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last updated: april 26 7:22 am pt

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Happy Sunday, Weekenders.

Quick question before we get into it: is it just me, or is Earth Month incredibly quiet this year? Maybe brands are waiting for Earth Day, but compared to previous years, it feels very...quiet.

I’ve been keeping a tally, and the silence has been noticeable. Hit reply and tell me what you’re seeing, because I have thoughts. (I’ll share them soon.)

This was a week with some genuinely wild stories from Allbirds pivoting to an AI company and Stella McCartney and H&M dropping the first look at their May 7th collaboration. I made a video breaking it all down because, honestly, this one needed more than bullet points.

Now, on to the news!
— Brittany

• Zero Waste Europe released a report arguing that adding waste incineration to the EU’s carbon pricing system is unlikely to increase landfill use across Europe. The report pushes back on concerns that higher incineration costs would send more waste to landfill, noting that landfill is already heavily restricted and often more expensive in many member states. Instead, it says including incineration in the EU Emissions Trading System could help better account for emissions from fossil-based waste, including materials like plastics and synthetic textiles, while creating stronger incentives for sorting and recycling.

• Uber Eats launched a return-by-courier feature for eligible retail items purchased through the app, allowing customers to send back products from home instead of returning them in-store. The feature is rolling out across thousands of U.S. retail locations on Uber Eats, including Pacsun, Petco, and Pet Food Express. Customers pay a return fee based on time and distance, while refunds begin once the courier picks up the item.

• Reformation is closing out its five-year climate roadmap after reducing average product carbon intensity by 29% between 2021 and 2025 and meeting its Scope 3 target. The brand also reported that 97.5% of its fibers came from natural or recycled inputs in 2025. But it missed its Scope 1 and 2 target, citing business growth and structural constraints, including the challenge of reducing absolute emissions after already sourcing 100% renewable electricity in its baseline year.

• Following labor abuse allegations tied to subcontractors, Loro Piana said oversight of the brand was lifted early after it strengthened supply chain monitoring. The company conducted more than 2,400 audits and cut ties with around 100 suppliers that failed to meet compliance standards.

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating whether Lululemon has misled consumers by potentially selling activewear containing PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” The probe will examine the brand’s testing protocols, restricted substances list, and supply chain practices. Lululemon says it doesn’t use PFAS and already phased out limited use of the chemicals in water-repellent items in 2023.

  • The investigation adds to a broader pattern of consumer-product probes from Paxton and comes as Lululemon faces pressure from other fronts as well. An activist group recently launched “Mumumelon,” a parody activewear brand designed to mimic Lululemon and draw attention to its rising emissions and reliance on fossil fuel-powered manufacturing.

• Primark released a second version of its Circular Product Standard, updating the framework it uses to design clothing for durability, recyclability, and longer use.

• ACT (Action, Collaboration, Transformation) released its 2025 Accountability and Monitoring Report, tracking how purchasing practices are shaping wage conditions across global garment supply chains. Based on survey data from 1,049 brand employees and 1,055 suppliers, the report covers 18 ACT signatory brands, including companies like H&M Group, Inditex, Primark, and ASOS. It points to progress in areas like sourcing strategy, responsible exit practices, and some planning systems, but also shows a familiar gap between what brands say is happening and what suppliers actually experience, especially around pricing, order changes, and payment terms. It also found weaker scores in incentives and compliance, and in forecasting and capacity planning, compared with 2023, while reinforcing social dialogue as a key part of improving working conditions.

• Recover partnered with Prosperity Textile to launch a production-ready denim fabric platform made from recycled cotton, designed to help brands scale circular denim beyond small capsule collections. The fabrics, produced in Vietnam under the Recover Fabrics umbrella, combine Recover’s recycled fiber with Prosperity’s manufacturing scale and are designed to meet performance, consistency, and volume requirements for global brands.

NEW on the SFF Job Board:

• 🆕 Gap Inc. | Vice President, Global Sustainability
  San Francisco, CA | On-Site · Full-Time · 15+ yrs exp
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Levi Strauss & Co. | Product Development Lead, Sustainable Materials & Innovation
  San Francisco, CA | Hybrid · Full-Time · 7+ yrs exp | $92,300 - $135,300
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Aritzia | Senior Specialist/Specialist, Environmental Impact
  Vancouver, BC | On-Site · Full-Time | CAD $50,000 - $150,000
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Valentino | Sustainability Intern
  Milan, Italy | On-Site · Internship
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

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Happy Sunday Week/Enders,

Welcome to Week/End, your shortcut to the need-to-know sustainable fashion news. Not on the list? This button is for you. 👇🏾

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Have a news tip or industry update? Send it our way here.

