SAC Celebrates the Textile Exchange Conference in London

The annual Textile Exchange Conference took place in London this year, and a substantial group of SAC team members from our membership engagement, stakeholder engagement and business development teams were in attendance.

Each year, the conference brings together leaders and experts from across the apparel value chain in an effort to explore opportunities to collaborate and align on climate solutions.

A close collaborator with the SAC, Textile Exchange publishes the open-source Preferred Fiber and Materials Matrix to assess the performance of different sustainability standards within material categories. The nonprofit also provides industry benchmarking data around fibers, including a recent report alongside consultancies Boston Consulting Group and Quantis.

At the SAC Lunch and Learn kindly hosted by Textile Exchange as part of the conference programme for approximately 60 registered attendees, Dani Baker, SAC’s senior membership engagement manager, EMEA, delivered a timely and relevant overview of the Higg Product Module. In addition, Hamza Hasan, candidate and membership engagement manager at the SAC, hosted a Fireside Chat to discuss the launch of the Higg FEM 4.0. “[Higg FEM is] the ticket to the game,” said panelist Jonathan Salmon, head of sustainability at Li & Fung Limited. “It’s not perfect, but there is no perfect tool.” Dipankar Bose, global environmental manager at Varner, concluded that “Higg FEM 4.0 is a future-proof masterpiece!” The SAC team also hosted a drinks reception where attendees had the opportunity to participate in an “Ask Me Anything” session with staff from the SAC, Worldly, and the SAC’s Social & Labor Convergence Program (SLCP).

The SAC enjoys a deep and collaborative relationship with Textile Exchange. With Apparel Impact Institute and Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC), we co-founded the apparel alliance to coordinate and align tools, programs and resources that reduce redundancies and drive performance improvements and collective actions to achieve a 45 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. With the Global Fashion Agenda and the Federation of European Sporting Goods (FESI), we co-founded the Policy Hub to collaborate on technical expertise and propose ambitious sustainability policies for the apparel and footwear industry in Europe.

We were thrilled to participate this year and to contribute to the success of the 2023 Textile Exchange Conference!