Beyond every challenge awaits an opportunity – but often, when it comes to sustainability, mapping the most direct route can be a challenge of its own. What might work as a blueprint for one brand may be rough terrain for another- particularly for smaller brands, where the founder may be the engine across both design and business areas leading with limited team resources.

As we look back on New York Fashion Week, the rise in awareness across every arena of our industry is clear: Everyone is asking the right questions and united in the desire to navigate successfully to answers.

Today, as part of our expanding Sustainability Initiatives and CFDA.com Resource Hub, we launch the CFDA KPI Design Kit, A Sustainable Strategies Playbook for Measurable Change, produced from the work of the NYU Stern MBA Student team featuring Megan Glessman, Casey McAlpin, Kerin McCauley, Elizabeth Quartararo, Katelyn Tsukada,and Sam Wallace.

This field guide is designed to help designers create clear KPIs based on nine topics within the CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies. It is the outcome of education and industry collaboration within NYU Stern’s 2019 MBA Course, Sustainability for Competitive Advantage.

For the second year, last spring, six NYU Stern MBA teams engaged with the CFDA – this time with CFDA/Lexus Fashion *Initiative 3.0 brand participants Abasi Rosborough, Araks, Jonathan Cohen, Public School NY, and Trace Reese. They worked to address key industry challenges within topic specific areas of ranging from sales to supply chain through a lens of sustainability as value proposition. Each team produced strategic recommendations led by Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business Director, + Clinical Professor, Business + Society, Tensie Whelan & Sophie Rifkin, Senior Associate Director.

The CFDA challenged one NYU Stern MBA team to develop a KPI focused guide, specifically for SMEs {Small to Medium Enterprises} with the goal of helping small brands successfully navigate towards ‘quick win’ areas of prioritization with potential for big impact that can be realistically implemented.

Today, as we together journey forward collectively, against climate change, pollution, and waste, we believe in the potential of a positive call to action in action. Fostering collaboration between the circles of education and industry, as well as multi- generational collaboration has never been more vital to our progress and to our existence, as is the power of creativity, ingenuity and the role of design in accelerating a shift to circularity – driven by quadruple bottom line thinking- people, planet, purpose, before profit.

The CFDA expresses its gratitude to the students and faculty of NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, to Lexus and the CFDA + Lexus Fashion * Initiative, to Domenica Leibowitz and Lauren Croke, and to all of the individuals who contributed to this work. We hope it is useful addition that helps small brands define actionable, attainable goals and supports with the complex choice-making faced in sustainability today.

Today as we together journey forward collectively, against climate change, pollution, and waste, we believe in the potential of a positive call to action in action. Fostering collaboration between the circles of education and industry, as well as multi- generational collaboration has never been more vital to our progress and to our existence, as is the power of creativity, ingenuity and the role of design in accelerating a shift to circularity – driven by quadruple bottom line thinking- people, planet, purpose, before profit.

The CFDA expresses its gratitude to the students and faculty of NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, to Lexus, and to all of the individuals who contributed to this work. We hope it is useful addition that helps small brands define actionable, attainable goals and supports with the complex choice-making faced in sustainability today.

Check CFDA.com for future Sustainability Initiative updates and ongoing series of digital, educational content centered on tactical tools and resources.