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a $144 million research initiative to measure how microplastics accumulate in the human body and assess their health impacts. The program, led by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, will develop standardized methods to track microplastics in human organs and study how different types affect the body. It also includes plans to create tools for monitoring exposure at scale and identifying which plastics pose the highest biological risk. The effort aims to close a major data gap that has limited the ability to understand and address microplastic-related health risks.

  • So what: The conversation around microplastics is moving from awareness to measurement. As the data gap closes, microplastics could become a more concrete pressure point for materials, regulation, and how fashion companies justify synthetic use.

    • Microplastics are also gaining cultural traction. We mentioned The Plastic Detox a few weeks ago, a Netflix documentary that put the issue in front of a wider audience. The film explores growing concerns about how everyday exposure may affect human health. Now, companies featured in the film, like Sparxell, Sway, Bananatex, Purified, and Parley for the Oceans are using that momentum to push brands toward plastic-free materials already on the market.

• Fashion for Good launched Feedstock Activation Europe: FAE, an initiative to build Europe’s sorting and pre-processing infrastructure for textile-to-textile recycling. The project brings together brands like Adidas, Bestseller, and Inditex to tackle a core bottleneck: most post-consumer textile waste is too mixed, contaminated, and expensive to prepare for recycling at scale. Project FAE will test technologies like fiber separation and contaminant removal while developing a commercial model for large-scale sorting and pre-processing hubs across Europe. The goal is to turn textile waste into consistent, recycler-ready feedstock that can compete with virgin materials.

  ---

• Madewell launched a denim capsule made with recycled cotton from 20,000 pairs collected through its take-back program. The collection was developed with textile recycler RE&UP and denim manufacturer ISKO, which turned non-wearable post-consumer jeans into new fabric blended with viscose. The launch is a rare example of a brand connecting take-back, recycling, and product re-entry into a single textile-to-textile system.

• Ecoalf is back in the news after launching its first denim collection made with a blend of regenerative and recycled cotton, designed to be fully recyclable. The collection uses chemical-free dyeing and laser and ozone finishing processes to reduce water, energy, and emissions compared to traditional denim production. The garments are also designed without zippers and with removable hardware to simplify recycling at end of life.

• Unspun secured letters of support from brands including Walmart and REI for its plan to build domestic apparel manufacturing hubs in the U.S. using AI-enabled 3D weaving technology. Unspun says the automated system can produce semi-finished garments directly from yarn, allowing brands to manufacture closer to demand and reduce excess inventory.

  ---

• FarmRaise, a farm data infrastructure platform, partnered with Avalo, a company using AI to develop new crop varieties, to support the scaling of Avalo’s cotton innovation program. Avalo is using the platform to support grower enrollment, field-level data collection, and reporting as it develops cotton seeds and farming practices aimed at improving yields and resilience. The platform enables field-level data to be captured and standardized without adding more administrative burden for farmers.

  ---

• ShipMonk opened a 406,000-square-foot apparel-focused fulfillment center in Kentucky, its first facility dedicated to a single product category. The warehouse is designed to handle apparel-specific challenges like high SKU complexity, returns processing, and garment rework, with systems for inspecting, grading, and quickly returning items to inventory.

• A week after naming Sulzer as a scale-up partner, Spinnova said it’s started trial runs at the Woodspin demo factory in Finland. The Finnish materials company, which develops wood-based textile fiber, said the trials will focus on production efficiency as it works toward restarting larger-scale production in 2026.

• Valentino said an Italian court ended judicial administration early for Valentino Bags Lab, the unit responsible for the brand’s accessories line, after the company told Reuters it had strengthened supplier controls and supply chain monitoring. The court placed the unit under special administration in May 2025 after production was subcontracted to Chinese-owned firms accused of exploiting workers.

