Colin Browne, CEO of Cascale, recently addressed the International Apparel & Footwear Compliance Conference in Vietnam, hosted by the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA).
Colin Browne, CEO of Cascale, recently addressed the International Apparel & Footwear Compliance Conference in Vietnam, hosted by the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA). The event brought together industry leaders to deepen their understanding of U.S. compliance requirements and brand expectations for factories.
In his keynote, Browne tackled the pressing challenges of compliance and climate urgency, calling for a proactive industry approach as global legislation increasingly shifts from voluntary to mandatory requirements. He outlined Cascale’s commitment to supporting sustainable supply chains, highlighting the Higg Index suite of tools, used by over 40,000 companies to measure and improve their sustainability impacts.
Drawing from his extensive background in procurement at Under Armour, VF, and Li & Fung, Browne shared firsthand insights into supply chain impacts. He emphasized the need for leadership and disruption to guide the industry through an evolving global landscape shaped by recent and upcoming elections in key markets such as India, Pakistan, the U.S., and the U.K. He praised Cascale’s partnerships with organizations like AAFA in the U.S. and Policy Hub in the EU, which drive collective advocacy on policy issues critical to the industry’s future.
Browne commended the industry’s innovation and collaboration while underscoring Cascale’s role in driving collective action. He spotlighted the work of Cascale’s Policy & Public Affairs team, which collaborates with organizations like AAFA and Policy Hub to advocate for industry-wide positions and engage in policy discussions.
Browne emphasized Vietnam’s strategic role in global apparel exports, noting the presence of Cascale members such as the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS). He then highlighted Cascale’s local engagement, including an APAC Manufacturer Interview Group designed to amplify manufacturers’ voices in global policy discussions. He also announced plans for an APAC-focused policy paper and previewed the upcoming Cascale Forum in Ho Chi Minh City, set for May 14–15, 2025.
Closing his address, Browne urged the audience to ramp up decarbonization efforts, stressing the need for urgent action to address climate challenges while building resilient, sustainable supply chains.
Colin Browne, Cascale CEO, delivered a recorded keynote speech at the recent Procurement Success Summit (PSS) in Shanghai, China.
Founded in 2014, the Procurement Success Summit is recognized as the most influential procurement event in the Asia-Pacific region, serving the world’s leading procurement and industry innovation leaders.
Browne shared an overview of Cascale and the Higg Index suite of tools, which help more than 40,000 users measure their sustainability impact. He highlighted his background in procurement at companies such as Under Armour, VF, and Li&Fung, where he witnessed first hand the tangible impact that sourcing decisions have on the environment, which was a key factor in his decision to join Cascale.
Emphasizing that the consumer goods industry struggles with outdated sustainability approaches, Browne detailed how fragmented efforts and outdated practices have become untenable. He stressed the importance of committing to bold, unified action to achieve climate goals and overcome sustainability challenges. Browne shared that the fashion industry is not on track to meet its 45 percent emissions reduction target, and highlighted data from the Higg Index which shows it is currently producing more than 2.5 times the emissions required in order to meet the 45 percent reduction target by 2030.
Browne went on to share an overview of Cascale’s membership, highlighting that 33 percent of brands and 54 percent of manufacturers have yet to set science-based targets (SBTs). He emphasized the need for change and urged brands and suppliers to work together to transform their downstream supply base, which is the single most important source of carbon emissions. He shared insights from a recent RESET Carbon analysis that utilized Higg Index data on 14,000+ facilities to reveal that 1,500 facilities account for 80 percent of carbon emissions.
Highlighting the need for more strategic and targeted approaches, Browne encouraged facilities and brands to shift from spreading resources thinly across numerous projects to focusing on key areas of opportunity. He called for greater alignment across the industry to achieve meaningful progress, which depends on uniting brands, manufacturers, and stakeholders around shared objectives and ensuring that every voice at the table is heard and valued.
Browne emphasized Cascale’s evolution from a facilitator to a leader, with a commitment to ensuring that all stakeholders have a voice in shaping our collective future. He emphasized Cascale’s role in driving the industry towards unified action on climate and decent work conditions. Browne concluded his speech by urging delegates to step up to collaborate on accelerating collective action at scale to drive meaningful change.
As part of a recurring series, Cascale details the involvement and vision of its Board members. Here, Lena Staafgard, Chief Operating Officer, Better Cotton, details the need for greater connectivity between Cascale members and fibers like cotton.
