For more than a decade, sustainability has been an integral pillar of our work.

In 2010, the Eco-Challenge was established to heighten industry awareness + commitment to conscious design and to encourage value chain mindfulness- including design, sourcing, and production.

From 2010 – 2014, American-based designers were challenged to implement ecologically + socially responsible practices- with a minimum of 30% or more of their collections being made sustainably. Eco-Challenge Recipients received up to $75,000 through Lexus funded awards.

K/LLER Collection, 2014 Recipient

In 2013, the Sustainability Committee was formed to foster + support sustainability measures in the fashion industry. The committee aimed to inspire and empower designers to take practical, successful steps toward sustainable design.

Co-Chairs: Melissa Joy Manning + Scott Hahn; Members included Maria Cornejo, Victoria Bartlett, Pamela Love, and Tina Lutz.

Image: CFDA Member Melissa Joy Manning

INSPIRE | INNOVATE | IMAGINE

The Fashion* Initiative was designed to inspire commitment to transformative leadership, facilitate the implementation of innovative business practices & activate meaningful change within American fashion.

From 2015 – to 2019, the sustainable development virtual residency actively engaged 20 SME Brands with 60+ mentors & awarded $680,000 in micro grants underwritten by Lexus to power idea actualization + accelerate goal implementation.

Three Fashion* Initiative cohorts learned how to holistically navigate complex value chains & make informed strategic decisions using a quadruple bottom line approach {people, planet + purpose before profit}.

Image: Nicholas K, Cohort 1

Participants evaluated environmental, social, cultural, and financial impacts and explored bespoke approaches to creating value through new materials, processes, andsystems. Each SME Brand concluded their residency with creation of a viable, implementation ready Blueprint for Impactful Futures.

Fashion* Initiative micro-grant recipients and Blueprint Awardees included:

PSNY / V-TO, Hope for Flowers by Tracy Reese, Studio 189, Erin Snow, Zero + Maria Cornejo, Wwake, and Prabal Gurung.

Image: Zero + Maria Cornejo, Fashion* Initiative Awardee, CFDA Member

The CFDA Eileen Fisher Social Innovator Award awarded yearlong fellowships & $50,000 stipends to Parsons graduates Carmen Gama, Teslin Doud, and Lucy Jones.

The Eileen Fisher Social Innovator Trio began with brand rotations in EF’s SoHo retail flagship, progressing to materials, design, and production.  Working from the Irvington, NY HQ, the Trio diagnostically researched before collaboratively prototyping a nearly zero waste upcycled capsule collection made from Green Eileen takeback initiative returned garments.Their design journey culminated with an Eileen Fisher pop-up of the REMADE capsule collection.

Today, Carmen Gama remains with Eileen Fisher- leading Circular Design Initiatives.

From 2016- 2019, the Kenneth Cole Footwear Innovation Award provided five graduates with $50,000 stipends & fellowships at KCP Headquarters, NYC.

The immersive learning initiative connected Fellows with the opportunity to work alongside Kenneth Cole and brand teams.

Hands-on 360 mentorship developed creative, technical, and sourcing acumen.

Image: Kenneth Cole + Footwear Innovation Fellow Susan Zienty

Kenneth Cole Productions- stepped towards circularity in 2019 with an LTD Maddox Sneaker- reimagined with KCP Innovation Fellow & Academy of Art University alum Susan Zienty.

Made with deadstock materials, recycled nylon laces, recycled neoprene, and a corn husk x upcycled natural rubber sole, the piloted material innovations were subsequently integrated and scaled.

Image: Kenneth Cole Productions

IDEAS | MENTORSHIP | AWARDS

Est. in 2017 in partnership with the Accessories Council, the Elaine Gold Launch Pad was a 23-week virtual residency initiative for designers with businesses of 0-3 years.

Each venture received design x business mentorship combined & milestone based micro-Awards to guide + enable goal activation within a midpoint Design Sprint and end- program 360 Venture Blueprint Pitch.

By its conclusion in 2020, the unique creative entrepreneurship program supported growth of 16 early-phase brands by providing access to 45+ mentors and awarding $700,000 in micro Grants with additional in-kind studio opportunities by Camp David & Industry City.

Image Courtesy of Genusee

Anchored by sustainability, innovation & technology, a key goal of the Elaine Gold LaunchPad was to catapult ideas into visionary, viable ventures with scalable impact potential.

Participants were challenged to explore business model innovation + value creation.  By applying ingenuity, all sought to invent purposeful brands designed for new market frontiers:

Circular eyewear startup Genusee transformed Flint water bottles into Detroit-made glasses. Lucy Jones’ FFORA pioneered accessible lifestyle accessories for wheelchair users.

Emily Bode created an archival system for BODE’s bespoke menswear heritage textiles.

Social entrepreneur & ADIFF Founder, Angela Luna– envisioned upcycled products & a workforce development model aiding Syrian refugees.

BOND Hardware scaled its stainless steel and lab grown diamond jewelry + home collection’s e-commerce & showcased at Art Basel

Image: ADIFF, Angela Luna

The 2018 Materials Matter-themed CFDA Fashion Education Summit invited 140+ attendees to explore material innovations from test tube to market futures. 35+ speakers included Parlay founder Cyrill Gutsch, C.L.A.S.S, Sustainable Angle & Amanda Parkes.

Held annually in New York {2012-2019} the CFDA Fashion Education Summit gathered guests from 20+ American design colleges.

Recognizing school resource access gaps–to develop sustainability-centered curriculum and expert engagement, the CFDA launched this important Educational Initiative to encourage meaningful dialogue between education x industry. Learning-centered engagement integrated knowledge-building topics related to all impact areas, including artisanship, technology, & materiality.