From the SFF Job Board:

• Carhartt | Auditor, Social Responsibility
  Remote (Dearborn, MI) | Remote · Full-Time · 3+ yrs exp
  ↳ Apply here

• Chanel | Sustainability Analyst (Fixed-Term Contract)
  Paris, France | On-Site · Full-Time · 3+ yrs exp
  ↳ Apply here

• Hermès | CSR Project Manager – Collection & Traceability
  Paris, France | Full-Time
  ↳ Apply here

• Stella McCartney | Sustainability Intern
  Milan, Italy | On-Site · Full-Time · Internship · Italian Fluency Required
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

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Conference

2026 Sustainable Fashion Forum

October 28-30, 2026 | Portland, OR

Most sustainability conversations focus on building the system. SFF26 focuses on what happens when that system meets real people, and whether it actually holds up in the market. If your work is tied to making sustainability initiatives succeed in the real world, this is the room to be in.

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Happy Earth Month, Week/Enders.

Earth Month is officially here, which means the annual wave of sustainability campaigns has arrived. Ecoalf kicked things off with a “Make Planet Earth Great Again” campaign, which feels about right for the month ahead.

On our end, we dropped the first round of speakers for SFF26, our annual conference, this week. The lineup brings together consumer neuroscientist Matt Johnson, cultural futurist Jasmine Bina, Kearney Consumer Institute lead Katie Thomas, and other leaders across sustainability, policy, and business to explore how to close the gap between sustainable systems and real-world adoption.

If you missed it, you can see the first speaker drop here.

If you’re trying to close the gap between building sustainable systems and getting people to actually use them, I wrote more about that here.

Now, onto this week’s news.

— Brittany

Have news to share with the industry? Press releases, reports, and updates can be sent directly to us here.

• Reju landed €135 million in Dutch government funding for its planned textile-to-textile recycling hub at Chemelot Industrial Park in the Netherlands. Reju said the site will process post-consumer polyester textiles into recycled raw materials with about 50% lower emissions than virgin polyester, pushing the project closer to final investment approval.

• American Apparel & Footwear Association filed a legal complaint against CalRecycle over its choice of producer responsibility organization for California’s textile recycling law, SB 707. In a LinkedIn post, AAFA President & CEO Stephen Lamar said AAFA supports the law but argues the selected PRO Landbell USA doesn’t meet four statutory requirements, including being producer-formed, set up as a 501(c)(3), governed by a diverse board, and built with financial controls. The group said it wants the challenge resolved quickly so the state can move forward with what will be the first U.S. extended producer responsibility program for textiles. The dispute puts early pressure on how California will implement one of fashion’s most closely watched circularity laws.

• ThredUp released its 2026 Resale Report, showing that secondhand is continuing to grow faster than traditional retail, but the next phase of growth will depend less on demand and more on fixing supply and operational bottlenecks.

SIDE NOTE: Danielle Vermeer, Head of Product at ThredUp, will be speaking at SFF26, bringing a front-line perspective on resale, social commerce, and what it takes to drive sustained consumer participation in circular models. Her experience across ThredUp, Amazon Fashion, and Teleport gives her a sharp view into how secondhand is being positioned to scale, and how participation connects to the business case behind it.

• The National Advanced Functional Fibre Innovation Centre (NAFFIC) and Aware launched a digital product passport system that traces textile products from raw material to finished garment across China and Europe. The system tracks recycled polyester from post-consumer plastic bottles through yarn, fabric, and manufacturing, with each step verified on blockchain and accessible via a QR code. It combines NAFFIC’s feedstock verification platform with Aware’s traceability system to generate transaction records and compliance data across the supply chain.

• The U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Innovation Hub and Amazon announced a partnership to explore turning post-consumer textiles into battery-grade graphite. The collaboration will combine Amazon’s AI and supply chain capabilities with materials science expertise from Ames National Laboratory to test new methods for material recovery and recycling.

• Sulzer signed on as a partner to support the scale-up of Spinnova fiber, contributing engineering systems and process expertise as the company works to industrialize production and improve cost competitiveness.

• Selenis and Kintra Fibers are teaming up to scale Kintra’s 100% bio-based synthetic fiber technology. Selenis will help bring Kintra’s fiber-grade PBS resin to commercial volumes using its polymer manufacturing infrastructure as Kintra works toward large-scale production.

• Everbloom is partnering with North Carolina State University’s Nonwovens Institute to support the scale-up of its protein-based fibers made from industrial waste. The agreement gives the startup access to pilot-scale spinning and processing facilities as it works to move from lab development to manufacturing-ready materials.

• One of fashion’s most closely watched biomaterials startups, Spiber, relaunched under new leadership after restructuring its business and transferring assets to a new entity following financial strain.

• Better Cotton updated its Principles & Criteria standard to put more emphasis on regenerative agriculture at the farm level. The new version, which took effect April 1, requires farmers to place greater focus on regenerative practices when setting targets and annual activities, while also revising sections tied to natural resources, crop protection, management, and decent work.

SIDE NOTE: Ashley Munro, who leads sustainability claims and integrity at Better Cotton, will be joining behavioral scientists, consumer psychologists, and cultural strategists on the SFF26 MainStage. Her work sits at the intersection of sustainability claims, certification, and policy, which matters more than ever as brands face growing scrutiny around greenwashing and the broader challenge of building trust through credible communication.

• Etsy announced it will ban natural fur products starting August 11, 2026, as part of an updated animal products policy. The new rules prohibit items made with fur from animals killed primarily for their pelts, including mink, fox, and rabbit, while continuing to bar products made from endangered, threatened, and other at-risk species.

• After signaling it would police “Made in America” claims more aggressively, the Trump administration is now pairing that message with financing support for companies producing domestically. The U.S. Small Business Administration rolled out a new 90% loan guarantee for manufacturers through its International Trade Loan program, expanding access to financing for equipment, facility upgrades, and production growth. Starting May 1, small manufacturers in NAICS sectors 31–33 will be eligible, with parts of the food supply chain also included under expanded program rules.

If you’re looking to break into the fashion industry, a few headlines this week put words to what a lot of people are feeling in the job market:

New on the SFF Job Board this week:

• 🆕 VF Corporation | Brand Compliance & Reporting Analyst
  Denver, CO | Hybrid · Full-Time · 1+ yrs exp | $54,432 - $68,040
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Arc’teryx | Climate Business Partner
  North Vancouver, BC | Hybrid · Full-Time · 5+ yrs exp | CAD $94,000 - $129,000
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Prada Group | Industrial Sustainability Intern
  Terranuova Bracciolini, Italy | Hybrid · Internship (6-months)
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 River Island | Social Sustainability Specialist
  London, UK | Hybrid · Full-Time · 2+ yrs exp
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

Unlock All Jobs

• Most sustainability conversations focus on the system. SFF26 is about what happens when that system meets real people. If your work sits at the intersection of consumer behavior and sustainability, you should be in this room!

• Let’s stay in touch: LinkedIn | Instagram | Email

Welcome to Week/End, your shortcut to the need-to-know sustainable fashion news. Not on the list? This button is for you. 👇🏾

Subscribe now

Happy Sunday, Week/Enders!

ICYMI, earlier this month, Highsnobiety dropped part one of its Status Economy report, unpacking how people define status today.

For a long time, fashion was one of the clearest ways to signal wealth, taste, and belonging. Now, it’s no longer the default.

Social media expanded what people can see and assign meaning to. We don’t just see outfits, we see entire lifestyles. What’s on someone’s bathroom shelf, what they eat, where they go, how they spend their time.

At the same time, fast fashion and dupes trained people to treat clothing as cheap and replaceable.

That combination is creating a real problem. The status once tied to fashion is spreading into other categories, while the perceived value of clothing keeps slipping.

And if people don’t value clothing, it becomes much harder to ask them to pay more for sustainability.

So the question I keep coming back to is: how do you get people to value clothing, and then make the case for why sustainability is worth paying more for?

I wrote more about this over on . If you’re a Week/End yearly subscriber and originally signed up for my consumer behavior takes, hit reply and I’ll give you comp access for the rest of your subscription.

A quick update on a story from last week’s newsletter: PETA filed a shareholder resolution urging H&M Group to reinstate its mohair ban, citing what it says is new evidence of animal abuse on farms certified under Textile Exchange’s Responsible Mohair Standard.

After publication, Textile Exchange reached out to Week/End with a statement, saying it takes allegations of animal mistreatment seriously and that its standards include third-party audits, investigation processes, and corrective actions where needed. You can read it here.

Now, on to the news!

— Brittany

Have news to share with the industry? Press releases, reports, and updates can be sent directly to us here.

• Boston Consulting Group and ReHubs estimated Europe will need up to €11 billion to scale textile-to-textile recycling by 2035. While the region generates 15.2 million tons of textile waste annually, less than 1% is recycled into new textiles. The system is constrained before recycling even begins, with only 1.5 million tons currently collected and sorted. Reaching viability would require 2.7 million tons annually, but weak economics and rising consumption continue to limit progress. Without coordinated investment and policy support, the report warns the system will remain stuck in a supply-demand deadlock.