As part of a recurring series, Cascale details the involvement and vision of its Board members. Here, Lena Staafgard, Chief Operating Officer, Better Cotton, details the need for greater connectivity between Cascale members and fibers like cotton.
Lena Staafgard: Better Cotton has been a member for several years, and I have been on the board for two terms now, so coming up on three and a half years of engagement with the board.
L.S.: At Better Cotton, we work on system transformation, and we have a very clear focus on cotton as one of the most-used natural fibers in the world. What attracted me to Cascale was the even broader system transformation, and I felt, after a good 10 years at Better Cotton, I had a lot to share and contribute to Cascale’s journey of working effectively across many countries and many stakeholders and many interests to mobilize enthusiasm for deep change. For me, this was a super exciting opportunity, and I’m very pleased to have been elected.
L.S.: So system change requires a lot of goodwill and a lot of true commitment from all the players involved. I think it also requires a lot of patience, willingness to hear uncomfortable truths and be uncomfortable. It requires a lot of time and compromise, because you need to find the path forward that works for everyone. It’s not necessarily the top choice, especially if you would prefer your own needs and preferences, but it’s the path forward that works for everyone. I strongly believe only when everyone buys into the process and is willing to go down the route – that’s when you will see change happening.
L.S.: Well, I’m a traveler, so I’m lucky to have a job that takes me traveling. Growing up, I never actually thought I’d have a proper job. I felt I would just roam the world and do various odd jobs. Here I find myself many years later with a proper job creating real change. I still have my travel, so that’s lovely. I get a lot of energy from it and my family brings me a lot of joy as well. It comes down to traveling, connecting with others, gaining new experiences and new lessons, and learning new things and seeing things in a way that I may not have seen before. That’s really driving me, and I think I’m getting that both from Better Cotton and from Cascale.
L.S.: Just last week, I was in Benin in West Africa. It’s the first time I visited Benin. So that was the personal experience. But being there on World Cotton Day, we were celebrating the public good that cotton is – looking at how it not only provides fiber for our clothes and our bed linen and home textiles, but also livelihoods, income to people, and it, of course, has a very important role to play in climate change mitigation. Coming to Benin and seeing the enthusiasm from the top-level of government for cotton – as a critical commodity for the country and for the country’s well being – was amazing. I was very impressed by the organizers in Benin, and with representatives from governments all across West Africa and Central Africa and beyond. They also took me on a trip to visit an industrial park, so they’re investing quite heavily in making sure that cotton adds even more value to the Benin economy, and they’re building and investing in a massive industrial park to start manufacturing in Benin and create more value by creating new jobs. It was really state of the art. The facilities are super modern with all the health and safety protocols in place. It was clean, well air-conditioned, and overall impressive to see the commitment to the textile industry of the whole country.
Cascale: What has been the biggest challenge in staying the sustainability course?
L.S.: I find one of the biggest challenges is to push for scale. It can be very easy to get small projects, pilots, and demonstrations off the ground or to fund one model factory. But it’s a real challenge to say, “This needs to happen everywhere.” We need to have improvements across the board in factories and in working conditions. We need to see improvements across the board for all cotton production. That’s not cheap. It requires investment. I think within Better Cotton, as with Cascale, our members know that the cost of not acting is ultimately going to be higher than the cost of taking action. It’s still super difficult to get through the drama of the day, and the challenges of today to get proper investments for the long term benefit of the benefit of the industry.
L.S.: It’s been a perfect opportunity on LCAs with the Higg Material Sustainability Index (MSI) to actually pull together our resources. At Better Cotton, historically, we’ve not published LCAs. Better Cotton comes from so many different countries. It’s grown by smallholders, by large farms in India, Southern Africa, and the U.S., where the footprint would be very different because the environment is different. So we haven’t been able to find a good LCA methodology or a good LCA context that would tell a true story about Better Cotton. I’m super pleased that through the membership we have with Cascale that we’ve worked with your team and with other cotton standards to utilize the data available, the approaches available, and then make sure that we move together forward, and not one on one, not that we have different LCA for every cotton grown right, for conventional, organic, for Better Cotton, but that we align on the methodology and the data that we’re using, so that we all speak the same language. It’s also a great use of resources that we’re pooling together. Ultimately, I believe, by organizations such as ours working together, we make it easier for the whole industry to move forward on this transformation journey. I think that’s been a really rewarding and long process. Here we are, three years later, and we’re ready to make the updates to the Higg MSI and have a cotton module that we all align on.
