Texpertise Network launches measures to implement SDGs

Since 2019, Messe Frankfurt Texpertise Network has been working with Conscious Fashion Campaign and United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP) to bring Sustainable Development Goals to all 58 textile events. From December 1-30, 2020, the Texpertise Network will participate ‘Discover the SDGs’, a virtual event by Conscious Fashion Campaign with UNOP.

 

Shortly before the start of the Covid-19 crisis, the UN secretary general Antonio Gutérrez hailed the start of the Decade of Action. As of 2020, the international community now has just ten years to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to which the UN member states committed themselves in the 2030 Agenda. As part of the collaboration with the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the United Nations Office for Partnerships, the Messe Frankfurt Texpertise Network will put the SDGs on the agenda of additional events in December, thus further supporting their implementation in the fashion and textile industry.

 

The aim of the virtual event is to strengthen the knowledge and commitment within the fashion industry that is needed to further support the Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. One component of the event is a virtual and interactive exhibition on the 17 goals, as well as on-demand discussions with industry leaders, United Nations representatives and advocates of the United Nations, including Detlef Braun, member of the executive board, and Thimo Schwenzfeier, director marketing communications textiles and textile technologies at Messe Frankfurt, as well as from Kering, Lenzing, Allbirds, Arch and Hook, Artistic Milliners, Orta, ITL, Vogue Business, CFDA, Collina Strada and the Swarovski Foundation.

 

“This is a critical time to accelerate partnerships to address the world's biggest challenges – from eliminating poverty, hunger and inequalities to reversing climate change and unsustainable consumption and production practices,” Annemarie Hou, acting executive director of the UNOP, said in a press release. “The fashion industry is an important ally for the United Nations in this Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs by 2030.”

 

Joining forces to improve the fashion industry: Frankfurt Fashion Week is positioning itself as the host of the future of fashion and actively driving forward the transformation towards a future-oriented, more sustainable fashion and textile industry. All decision-makers looking to instigate this change will be coming together in Frankfurt am Main from July  5-9, 2021.

 

The initiators of Frankfurt Fashion Week – Messe Frankfurt and the Premium Group – have achieved a real coup: Conscious Fashion Campaign, working in collaboration with the UNOP, will be the presenting partner. Messe Frankfurt will build on its collaboration with the UNOP. The SDGs will be a prerequisite for exhibitors by 2023. And the Frankfurt Fashion SDG Summit by CFC is set to become the leading international conference for sustainability in the fashion world.

 

17 goals, 58 textile events worldwide, around 600,000 visitors and 23,000 exhibitors in 2019: with its global events, the Messe Frankfurt Texpertise Network offers unique reach for supporting the SDGs, even during the corona pandemic. The participating subsidiary companies, sales partners and Messe Frankfurt partners abroad who organise the relevant events play an important role in this. To actively expand knowledge about and further commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Texpertise Network is organising several online seminars, including for staff members in Argentina, Ethiopia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa and the USA and thus expanding its internal sustainability communication.

 

With a unique portfolio currently embracing 58 international textile trade fairs, Messe Frankfurt is the global market leader in trade fairs for the textile industry. In 2019, more than 23,000 exhibitors and more than 600,000 visitors took part in the events around the globe. The trade fair portfolio spans the entire textile industry value chain: as a central communication platform, the Texpertise Network provides information on the world-renowned trade fair brand and the first-class services offered by Messe Frankfurt.