• American Circular Textiles launched a public tracker to follow the rollout of California’s Responsible Textile Recovery Act (SB 707), giving brands and supply chain players a centralized view of what’s been decided, what’s still unclear, and what’s coming next.

• H&M showed up across multiple fronts this week, from internal strategy tools to public reporting to broader industry influence. The H&M Foundation released an open-access workshop toolkit to help companies apply its System Map framework across the textile value chain. Developed with Accenture, the toolkit is designed to help brands and suppliers identify where they have influence and reduce emissions, translating a systems-level view of fashion into something teams can actually use.

  • H&M Group also reported a 34.6% emissions reduction from 2019 levels in its latest sustainability report, with 91% of materials now recycled or sustainably sourced. The company also reduced supplier factories using onsite coal from 120 to 10. The update comes as many brands scale back sustainability reporting, leaving H&M among the few still publicly linking environmental performance to long-term strategy.

  • And in London, H&M and Stella McCartney also convened the first meeting of their “Insights Board,” bringing together industry voices to discuss materials, innovation, animal welfare, and how brands can make sustainability feel more credible and relevant to customers.

• Ralph Lauren introduced Timeless by Design 2030, the next phase of its Global Citizenship & Sustainability strategy, with new goals tied to emissions, cotton sourcing, worker programs, and supplier performance. The plan is built around four pillars covering supply chain partnerships, natural resources, employees, and communities, and positions sustainability as part of the company’s long-term resilience strategy. The update comes about six months after Ralph Lauren dropped its 2040 net-zero target, shifting its focus toward nearer-term goals instead of longer-range climate commitments. Among them, the company said it aims to cut absolute Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions 30% by 2030 from a FY20 baseline, source 30% of its global cotton volume from regenerative and/or recycled cotton by FY31, and expand worker programs across its supply chain.

• Renasens raised €10 million in seed funding to scale a textile recycling process designed to separate polycotton blends. The Stockholm-based startup uses supercritical CO₂ to remove dyes and coatings before mechanically separating fibers, achieving up to a 98% separation rate without breaking materials down into their chemical building blocks. The modular system is designed to reduce water and energy use while enabling cotton and polyester to be recovered and reused separately.

• lululemon invested in Epoch Biodesign as part of the startup’s $12 million funding round to scale enzymatic recycling for nylon 6,6. The funding will support a demonstration facility near Imperial College London, with plans for a commercial-scale plant in 2028.

• Fifteen Members of the European Parliament are pushing for the EU’s upcoming textile rules under the ESPR to go beyond recyclability and include requirements for sustainably sourced renewable materials. In a letter to the European Commission, the group argues that focusing too heavily on recycled content risks sidelining natural fibers like cotton and wool, which still make up a significant share of global production. They call for policy to support sustainably sourced renewable materials alongside recycling, citing benefits for climate impact, biodiversity, and farmer livelihoods. The letter also warns that current policy direction could limit long-term system change if it fails to address sourcing practices across the full lifecycle.

• The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre released methodology for deciding what data should be included in Digital Product Passports under the ESPR. The 121-page report lays out a step-by-step framework for translating policy goals and use cases into specific DPP data requirements, while also assessing what information companies already collect and share across value chains. It distinguishes between essential, strongly recommended, and voluntary data elements, and covers questions like granularity, access rights, and governance.

• is arguing that the industry may be overcomplicating Digital Product Passport efforts by using a supply chain model that doesn’t reflect how cotton actually moves. In an opinion paper shared with EU policymakers ahead of upcoming DPP discussions, the advisory group highlights the gin as a missing link between farms and spinners, where cotton is aggregated, processed, and already documented, but often overlooked in current tier-based mapping systems. Rather than relying on certification, which was never built to function as universal traceability infrastructure, the paper argues for a transaction-based chain-of-custody system that carries origin data forward at each step. The core issue, it says, is not that the data doesn’t exist, but that it stops moving through the supply chain.

• Textile Exchange released the first study in a seven-part Life Cycle Assessment series aimed at improving the environmental data the fashion industry uses to measure raw material impacts, starting with cotton. The cotton study covers production in nine countries and includes organic, regenerative, recycled, and conventional systems to give brands a more detailed baseline for impact modeling and sourcing decisions.

• Fashion for Good launched a Mass Balance Demonstrator project to test how renewable inputs can be introduced into existing polyester production and tracked through a chain-of-custody accounting system rather than physical separation. The project will produce biomass-attributed PET, build emissions models, and develop a roadmap for scaling with partners across the supply chain. The approach is designed to help brands start using lower-carbon materials without waiting for new infrastructure.

• A new study from WEFT and Manchester Metropolitan University explored whether visible recycling fees on clothing can change how people shop. Using conjoint analysis (simulated purchasing decisions rather than self-reported intentions, which tend to overstate actual behavior) the research tested 2,803 UK shoppers and found that fees below £0.50 per garment had little impact on purchase decisions, while higher charges began shifting demand toward items with lower recycling fees. Around £1.00, nearly half of respondents switched to a lower-fee garment even when it cost more overall. In other words, visible recycling fees might not reduce how much people buy, but they can influence them to buy better.

• Cotton Incorporated released U.K. survey data suggesting consumers are increasingly treating fiber content as a shorthand for clothing quality and longevity. The survey found that 60% of respondents see fiber content as a factor contributing to clothing durability.

• Shein released its latest circularity report, arguing that scaling circular fashion depends more on aligning with existing consumer behavior than changing it. Based on a survey of over 15,500 shoppers, the company says its customers already buy in moderation, wear items repeatedly, and prioritize function, suggesting circular systems should focus on convenience, repair, and reuse rather than mindset shifts. But the findings are based on self-reported behavior from Shein’s own customer base, raising questions about how accurately they reflect actual consumption patterns or end-of-life outcomes.

Wanna work in sustainable fashion?

The SFF Job Board is your go-to hub for sustainability roles across fashion. From ESG and impact to circularity and compliance, we only post jobs that sit at the intersection of apparel, fashion, and sustainability. Click here to see every job.

• 🆕 Fjällräven/Fenix Outdoor | Sustainability Associate
  Louisville, CO | On-Site · Full-Time | $58,000
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona | Business Development Manager, Textile Circularity
  Phoenix, AZ | On-Site · Full-Time | $70,000
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 On | Senior Specialist, Sustainability Strategy
  Zurich, Switzerland | On-Site · Full-Time · 5+ yrs exp
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 HUGO BOSS | Senior Sustainability Manager, Menswear
  Metzingen, Germany | Hybrid · Full-Time
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

• Most sustainability conversations focus on the system. SFF26 is about what happens when that system meets real people. If your work sits at the intersection of consumer behavior and sustainability, you should be in this room!

• Let’s stay in touch: LinkedIn | Instagram | Email

Welcome to Week/End, your shortcut to the need-to-know sustainable fashion news. Not on the list? This button is for you. 👇🏾

Subscribe now

• WWF partnered with RFLCT Consulting to release a traceability guide to help brands source deforestation-free leather. The guide was developed with input from 22 fashion and automotive companies in the Deforestation-Free Call to Action for Leather, representing more than $300 billion in revenue. It outlines a 10-step approach for tracking leather back to its origin and aligns with growing regulatory pressure like the EU Deforestation Regulation.

• Lifestyle brand FatFace launched a supplier partnership program requiring manufacturers to measure emissions, set net-zero transition plans, and report progress as part of its broader climate strategy. The agreement offers participating suppliers preferred partner status and access to co-funded decarbonization projects, with two long-term suppliers in India already signed on, representing 11% of production.

• The Trump administration ordered the FTC and federal agencies to step up enforcement against false “Made in America” claims and expand oversight of country-of-origin labeling. The order directs regulators to prioritize enforcement, consider rules requiring online marketplaces to verify origin claims, and increase scrutiny of products sold through federal procurement contracts, with potential referrals to the Department of Justice for violations.

• Rubi Laboratories, a materials startup using enzymes to turn waste carbon into industrial inputs, secured $60 million in offtake term sheets and raised $7.5 million in new funding to scale production. The round included investors like AP Ventures, FH One, Talis Capital, and H&M Group.

• SeaDyes, a seaweed-based dye startup based at The James Hutton Institute, secured £200,000 from Scottish Enterprise to commercialize its technology. The company is developing seaweed-derived dyes as an alternative to petroleum-based colorants.

• Harrods partnered with London charity Traid to collect surplus stock for reuse, repurposing, or redistribution as part of its zero-waste-to-landfill strategy. The partnership also includes employee volunteering, personal donations, and circular fashion workshops.

• On ended its Cyclon subscription model and replaced it with a resale and trade-in program covering a wider range of products. Customers can now buy refurbished On items or trade in used products for rewards, while items that can’t be resold are directed to donation or recycling. The change moves Cyclon from a limited subscription experiment to a broader circular model.

• Trashie, a rewards-based platform for donating unwanted clothing and electronics, acquired Savvy Search AI to add personalized search and recommendations to its circularity platform. The company said Savvy’s technology will help users decide what to donate, find rewards, and discover products more easily, while Savvy founder Harsh Khurana and CTO Yaniv Silberman join Trashie in senior product and engineering roles.

• H&M Group’s land targets were validated by the Science Based Targets Network, covering commitments to avoid ecosystem conversion, reduce agricultural land use, and engage in priority sourcing landscapes. The targets include a 3.85% reduction in land footprint by 2030 and increased use of recycled and sustainably sourced materials. The validation follows H&M’s participation in SBTN’s pilot program for setting nature-related targets.

  • Meanwhile, PETA filed a shareholder resolution urging H&M Group to reinstate its mohair ban, pointing to a new investigation that it says found animal abuse on farms certified under the Responsible Mohair Standard.

    UPDATE: After publication, a spokesperson from Textile Exchange reached out to Week/End with a statement:

    “Textile Exchange takes any allegations of animal mistreatment extremely seriously. Our standards are based on the view that animal fibers can play a role in the fashion, apparel and textile industry when produced responsibly. We recognize that some organizations oppose the use of animal fibers entirely; our focus is on improving practices where these raw materials are produced. 

    Third-party certification systems like RMS establish clear criteria alongside independent auditing and accountability mechanisms. When credible concerns are raised, there are formal processes for investigation, verification, and corrective action, which may include suspension or removal of certification where non-compliance is confirmed.

    It is also important to recognize that mohair production supports rural communities and farming families. Strengthening standards and oversight is essential to improving outcomes for animals while sustaining these livelihoods.

    Textile Exchange will continue to engage with certification bodies, supply chain partners, and stakeholders to ensure that certified systems uphold the highest possible welfare expectations and to drive continuous improvement across the industry.”

Wanna work in sustainable fashion?

The SFF Job Board is your go-to hub for sustainability roles across fashion. From ESG and impact to circularity and compliance, we only post jobs that sit at the intersection of apparel, fashion, and sustainability. Click here to see every job.

• 🆕 Carhartt | Auditor, Social Responsibility
  Remote (Dearborn, MI) | Remote · Full-Time · 3+ yrs exp
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Chanel | ESG Solutions & Analytics Intern
  London, UK | On-Site · Internship (12-months)
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Urban Outfitters | Sourcing & Sustainability Assistant
  London, UK | Hybrid · Full-Time · 6-month Contract
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

• Early bird tickets to SFF26 are live, and prices go up March 27. Most sustainability conversations focus on the system. SFF26 is about what happens when that system meets real people. If your work sits at the intersection of consumer behavior and sustainability, you should be in this room!

• Let’s stay in touch: LinkedIn | Instagram | Email

Welcome to Week/End, your shortcut to the need-to-know sustainable fashion news. Not on the list? This button is for you. 👇🏾

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• The Apparel Impact Institute launched a benchmarking tool designed to help fashion brands and suppliers measure factory energy use and carbon emissions in a consistent way. The tool compares emissions across different manufacturing processes, giving brands clearer data on where energy use is highest across their supply chains. It was piloted with companies like H&M, Gap, Target, J.Crew Group, American Eagle, and PVH.

• H&M Group and EY published a white paper arguing that financing supply chain decarbonization is a business value and risk management issue, not just a sustainability one. With input from HSBC and the Apparel Impact Institute, the paper makes the case that brands should treat emissions cuts in the supply chain as a way to protect long-term resilience, reduce climate-related disruption, and strengthen competitiveness. It is aimed at CFOs and finance leaders, offering examples of financing models, governance tools, and collaborative approaches to fund supplier decarbonization. The release adds to a growing push to frame climate investment in fashion less as a cost center and more as core business infrastructure.

  

  Fun fact: Despite H&M being criticized for its fast-fashion business model, H&M Group is also one of the few companies publicly committing significant capital to supply-chain decarbonization. At COP27, the company announced an annual budget of roughly SEK 3 billion (~$287 million at the time) for value-chain emissions reduction. (So far, actual spending was approximately $170 million in 2024…about 59% of the announced budget.) H&M is also a lead funder of the $250 million Fashion Climate Fund, an industry initiative managed by Apparel Impact Institute to finance emissions reductions in supplier factories.