L.S.: I think for Cascale, I’m really looking forward to working with Colin [Browne] and the whole team on some of the core principles for Cascale, and that’s the multi-stakeholder principles, ensuring that the affiliate members and the manufacturer members and the retailer and brand members come together on equal terms.
I think it’s only together that we can really come up with the great solutions that will work and that will have traction. I know in the past, there’s been some imbalances, and it’s challenging because we’re working in the industry where we have pre-established power relationships, and I think it’s on Cascale, and I can feel a real desire within the team to challenge that and make sure that we are moving forward on equal terms as partners on the journey. We’re on a similar track in Better Cotton, making sure that the farmer has a seat at the table, an equal voice, and an equal say in determining the route forward, as far as priorities and how we drum up the support and the investment to make things happen.
At the Executive Leadership Forum in Panama City, Cascale CEO Colin Browne outlined Cascale’s journey from industry convener to leader in sustainability, emphasizing the need for unified action on ESG supply chain integration, mandatory sustainability disclosures, and impactful collaboration to address climate and labor challenges.
Earlier this fall, Colin Browne, Cascale CEO, spoke at the Executive Leadership Forum hosted by the Center for Global Enterprise (CGE) in Panama City.
The Center for Global Enterprise was established to help educate societal stakeholders on the globally integrated economy and its promise for a better future. It convenes leaders worldwide and advances enterprise transformation through applied research. In addition to Browne, speakers at the Executive Leadership Forum included Dr. Ernesto Perez Ballardes, former president of Panama, along with session leaders Mario Perez Balladares, chairman, Narval, and Marko Kovacevic, managing director, Digital Supply Chain Institute.
The CGE facilitates several distinct programs, including the Digital Supply Chain Institute, a leading-edge research institute focused on the evolution of enterprise supply chains in the digital economy and the creation and practical application of supply chain management best practices. Browne’s presentation was focused on setting priorities and measuring results for ESG supply chain integration, as customer expectations and regulatory environments evolve. He started off by giving an overview of Cascale’s origins, which began with a simple but ambitious vision to convene stakeholders across the industry on a pre-competitive basis to develop a common approach to measuring sustainability. Browne highlighted Cascale’s commitment to giving back more than it takes, both for people and the planet. He emphasized the diversity of Cascale’s membership, which spans apparel, footwear, home furnishings, sporting goods, and bags and luggage brands and manufacturers.
Browne also shared how the organization has evolved from unifying the industry, to fostering tool adoption and strategic partnerships, and finally to finding new avenues for scaling impact. He went on to give an overview of the legislative landscape and noted the increasing shift towards mandatory sustainability disclosure away from voluntary disclosure. He shared how governments around the world are increasingly introducing legislation that requires companies to disclose their sustainability-related information, driving greater transparency and accountability.
Finally, he emphasized how Cascale is evolving from a facilitator to a leader, with a commitment to equality of voice, highlighting the organization’s dedication to ensuring stakeholders have a voice in shaping their collective future. He emphasized the importance of leadership in driving the industry towards unified action against key challenges like climate impact and decent work conditions. Browne concluded his presentation by urging attendees to step up their efforts to collaborate on accelerating collective action at scale to drive meaningful change.
CEO Colin Browne shares five takeaways from the McKinsey and BoF State of Fashion 2025 report in his latest blog.
CEO Colin Browne’s latest for Cascale outlines five takeaways from the State of Fashion 2025 report.
The State of Fashion 2025 report from McKinsey and BoF doesn’t mince words: the industry is entering a period of reckoning. Economic uncertainty, evolving consumer behaviors, and regional disparities have turned our familiar landscape into a maze of complex challenges. In this environment, it’s clear that traditional strategies are no longer sufficient. At Cascale, we see this as an opportunity to disrupt the status quo—not just to navigate this “maze,” but to redefine the paths through it.
One key takeaway from the report is the need for transparency and agility across supply chains. As companies shift toward nearshoring and more efficient inventory management, the demand for accurate, accessible data will only intensify. This is where Cascale’s Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM) comes in. We’re continually refining this tool to give manufacturers and brands the transparency they need to respond rapidly to market demands, drive environmental impact reductions, and empower every player in the supply chain to make data-backed decisions. Our commitment to refining Higg FEM governance, in collaboration with our members, is another step toward ensuring data transparency becomes an industry standard, not an aspirational goal.
The industry’s challenges require inclusivity and adaptability. We restructured Cascale’s membership model as a fundamental shift toward equal share of voice. Efficiency is also a nice plus. Manufacturer insights are crucial, and our new model prioritizes their voices, ensuring their perspectives are not only heard but actively integrated into our decision-making processes. As we bring our community together in Asia next year, our focus will be on deepening these relationships, fostering a sense of shared purpose, and aligning our collective efforts toward sustainability.
