Italian luxury fashion brand, Gucci, has won the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Award for Circular EconomyCircular EconomyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. at this year’s Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana Sustainable Fashion Awards.
Gucci won the accolade for its efforts to create quality garments fit for a circular economy and continued commitment to using materials grown in a way which supports the natural environment.
The brand’s 'Denim project’ set a high bar for incorporating regeneratively-grown cotton in its denim collections in partnership with Regenagri®-certified Algosur farm in Spain, combined with post-consumer recycled fibres collected and re-spun in Italy.
Available in 2024, the items in the project will also include a digital product passport tracing the journey from raw materials to manufacturing and production, as well as providing information about product care and repairrepairOperation by which a faulty or broken product or component is returned back to a usable state to fulfil its intended use. services.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation Award for Circular Economy recognises leaders in the fashion industry embracing circular economy principles in their work and taking steps to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution.
Finalists for the Award – Chloé and ACS Clothing – were also recognised for making significant progress towards a circular economy for fashion.
Andrew Morlet, CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said: “In the world of fashion, our vision of a circular economy is one where products are used more, are made to be made again, and are produced from safe and recycled or renewable inputs.
“We’re delighted to see top players in the global fashion industry – winner Gucci and finalists Chloé and ACS Clothing – embrace these circular economy principles in their products and through redesigning entire business models.
“Transforming the fashion system won’t happen overnight. But collaboration across the industry from the design of future products to the processes, services, supply chains and business models that will deliver them and keep them in use, gives us hope that a circular economy for fashion can become the norm.”
The annual CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards took place in Milan, Italy, on 24 September, awarding brands and organisations for their commitment to sustainable fashion. Gucci has implemented a series of processes allowing its garments to be used more, remade, and recycled, eliminating waste and pollution by design.
This builds on its long-term commitment to invest in regenerative agriculture and nature-based solutions, having last year won the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) Climate Action Award for a collaboration with a regenerative sheep farm in Uruguay to source wool for its collections.
“We are proud to receive the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Award for Circular Economy in recognition of Gucci’s efforts to embed circularity across our business model at this year’s CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards,” said Jean-François Palus, Gucci’s CEO.
“Building scalable collaborations is a vital part of Gucci’s strategy and the ‘Denim project’ is an example of combining the many strengths of the House’s supply chain partners and leveraging innovative tech to enhance circular economy principles.”
Finalist Chloé, a participant of The Jeans Redesign project run by the Foundation, demonstrated how it was possible to implement changes on a major scale, making 90% of its jeans portfolio circular in design, using durable, traceable, safe and recycled materials in the garments.
ACS Clothing, which is helping to drive an industry-wide shift by making it easier for brands and retailers to embrace circular business models, was shortlisted for its efforts to keep clothing in use. It offers a range of services to its partners including rental, repair, resale and fulfilment to make garments last longer.
The full list of award-winners and finalists can be found here. For further information, please visit www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org
- Ends - Notes to Editors ABOUT THE ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an international charity developing and promoting the circular economy in order to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. We work with our Network of private and public sector decision-makers, as well as academia, to build capacity, explore collaborative opportunities, and design and develop circular economy initiatives and solutions. Increasingly based on renewable energyrenewable energyEnergy derived from resources that are not depleted on timescales relevant to the economy, i.e. not geological timescales., a circular economy is driven by design to eliminate waste, circulate products and materials, and regenerate nature, to create resilience and prosperity for business, the environment, and people.
Further information: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org | @circulareconomy
