In order to address climate change, the fashion industry is in need of creative financing solutions. A recent report by The World Resources Institute and Apparel Impact Institute identified six actionable interventions to reduce the carbon footprint of the fashion supply chain and to achieve the UN Science-Based Climate Targets. Together, these solutions will cost more than $3 trillion dollars over the next decade. Many of the interventions (e.g., Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency) have a positive financial return as well as an impact return.
This session will bring together multiple players in the apparel and finance industry (e.g., representatives from the banking sector, the nonprofit sector, an early stage/VC fund, and a fashion brand) to discuss the need for a blended capital approach (i.e., debt, equity, and philanthropy) to address climate change. Additional value will come from industry perspectives on the challenges and accelerants to broader adoption of these tools, including. examples of previous investments that have utilized a blended capital approach.