The climate crisis is, and must remain, at the top of our agenda. The report underlines the difficulty of balancing long-term sustainability with immediate profitability, especially in turbulent economic times. At Cascale, we’re tackling this challenge head-on through our Industry Decarbonization Roadmap. Our teams are meeting in Hong Kong next week to assess our progress and plan for 2025, setting science-based targets that extend across the entire value chain. We’re not waiting for regulatory mandates; we’re mobilizing our members to embrace decarbonization as a collective responsibility, and as a strategic advantage for a resilient future.
The McKinsey report also stresses the rise of the “silver generation” and the need to think beyond traditional consumer segments. For too long, the industry has viewed change as a response to consumer demands rather than an opportunity for proactive leadership. At Cascale, our commitment to disruptive innovation goes beyond the tools alone. It is, instead, a leadership mandate. Whether it’s supporting manufacturers in developing markets, enhancing data solutions for transparency, or preparing to host our events in Asia, we are building an inclusive future that adapts to changing demographics and values.
Paul Polman, co-founder of the Fashion Pact, captured it beautifully at our Annual Meeting 2024. He recited a famous quote from Wangari Maathai: “In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground.”
The old playbook is indeed obsolete. As CEO of Cascale, I believe that our role is not merely to adapt but to lead with purpose. This year, let’s set an example by embracing disruption to build a resilient, sustainable, and equitable fashion industry. Let’s rewrite the rules together, with conviction, vision, and the courage to lead.
We kick off our first season of “Source of Good” with a true legend: mountaineer, environmentalist, writer, and Cascale co-founder, Rick Ridgeway. In this episode, Rick recounts how his breathtaking adventures on the world’s highest peaks ignited a lifelong commitment to sustainability. He takes us behind-the-scenes on the creation of Cascale and the Higg Index tools.
We kick off our first season of “Source of Good” with a true legend: mountaineer, environmentalist, writer, and Cascale co-founder Rick Ridgeway. In this episode, Rick recounts how his breathtaking adventures on the world’s highest peaks ignited a lifelong commitment to sustainability. He also takes us behind the scenes at the creation of Cascale and the Higg Index tools.
Produced by Cascale and Hueman Group Media.
Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of Cascale or Hueman Group Media.
Aligned organizations Cascale and Worldly held a first-ever joint event during New York Climate Week. Cascale (formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition) is the global nonprofit alliance for the consumer goods industry; Worldly is the exclusive platform for Cascale’s Higg Index and the most comprehensive sustainability data and insights platform.
Aligned organizations Cascale and Worldly held a first-ever joint event during New York Climate Week. Cascale (formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition) is the global nonprofit alliance for the consumer goods industry; Worldly is the exclusive platform for Cascale’s Higg Index and the most comprehensive sustainability data and insights platform.
At the co-hosted “Chatting Climate & Consumer Goods” event held in New York City’s Garment District, speakers and attendees delivered deep supply chain decarbonization insights, building on presentations at the Cascale Annual Meeting and Worldly Customer Forum in Munich earlier this month. Attendees included Cascale members PVH, Patagonia, Lululemon, The Children’s Place, as well as guests including LVMH, among others. Hosts and speakers offered expertise on decarbonization, identifying improvements in supplier engagement, and setting science-based targets.
Colin Browne, CEO, Cascale; Scott Raskin, CEO, Worldly; and Tamar Hoek, Cascale Board Chair and senior policy director sustainable fashion, Solidaridad began the event with a call to action. “You only get so far with voluntary actions,” Browne said, outlining how sustainability regulation will change our workforce and become an imperative, while Raskin invited the audience to challenge the discussions adding, “Let’s not have the same conversations.” “If we really want to have a good future for future generations, then we have to save planet earth,” Hoek said, conveying hope but acknowledging the “long road ahead.”
In the first session, Lewis Perkins, president and CEO, Apparel Impact Institute, joined the stage alongside Browne for a conversation on “Scaling Decarbonization.” The executives discussed the collaborative work between Aii and Cascale and how the organizations are aligning on critical solutions and financing strategies. “Going forward, carbon is going to be an important metric.” Browne said of optimized sourcing strategies. “We need to do less to do more.”
Perkins outlined four components of the “Industry Decarbonization Roadmap,” or IDR, as well as Aii’s $250 million-dollar Fashion Climate Fund and interlinked Climate Solutions Portfolio. IDR is a roadmap for companies operating in regions where greenhouse gas emissions are highest to map, identify, and act. He then shared four key components to the IDR, which include a standardized technical methodology, development of a facility carbon benchmark, funding and financing, and engagement and commitment. “I’m not here to push debt on any suppliers,” he said, stressing that the “holy grail” for brands and retailers should be long-term partnership agreements. Perkins mentioned The Future Supplier Initiative, which aims to reduce the financial burden for suppliers by working in unity with fashion brands to lower costs.
Next, in a special pre-recorded session, “Manufacturer Message: Live from Jakarta,” Sunil Shewakramani, CEO Busana Apparel Group, and Andrew Martin, executive vice president of Cascale, discussed the synergy between brands and suppliers and the moral imperative to do right by people and planet. Shewakramani said doing good is a “competitive advantage” in terms of how the 49-year-old business looks at green investments. Busana Apparel Group ranks among the largest garment manufacturers and exporters globally, with 24 global facilities and a number of Leed Certifications from the Green Building Council. Martin emphasized Cascale’s intent to elevate manufacturers’ voices, to which Shewakramani added: “The whole thing needs to change from ‘I’ to ‘we.’”
After a networking break, Cascale’s director of Higg Transparency, Chris Marshall, joined the stage to moderate the panel “Climate Engagement and Action in Tier 2.” Speakers included Jimmy Summers, vice president – EHS/sustainability at Elevate Textiles, Inc.; Xiaofei Li, senior manager, material sustainability and transparency at Eileen Fisher; and Stefanie Kato, Worldly associate director of accounts.
“The thing that does motivate us is business — across the board,” said Summers. “One of the promises was that [the Higg Index] would reduce the number of audits — and promise delivered. We went from 12 audits at a facility to maybe three.” Kato spoke of the ways Worldly is match-making brands with suppliers in the same network, so data points are aligned, and. stressed the need for quicker frequency in data. Finally, Li shared how Eileen Fisher is approaching the Tier 2 decarbonization journey. “We worked very hard to have our suppliers adopt Higg FEM. To incentivize that we incorporated Higg FEM in our Tier 1 scorecard and Tier 2 mill scorecard,” she said, confirming the importance of supporting suppliers with expertise and financing.
In a final session, “Transparency In Action,” Worldly’s Scott Raskin and Natalie Grillon, CEO of Open Supply Hub, explored the potential for data harmonization in facilities. The organizations are in close collaboration offering an API integration for the data.
As moderator, Raskin explored several critical themes during the discussion. He began by asking Grillon to outline the latest developments at Open Supply Hub (OSH), seeking insight into its current priorities and areas of exciting progress. This set the stage for a deeper exploration of industry trends, particularly the movement toward data harmonization within the consumer goods sector, highlighting the growing importance of integrated and standardized data. He also delved into how the adoption of OSH by multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) improves collaboration across supply chains, reflecting his interest in how these partnerships can strengthen supply chain relationships and shared goals. He reinforced that transparency in data is Worldly’s mission.
Grillon gave a recap of her career trajectory working in international development with farmers in countries from Uganda to Mali before founding Open Supply Hub in 2019. Since its launch, Open Supply Hub has expanded its mandate into broader consumer goods and now has nearly 500,000 users today across the value chain, with a target of five million by 2026. Through the platform, users can access information on facility names and locations, as well as organizations affiliated with a specific facility, which promotes shared solutions. “The idea behind these initiatives is shared progress,” Grillon said.
As part of a recurring series, Cascale details the involvement and vision of its Board members. Here, Amanda Tucker, vice president of responsible sourcing and sustainability at Target, and Cascale Board member shares her learnings from decades in impact.
AT: One of the things I’ve realized throughout my career is that there’s just no way a brand acting on its own can create a lot of impactful change. We really need to be working in collaboration with multi-stakeholders. What I’m excited about at Cascale is the breadth of experience across the brand, retailer, manufacturer, and affiliate sides all working on practical approaches to change our industry.
AT: Early on in my career, I worked for the International Labour Organization, and prior to working full time for the ILO, I worked for the U.S. Council for International Business that represents U.S. companies in international organizations, including at the International Organization of Employers that represents the employers group at the ILO. In the formative years of my career, I learned a lot about social dialogue, conventions, and ratification of conventions, and the process building up to those agreements.
I sat in on hours of tripartite discussion, and I was just captivated by the complexity of it but also the power of divergent groups coming together for a common purpose.
