Allgemein
    • Blog
    • Blog
    • News
    • Webinar

    Contact

    E-Mail: info[at]leadership-sustainability.com
    Mobile: +49 (151) 461 70 184

    Social

    Newsletter

    Recent Tweets

    • RT  @apprlcoalition : Thank you to everyone who came together on Nov 1-2 in Singapore, and virtually, for this year’s Annual Meeting! #sac202…

      3 months ago
    • RT  @apprlcoalition : This year's #SAC2022 Annual Meeting has provided a great opportunity to all come together for the first time in person…

      3 months ago

    Recent Posts

    • Happy Holidays

      Happy Holidays from the Leadership & Sustainability team.   Another year is

      19 December, 2022
    Copyright 2015 | Impressum | Datenschutz | Disclaimer | Website powered by Thorit
    • Home
    • Solutions
      • SAC services
      • Consulting
      • Empowerment
      • Sustainable Business Models
      • Software & Tools
      • Benefits
      • References
    • Webinars & Trainings
    • About us
      • Our Team
      • Career
    • Contact
      • Appointment Booking
    • Blog
    • Shop
    Leadership & Sustainability – Karin Ekberg
    This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
    Privacy & Cookies Policy

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT