This year, Textile Exchange hosted its annual conference in Lisbon, Portugal from October 13 to 17 – convening hundreds of stakeholders in apparel, textiles, and fashion for insights on the global materials and fibers landscape. The event follows the inaugural “Climate and Nature Studio,” held in September in New York City for Climate Week NYC, jointly hosted by Cascale with the apparel alliance.
Cascale staff – among them Hamza Habib Hasan, senior manager of member engagement, brand and retail; Ellie Hackwood, manager of member engagement brand and retail; Elisabeth von Reitzenstein, senior director, public affairs; Carolina van Loenen, director of stakeholder engagement; Melissa O de León, senior manager of Higg Product Tools; and Erlinda Lee, director of global membership development – attended the week-long conference. Sessions reflected the urgency of the climate crisis and biodiversity, examining the broader market forces influencing how businesses adapt with a systems change-oriented viewpoint.
Along with programming and networking moments, the Cascale team hosted an invite-only Lunch & Learn with 30 members gathering in an intimate dialogue on convergence. The “Navigating Convergence: Exploring Manufacturer & Brand Realities” session began with Hasan welcoming attendees and sharing insights on Cascale, the Higg Index, and the broader consumer goods ecosystem. Then Hasan spoke with Sapphire Finishing Mills’ head of sustainability Raffay Bin Rauf and Teddy Group’s environmental specialist Eleonora Lepri about the challenges and opportunities facing convergence.
Afterwards, Cascale staff facilitated group discussions on overcoming internal silos, audit harmonization and aligning proprietary assessments, and strengthening buyer-supplier relationships. Each group explored challenges, successes, and solutions. At the end of the lunch, participants shared learnings with the wider audience. The key takeaways included that greater collaboration, consistency, and alignment is needed between brands’ sustainability and sourcing teams, with C-Level support as a necessary leverage. Additionally, attendees agreed that there are many opportunities for MSIs to support mutual code of conducts, to provide training for sourcing and sustainability teams, and to facilitate brand-manufacturer roundtables for honest feedback. Finally, the group agreed that communication, regionality, and context awareness underlie every interaction – helping craft a more complete picture of effective partnerships.
As with Cascale, the Worldly team also showed a strong representation at the event. Worldly participated in the Textile Exchange Conference as a Platinum Sponsor, along with hosting a networking breakfast on October 15 that included more than 20 guests representing Worldly Customers and top apparel and consumer goods brands, retailers, and manufacturers from across the globe. The Worldly team took advantage of this event to demonstrate its newest technology that makes Cascale’s Higg Index tools, exclusively available on Worldly, even more impactful for customers across textile and apparel supply chains.