Social dialogue and the power of multi-stakeholders working together has been a common theme throughout my career. I’ve also been involved in other multi-stakeholder initiatives in the apparel industry, specifically, the Fair Labor Association. I was on the board and very involved with the FLA for years. And I sit on a couple of other multi-stakeholder boards as well. And really, this comes back to my belief in the efficacy and power of groups that might, on the surface, have different opinions, but are ultimately trying to do the same thing: come together to try to create change.
AT: I’ve been in this line of work for over 25 years, and there were times in my career that I felt this function was being treated as a “nice to have,” or outside of core business functions. That has really changed in the last five to seven years where companies, manufacturers, affiliates, civil society, and consumers all realize the centrality of sustainability.
For me, one of the sharp points is the climate crisis and the fact that so many individuals, who may not think about sustainability in their everyday lives, are seeing the impact of non-sustainable choices. That’s a real hot area – no pun intended.
That’s a real concern for all of us in the sustainability world. For me, equally important is this marrying of climate and social justice. We know that the most impacted by climate change are already the most vulnerable. Hundreds and thousands of workers across the globe are working in conditions that are dangerous to them from a health perspective because of global warming. These are things that we have to grapple through together to address, and that’s one of the reasons I really love the work of Cascale. The work isn’t siloed. We are trying to think through these issues holistically.
AT: Target, similar to other brands in Cascale, has a dedicated team that focuses on responsible sourcing and sustainability, and we work from issues of basic compliance. We call this our standards of vendor engagement. We work on taking collective audits that we’ve agreed on that are shared by other brands as well as remediation where we find issues.
Our goal is not to remove factories from the supply chain but really to see their performance elevated. The teams that I have the honor to lead across the globe are working alongside factory management on those aspirational goals, but also on the remediation of compliance to ensure that the factories are meeting those standards. Then we’re involved in a number of multi-stakeholder initiatives to move beyond basic compliance in areas of worker well-being, climate change, conversion to renewable energy, the setting of science-based targets, etc. As you know, I’m involved personally on the Cascale Board, but my team is equally involved in many of the working groups of Cascale and within other organizations that are like-minded and trying to also create change in our industry.
AT: One of the great things about Cascale is the many opportunities that a member has to be involved, from the Annual Meeting to the Manufacturer Forums that are held around the world to various working groups that one can opt into, and that’s where we see the development of the Higg Index tools.
Cascale isn’t just an aspirational platform, it’s coordination across multi-stakeholder groups to implement tools and measure progress. I’m talking about things that we’ve adopted broadly. For example, the Higg Facility Environmental Module, Higg FEM 4.0, recently rolled out. But there are a number of other Higg Index tools that help us to quantify the impact in our factories. Our teams are working alongside other brands, affiliates, and manufacturers to develop those tools and then to drive their adoption throughout the supply chain. That, I think, is hard work. It’s not something that’s done quickly, but it’s the really important work that we need to collectively do.
AT: I think that at times it’s hard to be optimistic, when we see the world changing around us and question whether we’re doing enough. We talked about tools, and while I believe in tools, our whole reason for being can’t just be to develop tools. We’ve got to create impact, especially now.
Despite the challenges at hand, one reason I remain optimistic is that there’s more focus on these issues now – not just from a group of sustainability practitioners but across businesses. We can have these discussions deeply inside the business about choices that we need to make.
I have a lot of confidence in the next generation. They keep me optimistic to address the challenges we face, and I’m always excited when I run into students who are interested in environmental sciences. When I was their age, that conversation was very rare, and now there’s just such a hunger and appetite for it. At the same time, I would say this is hard work, and you have to be committed for the long run. There’s no quick and easy fix.
AT: I’ve received so much advice and probably given too much advice at this point, but the one piece of advice that really resonates for me right now – particularly as we’re in a world that seems to be increasingly divided – is just to continue to be curious. I think that’s a really great adage to live by. It’s easy to go into a discussion and prioritize my interests as a company or as a brand or retailer group, but I think the challenge here is to remain curious and consider the challenges of my manufacturing partners to understand their vision. Replacing judgment and confidence with curiosity is a great opening stance to be able to contribute effectively to a multi-stakeholder conversation.
AT: I would say creating sustainable impact. It’s easy to do something once. It’s easy to do a pilot here and there, and we often see groups spring up that do some wonderful pilots that can create small pockets of change, but we’re looking for scalable solutions across a very broad supply chain, and I think Cascale is best positioned to identify those solutions and to canvas and propel action across the industry. That’s what I’m thinking about when I think about the future of Cascale.
AT: As is with almost anything in life, you get out of it, what you put into it. One of the things I’ve noticed while being on the board is there are a few very active representatives of each group, and then there’s a long tail of members that are not so active. My message would be to take a step towards more engagement and activity, and that could look a lot of different ways. It doesn’t mean joining every committee or committing to every meeting, but if you can add a little bit more of your personal time and vision and energy, we really need that as a multi-stakeholder initiative. We don’t want to be a club of a few, we want to be a coalition of many.
Cascale announces the election of a new board member and the re-election of two incumbent board members to serve on the Cascale Board of Directors.
Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Oakland (CA) – July 10, 2024: Cascale, formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, is proud to announce the election of a new board member and the re-election of two incumbent board members to serve on the Cascale Board of Directors. The parity-based Board of Directors is pivotal in steering Cascale’s strategic direction, driving transformation, and furthering the organization’s mission to create a more restorative and equitable consumer goods industry.
Cascale congratulates the following individuals on their re-elections to the board:
Vidhura Ralapanawe, Epic Group
Ralapanawe is the executive vice president, innovation & sustainability for Epic Group, focusing on emissions, water, chemicals, and sustainable product innovation. With 18 years of experience in apparel sustainability, he is also a renewable energy and climate activist. His expertise covers facility design, product LCA, and standards design. He is an advocate for equal partnership in the apparel industry as it transitions towards sustainability. Ralapanawe will continue representing Cascale’s manufacturer voting member category.
Lena Staafgard, Better Cotton Initiative
As the chief operating officer at BCI, Staafgard leads Better Cotton’s global operations, ensuring their work delivers positive change and impact for cotton farmers around the world. She joined BCI during its first year of operation and has helped guide the organization towards becoming the largest cotton sustainability initiative in the world, with programs in multiple countries that have reached millions of smallholder farmers. Staafgard will continue representing Cascale’s affiliate voting member category.
Cascale is also pleased to welcome the following new board member:
Fiona Sadler, Marks & Spencer
Sadler is the global head of responsible sourcing and has worked at M&S for 26 years. She is a senior ethical, sourcing, sustainability, and technical professional with extensive experience in development programs and management within retail and supply chains. She brings a strong external perspective on global issues, stakeholder management, and an ability to manage and influence issues within the corporate framework. Having developed ethical strategies focusing on emerging social issues, Sadler aims to use this knowledge and experience to help Cascale achieve its goals and shape the future. Sadler will represent Cascale’s brand, retailer, and holding group voting member category.
Cascale CEO Colin Browne said, “We are thrilled to welcome Fiona Sadler of M&S to the Cascale Board and continue working with BCI’s Lena Staafgard and Epic Group’s Vidhura Ralpanawe. Equal representation in the value chain is more important than ever, and their unique perspectives, valuable insights, and vast expertise will be incredibly important as Cascale continues to evolve and drive transformative change in the industry.”
Harsh Saini, Cascale board director and governance and nomination committee chair, stated, “The 2024 class of directors is uniquely equipped to serve the future of this organization. Their combined experience and dedication to sustainability and ethical practices will further strengthen our board’s ability to guide Cascale’s strategic plan. We look forward to their contributions as we strive to realize our mission for an even greater impact in our industry.”
The incoming class of directors will be seated on the Board in September 2024.
Cascale also extends its deep gratitude to the outgoing board director Pascal Brun, vice president of sustainability and diversity and inclusion at Zalando. Brun’s dedicated service and contributions have been instrumental in guiding the organization’s strategic initiatives throughout his tenure.
For more information about Cascale’s governance and to view the current Board of Directors, please visit our website.
ABOUT CASCALE
Cascale is the global nonprofit alliance empowering collaboration to drive equitable and restorative business practices in the consumer goods industry. Formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Cascale owns and develops the Higg Index, which is exclusively available on Worldly, the most comprehensive sustainability data and insights platform. Cascale unites over 300 retailers, brands, manufacturers, governments, academics, and NGO/nonprofit affiliates around the globe through one singular vision: To catalyze impact at scale and give back more than we take to the planet and its people.
Cascale: What is your role at Epic Group?
VR: I am the head of sustainability for the Group. I formulate strategy as well as lead execution of our ambitious sustainability strategy. This includes cutting absolute emissions and fresh water use by 50 percent by 2030, against the 2019 baseline. We are a company that grows very fast, which makes absolute reductions extremely difficult. So part of our strategy is blueprinting, designing, and building factories that are going to function as net-zero carbon and net zero water.