In 2019, the CFDA became an affiliate member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC)  achieving the Foundational+ level in 2021 and 2022.

Through education + engagement, the CFDA aims to support the transition to circular business models, materials, processes, and systems- and amplify the work of ecosystem leaders such as the SAC.

Understanding that SME brands are often challenged by resource, cost, and scale access barriers which can hasten the shift to closed-loop, biodegradable materials and processes, and other proven impact reduction design strategies – We believe promoting stakeholder expertise is important in helping to increase the access and scale of material innovation and circular design strategies is essential to decarbonization efforts.

Image: Hope for Flowers by Tracy Reese, 2019 Fashion* Initiative Awardee, CFDA Member

With a view to positive and impactful futures, the 2019 Liz Claiborne Scholar Award invited imaginative answers to today’s urgent challenges.

Scholarship recipient Isabel Holden of Marist College collaborated with her school’s chemistry department and discovered a way to safely extract indigo from old denim and use it to re-dye new denim.

The unique indigo dye extraction method, co-created with science students Jason Randall and Callan McLoughlin’s idea, prototyped the winning closed-loop process.

Image: Isabel Holden, Marist College, Liz Claiborne Design for Impactful Futures Scholar, 2019

The CFDA’s 2019 launch of the Sustainability Resource Hub, was created in response to requests for an open-access knowledge-sharing platform, centralizing learning tools, 400+ stakeholder contacts, relevant information, and evergreen stories specific to fashion design x business sustainable strategies.

All Resources are intended for everyone in our holistic community of CFDA Members, educators, students, professionals, and creative leaders which include:

+ A-Z Sustainability Directory

+ Library + Lexicon Annex

+ Materials Index

+ Guide To Sustainable Strategies

+ Sustainable Strategies Toolkit

+ KPI Design Kit For Measurable Change

PRIORITIZE. MAP. ACTUALIZE.

The CFDA Sustainable Strategies Toolkit helps charter routes for sprinting to reduced impact, high-value creation & craft a manifesto for change.

As annex to the CFDA Guide to Sustainable Strategies, the Sustainable Strategies Toolkit aims to visualize the mapping of short-term gaps, hurdles + priorities and guide design x business thinkers in identifying reframing opportunities for transforming challenges into actionable outcomes.

The CFDA.com downloadable Toolkit includes worksheets intended to facilitate in diagnostics and provide users with step-by-step guidance in the creation of strategic blueprints.

In 2019, the CFDA pledged to support the universal Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact and amplify the 17  Sustainable Development Goals’ importance to positive transformation within fashion environmentally, socially, economically, and culturally.

The CFDA strives to engage and inform through purpose-centered initiatives by providing virtual engagement, sustainable strategies-centered resources, and ingenuity-based thought leadership.

Within its growing resources, the principles of the UN Global Compact and the UN Sustainable Development Goals* are referenced as primary frameworks to advance the fashion ecosystem’s progress in reaching 2030 decarbonization and 2050 net-zero targets.

 *In 2022, the CFDA recognized the leadership of the UN through the Environmental Sustainability Award

Image courtesy of Jacob Olmedo, Parsons MFA Textiles, Liz Claiborne Design for Impactful Futures Graduate Scholar, 2019 

In October 2020, the CFDA in partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) released Sustainability by Design: Rethinking New York Fashion Week as a 3-part comprehensive report set examining the environmental impact of New York Fashion Week including a future gazing Playbook for Positive Change.

CFDA Steering Committee:  Maria Cornejo, Gabriela Hearst, Virginia Ritchie of Tommy Hilfiger, Brandon Sheffield, Alicia Loehle, Tracy Reese, Hillary Taymour, Lucie Brigham of United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP), Kerry Bannigan of Conscious Fashion Campaign (CFC). CFDA: S.Kolb, S.Kozlowski, J. Maglieri

We believe that today’s students are the architects of tomorrow and will build more equitable, enduring futures for people and planet by inventing safer materials and using design systems as a lever to activate radical change.

Led by science, creativity, innovation, and purpose, 2020 CFDA Scholar Uyen Tran – a graduate of Parsons MFA Textiles, is pioneering new frontiers in fashion materiality and planetary health through ingenuity, innovation, and regenerative systems thinking.

As Co-Founder of the New York-based Tomtex, Tran creates compostable biomaterials from food waste such as coffee grounds and crustacean shells.

Image: Tomtex, Uyen Tran CFDA Innovation Scholar 2020 

Through a 3- year partnership with the Swarovski Foundation, the CFDA supports the growth of sustainable student futures. The Re: Generation Innovation Scholar Award dedicates 1/ $30,000 scholarship to help a future change champion defray the high cost of tuition & increased financial burdens associated with the pandemic, blended with mentorship to advance understanding of 360 sustainable strategies & UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Image: Project Everyone, Goals House COP26 Reception: Re:Generation Innovation Scholar Bailey Adams, FIT 2022, CFDA CEO Steven Kolb, Swarovski Foundation Head Maika

Bailey Adams, Fashion Institute of Technology

Through support of the Swarovski Foundation close to 90% of Inaugural Re: Generation Scholar Bailey Adams’ F.I.T Senior Year Tuition & Thesis expenses were met. Adams’ had direct access to CFDA professional development aimed to fill knowledge gaps, anchored by SDGs 17, 10, 4 & 12. Adams’ Mentors included 360 Lead Mentor Runa Ray, Alan Mak, & Tara St.James.

Image: Bailey Adams FIT Thesis Collection, CFDA Runway 360, September 2022

As we continue on our path to valuably serve the CFDA community of creative captains, change champions, and fashion transformers, via pillar-aligned Sustainability Initiatives we are resolved to help grow the futures of resilient design leaders who embed planet and people-centered principles within their own journeys.