WAKEFIELD – Two industry experts join host Philip Berman for our latest Ecotextile Talks podcast that advises listeners how best to prepare for new European Union legislation on responsibly communicating sustainability information to consumers – and making sustainable fashion products the norm.
Elisabeth von Reitzenstein, senior director of public affairs at Cascale, formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, and Baptiste Carriere-Pradal, co-founder of the 2BPolicy consultancy, are Berman’s guests this week for the second of a new four-part series in partnership with Cascale.
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A wide-ranging discussion explores how the textile industry can comply with emerging policy and legislation with a particular focus on the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition directive, which recently received its final approval, as well as the Green Claims Directive and follows on from episode 1 in this podcast series which can be found HERE.
“We are following developments very closely in order to ensure constant alignment and further development of the Higg Index tools in light of these pieces of legislation,” von Reitzenstein says.
“This block of legislation we are talking about today is so central and important for the sector and indeed the consumers as well. Claims have to be clear, they have to be substantiated. We advocate for this. We don’t want greenwashing. We also don’t want green hushing.
“We believe it’s very important for consumers that they can make informed choices and are presented with clear information, and also for companies, it is important that they can make clear decisions to lead to better products, to sustainable products, to make a real difference and move forward.”
Carriere-Pradal commented: “This new piece of legislation really represents the change of an era. For the last few years, it was a bit like the wild west. Everybody was able to do what they wanted. And now, finally, legislators are saying: ‘Guys, it’s now game over’.
“We’ll tell you actually what you can do, what you can say, and how you will say it. So it’s a complete transformative point.”
They go on to discuss the European Union’s proposed regulation on environmental claims in product labelling, expressing concerns about the lack of clarity in the initial European Commission proposals and emphasising the importance of substantiating sustainability claims through lifecycle assessments that cover all key impact areas.
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