PARIS – Because the European Union steps up its regulation of the style business, Livia Firth’s Eco-Age is launching a coverage advisory division.
The brand new consulting arm will assist firms navigate compliance on the EU’s basket of recent and proposed guidelines and directives which have wide-ranging implications on textile manufacturing and the style business, together with the Eco Design for Sustainable Merchandise Regulation, the anti-greenwashing Inexperienced Claims Directive, and overarching EU Inexperienced Deal slate.
It should additionally take a look at U.S.-based laws, together with New York’s Trend Act.
George Harding-Rolls, former marketing campaign supervisor on the Altering Markets Basis, will take up the function of coverage director and lead the brand new division.
At Altering Markets, Harding-Rolls headed up the Fossil Trend marketing campaign, investigating the style business’s use of fossil fuels to create artificial textiles, together with polyester, which now accounts for over half of all textiles produced. The investigation additionally checked out firms changing cotton with cheaper polyester in an effort to assert it’s a extra sustainable fiber.
He additionally led the NGO’s anti-greenwashing undertaking, an interactive web site which walks customers by firms’ inexperienced claims and breaks them down level by level.
“I’ve identified George for a number of years and am an enormous fan of his work. The Altering Markets Basis has pioneered among the most vital investigative reporting highlighting the intrinsic hyperlink between oil and the style business, pushed by George,” mentioned Firth, founder and inventive director of Eco-Age.
“His wealth of expertise and information of the worldwide coverage and regulatory area, along with our extremely expert group and sustainable trend and textile skilled Philippa Grogan, takes Eco-Age to a complete new stage of consultancy and advocacy,” she added.
Eco-Age is maybe finest identified for its Inexperienced Carpet Trend Awards, which has made its mark with appearances from Zendaya, Stella McCartney and Cate Blanchett, and its Renaissance Awards for younger leaders.
Harding-Rolls joined Altering Markets from the sustainability and enterprise non-profit Discussion board for the Future, with prior expertise on the social advertising company Jellyfish.
“I’m delighted to be becoming a member of Eco-Age at such a pivotal time as the style business heads into a brand new period of scrutiny and regulation. Now’s the time for actually bold organizations to be stepping up and doubling down on systemic change, equivalent to much-needed laws. With this new focus Eco-Age is positioning itself to be the associate of selection on this essential mission,” Harding-Rolls commented.
The division will take a look at Europe-based insurance policies not solely from an EU stage, however country-by-country throughout the continent, present coaching and schooling in addition to campaigns and messaging round business points.
“The EU panorama is altering quick: One solely should take a look at the just lately introduced German Provide Chain Due Diligence Act and the French Environmental Labelling necessities to see how the panorama is lastly shifting from voluntary CSR necessities to necessary due diligence. Eco-Age has been working at EU regulatory stage in the previous couple of years and was the primary company to give attention to reputational threat creating a brand new ‘insurance coverage service’ for shoppers, so it’s a pure extension of our companies,” mentioned Eco-Age chief government officer Harriet Vocking.
The brand new division comes because the EU is planning to roll out a number of rules that may impression the textile and trend business between 2025 and 2030.
