World Ethical Apparel Roundtable (WEAR) aims to assist stakeholders in the fashion industry by creating a collaborative event to increase awareness and engage in sustainable business practices. This year’s theme, Purpose Meets Progress, acknowledges that although perfection doesn’t exist, we can celebrate the amazing advancements that have been made. As long as there is progress and purpose, there’s hope for a better future. The event took place on October 7th and 8th at Beanfield Centre, Exhibition Place, Toronto, and featured speakers across a range of perspectives within the fashion system. Sessions on a variety of topics were led by leading professionals from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Canada, SourceMap, Truepic, Bank and Vogue, thredUP, ALDO Shoes, Lululemon, and more.
2019 Topics
- Circular Business Models
- Material Innovation
- Supply Chain Transparency
- Home Based Workers
- Sustainable Retail
- The Future of Cotton
- Modern Slavery
- Design for Circularity
- Chemicals Management
- Reverse Logistics
- Becoming a B Corp
- Carbon Management
- Sustainable Packaging
In their presentation on Global Trends in Sustainable Fashion, Myles Gooding and Janice Noronha from PwC Canada shared how the fashion sector plays a critical role in the improvement of environmental, social, and ethical impacts across the industry.
Representatives from Fashion4Freedom, Sourcemap, and Truepic taught how blockchain, photo and video verification, and supply chain mapping can mitigate the risk of human rights violations in your supply chain during their talk on Human Rights & Supply Chain Traceability.
Amanda Cosco of Electric Runway moderated a discussion on Fashion Tech & Storytelling – Beyond Supply Chain. Mikhail Damiani revealed how Blue Bite helps fashion and lifestyle brands like Adidas, Parley, and Ocean Bottle pursue transparency with consumers by transforming products into channels of direct communication.
Fashion Takes Action (FTA) and PwC Canada launched their free online sustainable Fashion Toolkit at the event. It’s a one-stop platform to easily access trusted sustainability resources, guidelines, standards, articles, podcasts, case studies, and platforms that already exist, but take time to track down. The content is applicable to fashion businesses anywhere in the world, at any stage of development. UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are one of eight categories in the Fashion Toolkit. The 17 SDGs are a collection of global goals that outline a path to a better, more sustainable future for all.
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