In addition to that, I also have responsibility in the product space, improving the sustainability of the fibers that we use in our products and offer to customers, and also a sharp focus on step changes in how we design and operate our laundries. That’s the largest impact in our business. Innovations – in process, machinery and chemistry, as well as fabric technology – goes into how we run our washing plants better.
The last part is looking at how the fashion industry transitions towards a more sustainable setting because we firmly believe that we as a company cannot be sustainable by ourselves unless the community around us becomes sustainable. So we want to contribute to that too.
Cascale: How do you balance aims for growth with sustainability progress?
VR: I think it’s much more difficult for manufacturers to decarbonize with growth than brands because of structural issues in some of the countries where manufacturing is concentrated. These could be legislative or regulatory, availability of renewables, the status of the grid or simple things like availability of technology and skills.
These issues are also very geographically predetermined where what is possible in one country may not be possible in another country.
This also poses an interesting challenge about how we grow. If your target isn’t net-zero in your new factories, then this is no longer enough. This forces us to completely rethink how a factory should be designed and operated. Epic is building a new set of factories in India building from these concepts. We believe these factories will be a global blueprint for others to draw inspiration from and adapt to their own needs. I want to emphasize that we approached this unique factory design within a partnership with one of our brand customers – a real life example of collective action.
Cascale: How do the Higg Index Suite of tools complement those net-zero aims and ambitions?
VR: To me this is the foundation of sustainable factories because it looks at all of the different impact areas, and it creates a platform where impact reduction can happen. It sets up the measurement systems, it sets up the target setting, and it looks at individual practices to identify improvement areas. It also looks at how we are organized as a company and where sufficient focus, skill, and organizational structure exists for the tedious long-term road of decarbonization and major improvement as an industry.
Cascale’s Impact reduction programs will sit on top of that, and that’s where Cascale’s future is – in terms of working together with members and the larger industry of ecosystem partners to drive impact.
Cascale: What’s your advice to leaders to future-proof their companies and organizations?
VR: Before I joined the apparel industry, I was a climate researcher. My focus on climate action predates my engagement in the fashion industry. We must first understand that we are in a very deep and urgent climate crisis. It is much much worse than most of us imagine and visualize. The ocean and land heat waves that we saw in the last 12 months are something even climate scientists are struggling to understand. We see it impacting apparel manufacturing countries globally in the last 3 months. We are already in a deep crisis, whether we acknowledge it or not. So, the first part is to recognize the urgency and the way these impacts are affecting our industry.
The second part is thinking of the value chain rather than our individual organizations. Take decarbonization as an example. The way we think about it (separated by tiers) and individualized action, is not going to be enough for us to actually hit any of our targets. We need to think about how we come together as a value chain and an industry to decarbonize – rather than sitting in our individual boxes or ordering others. It is a mindset and a paradigmatic shift, without which we will fail.
A lot of the challenges we have in terms of climate action is based on our business models which are hierarchical, optimized for speed and cost. We cannot easily switch them into versions that also deliver sustainability. So we need to reflect as an industry, and ask, “Does the way we work support sustainability?” And if not, what do we need to do to change it?
The third part is climate action and sustainability is not only about decarbonization – it is also about adaptation. We need to understand how the climate crisis is impacting our businesses. We are a very people-centric industry. We have millions of apparel and farm workers around the world who are part of our value chain. They are the ones, most of whom are women, who get affected first, when climate related disasters strike. They are the ones who are under dire conditions. They are the ones whose houses get flooded or get blown by cyclones – whose kids suffer during heatwaves, even at night. So if we don’t take an honest approach to look after them – who are the real drivers of this industry – we have no right to make any claims about sustainability.
Cascale: What’s the future for Cascale?
VR: Simply that we need to come together and work together. We cannot be saying, “This is the target I’m giving you. You do this.” We have tried that path, and it has failed to deliver the scale of the impact needed.
So we need to take a hard look at ourselves and bring people together so that we can drive impact collectively. In my opinion, this is the most important task in front of Cascale because we – I say we as a Cascale Board member – are the most suited organization to bring this industry together. Because we represent brands, manufacturers, service providers, NGOs, and academics. We have equal partnership as a principle of organization (though we have some work to do here). We have the correct group of people and the correct mindset to create that platform for collective action. There is no one else, and we must succeed.
And collective action, where we share risks and resources together, is the path we can solve our sustainability challenges, together.
