If I had to choose today, I would join Cascale again — more certain now than I was on day one.
The first 100 days were less glamorous than LinkedIn posts can make them look: financial stewardship, board governance, sharper priorities for the second half of the year, facing long-standing issues directly, listening hard, and engaging system thinkers to understand where Cascale can contribute most. In those early days, I also joined C-suite leaders at Stanford who are wrestling with the same challenge: how to turn ambition into action.
Then came the two weeks that closed the chapter: my first Cascale Annual Meeting, with 600 of you in Athens and online, confronting a question that does not flinch:
Value Chain Transformation: Who Pays, Who Profits, and What Changes?
And then New York Climate Week. My highlight there was a small dinner with members and partners, in a room quiet enough for people to say what was really on their minds. That, to me, is where progress begins: in honest rooms, well before polished statements or perfect alignment.
I have carried a tension since I was a 15-year-old, long before I knew I would lead an organization built to address it. This industry has enormous power to lift families out of poverty. And, if we are not careful, it can leave real costs behind — in the water, the air, and the health of the people who make what the rest of us wear and use every day.
I grew up watching both in one small textile town in China. Factories arrived with jobs. Electric light replaced oil lamps. My father could finally afford a new shirt instead of patching the old one yet again.
Then, slowly, the river changed color. The sky grew heavy with smog. My parents coughed through winters that did not use to make people cough.
I was a teenager holding both truths at once: industry as opportunity, and industry as responsibility. I have never stopped holding both.
That is why, in Athens, I opened with that story instead of a strategy deck — you’re welcome. It is the most honest answer to why I am here.
Over the past 100 days, I have listened — to the team, to members, to partners, to allies and to skeptics alike. Nearly 150 conversations across the value chain, often anchored in the same three questions:
- What is working?
- What is getting in the way?
- If you had a magic wand, what would you change?
Your answers were clear.
You value Cascale’s convening power: a community that spans the value chain, connected by the Higg Index, shared data powered by Worldly, and relationships built over more than 15 years.
None of this starts from zero. Coming out of tech — not exactly an industry known for handing out compliments freely — I am in awe of what already exists here: 15 years of Higg Index data, a technology layer built by Worldly, and shared infrastructure at a scale few industries have managed to build. Inside that system sit numbers that should stop us in our tracks:
- 200 million metric tons of carbon emissions — 2.8 times Greece’s annual total.
- 3.5 trillion liters of water — enough drinking water for nearly two billion people for a year.
- 14 million livelihoods.
Behind those numbers sits an enormous responsibility.
As I said in Athens, and again in New York: a thermometer can tell you that you have a fever, but it cannot cure you. For 15 years, this industry has built one of the most important thermometers it has ever had. Now our job is to help turn measurement into treatment: insight into collective action, and collective action into results.
You also told me, clearly, what needs to change:
- Too much fragmentation — too many players, projects, and parallel efforts.
- Too much data without enough action.
- Manufacturer voices still not heard strongly enough.
- Cascale and Worldly roles need to be clearer.
- Members need a sharper value proposition they can explain internally — including to their CFOs.
Manufacturers asked us to treat them as partners, and to do more than measure them. Brands and retailers asked for data they can trust, and for help acting on it together.
Some of this is needed now: clearer strategy, clearer value, clearer roles, and practical improvements members can feel. Some of it takes longer: less fragmentation, data turned into decisions, a big tent, manufacturers at the table, and collective action that changes outcomes.
I heard you, and the short-term work is not waiting on the long-term answer. Here is what you asked for, what we are doing this quarter, and where it leads. The full Q4 calendar is on Cascale Connect.
| Member Ask | Short-Term Action (Q4 2026) | Long-Term Direction |
|---|---|---|
| A value proposition I can explain internally, including to my CFO | Business value of sustainability for each member type. A clear guide to what members can expect from Cascale membership. Monthly policy monitoring across the EU, U.S., and APAC, and policy deep dives on trade (October webinar) and energy (November). | A clear and enhanced value proposition from the 2030 strategy; Higg Index data mapped more clearly to CSRD and other regulatory frameworks |
| Clearer Cascale and Worldly roles | A clear division: Cascale convenes members and stewards the methodology; Worldly delivers the platform. | Cascale investing in turning measurement into shared insight and collective action |
| Data turned into action | New Peer Action Groups turning Higg FEM data into practical action. The Higg BRM 2025 Benchmark and the Member Analytics Portal, with new FEP, and GHG dashboards. Climate Partnership (October) and biomass (November) peer exchanges, and the quarterly Climate Action and Decent Work Communities of Practice. | Data into decisions, and collective action that changes outcomes |
| Manufacturer voices heard | A revamped governance approach through the Technical Advisory Council (TAC), the Membership & Stakeholder Advisory Council (MAC), and task forces including Higg FSLM CAF 2.0 Scoring. The Better Buying Snapshot Survey opens in October, giving manufacturers an anonymous way to rate the purchasing practices of the brands they work with. | Manufacturers at the table as partners |
| Less fragmentation | Deciding where Cascale leads, where it convenes, and where it steps back, as part of the 2030 strategy now in development. | Fewer parallel initiatives, and more problems solved together through programmatic partnerships |
| A pathway for small and mid-sized members | Smaller brands and retailers get a baseline from the Higg BRM, benchmarked against peers. The new ESG Improvement Program pilot takes small cohorts through focused sprints to close foundational gaps, each ending in a concrete deliverable. The FEP Module, the Foundational Environmental Performance question set drawn from Higg FEM, gives smaller factories a simpler way in (Ask Me Anything: FEP, October). | Clear segmented services by membership type; the next EIP cohort enrolled |
The Higg FEM remains the backbone of how this industry measures facility environmental performance, and the Higg FEM 2026 cadence goes live this quarter. The FEP Module builds on it, using Higg FEM questions, as another way in for smaller factories or factories new to this journey.
On roles, Cascale convenes members and builds the foundation: the methodology, shaped with members, of what is worth measuring and why. Worldly turns that into software members use at scale. What we have not invested in enough — and what 15 years of data now makes possible — is the third piece: turning measurement into shared insight and collective action. That is where Cascale is putting renewed focus.
December brings the longer answer. The system map we began in Athens will become a 10-year vision, a 2030 strategy, and 2027 priorities. When you see it, I hope you will recognize what you told us.
That value has to be earned. There is trust to rebuild. There are manufacturers who still do not feel fully heard. There are brands waiting for clearer value. There is an industry asking us to help run fewer parallel initiatives and solve more problems together. That is a fair challenge.
I cannot promise perfection. I cannot promise we will do everything everyone asks. But I can promise this:
We will keep listening, especially when it is uncomfortable.
We will be clear about where Cascale leads, where Cascale convenes, and where Cascale should step back.
And we will measure ourselves by what changes on the ground.
Here is the challenge in front of us: to turn the largest shared sustainability and risk intelligence this industry has built into collective action — data into decisions, ambition into results — for a resilient supply chain, a livable planet, and decent work for the hands that make it possible.
As Goethe wrote:
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
That is the work ahead. And we are just getting started.