The Fashion Pact:
umdasch The Store Makers joins global association for sustainability
The Fashion Pact is an international association of more than 70 famous companies from the fashion and textile industry. It represents over 200 of the leading global brands and one third of the fashion industry. All signatories have committed to the joint implementation of important environmental goals: the mitigation of climate change, the restoration of biodiversity and the protection of the oceans. umdasch The Store Makers has been a member of this prestigious coalition since 2021.
In April 2019 the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, instructed the CEO of the Kering Group*, Francois-Henri Pinault, to gather his fellow CEOs across the fashion and textile industry in order to establish a coalition. The aim of “The Fashion Pact” should be accelerating and scaling positive impact to transform the fashion sector and ensure a more sustainable future. The initiative was presented to the heads of state at the G7 summit in Biarritz during the summer of 2019.
The companies within the pact commit to ambitious, tangible targets aimed towards climate change mitigation, biodiversity preservation and oceans protection. Today, The Fashion Pact numbers over 70 members, who together represent more than one third of the fashion industry. Adidas, Burberry, the Kering Group, Mango, Nike and Ralph Lauren are all members of the coalition. umdasch The Store Makers has been an official member since April 2021 and positions itself there as a partner of the industry and as a pioneer within the shopfitting sector.
All members of The Fashion Pact act collectively to implement scalable measures for environmental protection which will achieve a measurable effect. Today, some 45 % of the energy requirements of the members already stem from renewable sources. Their joint plan is to reach 100 % by 2030 at the latest. In line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, further projects include, for example, a complete ban on and/or the recycling of plastic carrier bags and a stop to deforestation as well as the active promotion of sustainable forestry. The numerous projects already initiated in the interests of environmental conservation have been subdivided by The Fashion Pact into “Climate”, “Biodiversity” and “Oceans”. The Store Makers at umdasch have already started their active collaboration in the first part-projects in the field of “Biodiversity” and are thus contributing their knowledge as to how the sales areas of the major fashion brands can be built and operated with environmentally friendly resources.
“umdasch The Store Makers are the first shopfitters to have joined this coalition. This is an honour and an accolade for us which will reflect on future projects,” commented Silvio Kirchmair, CEO umdasch The Store Makers on the company’s accession to The Fashion Pact. As a family-owned company with deep roots, umdasch is a shopfitting company with value-oriented management, responsibility and environmental policy.
With the creation of a special position for sustainability, strategic sustainability projects within umdasch The Store Makers will be pursued even more intensively in future. At the same time the company is preparing for the increasing demand for sustainable shopfitting solutions. During 2021, for example, the corporate carbon footprints for the two locations in Leibnitz and Zagreb will be determined – a project which will be rolled out in future years to include all the Store Makers locations.
* The publicly owned Kering Concern includes famous brands such as Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Brioni.
Images: © umdasch
Logo: © The Fashion Pact