• Shein is opening its supply chain to other fashion brands through a program called Xcelerator, offering access to the ultra-fast-fashion giant’s on-demand manufacturing, logistics network, and e-commerce platform. The initiative lets participating brands keep control of product design and creative direction while using Shein’s infrastructure to produce in smaller batches, test demand in real time, and quickly reorder winning styles without taking on the same inventory risk. About 20 brands are currently in the program, including Missguided, with Shein reporting roughly $400 million in combined revenue from participants so far. The strategy positions Shein’s supply chain as a service for smaller or struggling brands looking for speed, reach, and operational support, even as the company faces mounting regulatory and reputational scrutiny ahead of a potential IPO.

  Can efficiency reduce waste, or does it just enable more consumption? If Shein’s model spreads, more brands could start operating on faster production cycles. From a sustainability standpoint, the question is whether on-demand manufacturing can actually reduce overproduction or whether it ultimately just increases fashion’s speed and volume.

• Researchers at the University of Leeds and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile developed a new lab method to study how textiles shed fiber fragments, including microplastics, during washing. Instead of just measuring how much material comes off, the method uses high-speed imaging to track how individual fibers move, bend, and break under turbulent flow. The team says that could help explain why garments shed fibers in the first place and give manufacturers a better way to test how textile design and washing conditions affect release. The paper also notes that textile laundering is estimated to account for 35% of the primary microplastics released into the ocean.

  • Speaking of microplastics, a new Netflix documentary launching tomorrow puts the issue in the spotlight, and fashion dye startup Sparxell makes an appearance. The film, The Plastic Detox, explores growing concerns about how everyday exposure to microplastics may affect human health. Sparxell, which develops a dye-free coloring technology inspired by butterfly wings, is positioning its plant-based pigments as an alternative to conventional textile dyes.

  ---

• CottonConnect’s 2025 impact report said cotton farmers participating in its REEL programs increased profits while reducing chemical fertilizer and pesticide use. The organization reported training more than 448,000 farmers in sustainable agricultural practices across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, and Türkiye. Farmers participating in its REEL programs reduced chemical fertilizer use by 11.8% and pesticide use by 15.2% while increasing yields by 7.5% and profits by 34.9% compared with control farmers. The report also highlights expanding regenerative and organic cotton programs and full traceability for REEL cotton through its digital platform TraceBale.

• Depop named stylist and editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson its official trends spokesperson for 2026. In the role, she will work with the resale platform to identify emerging fashion trends using Depop’s user data and cultural signals from its community of more than 43.5 million users. The move highlights how resale marketplaces are increasingly positioning themselves as cultural trend engines, not just secondhand shopping platforms.

• Worn Again Technologies launched a pilot facility in Switzerland to test whether its textile-to-fiber recycling process can work at commercial scale. The plant is designed to separate polyester and cellulose from discarded polycotton textiles, one of fashion’s hardest-to-recycle material blends. Worn Again said it has already spun fibers from the recovered outputs and is now using the site to produce recycled polyester for pilot testing with downstream partners. The move comes as global textile production tops 120 million metric tons a year while less than 1% of clothing is recycled back into new fibers.

• New Balance expanded its branded resale platform Reconsidered to include apparel alongside secondhand footwear.

• Retraced launched Tracing AI, a tool designed to automate traceability validation in fashion supply chains. The system analyzes purchase order documentation across supply chain structure, document type, and document content to verify supplier traceability data. The company said validation processes that typically take 60–90 minutes when done manually can be completed in minutes using the AI system.

• Chanel published its first Climate Transition Plan outlining how the luxury brand aims to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. The plan sets out how the company intends to respond to climate-related risks while reducing emissions across its operations, supply chains, materials, packaging, and distribution. It also includes long-term investments in renewable energy and efforts to secure climate resilience for the natural materials the brand relies on.

• Primark was shortlisted by German environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe for a 2026 greenwashing award over “Primark Cares,” the company-created sustainability label critics say overstates the retailer’s environmental credibility, presents Primark as more responsible while the business continues to rely on a high-volume, low-cost fashion model, and isn’t an independent certification, but a standard created and controlled by the company itself.

• Cascale launched a new Technical Advisory Council to bring more structured member and expert input into how its sustainability tools are governed and updated. The council will advise on technical priorities tied to the Higg Index, Better Buying, and Sustainable Furnishings Council tools. Cascale said the move is part of a broader governance overhaul meant to improve transparency and create clearer pathways for participation.

• Australia’s fashion industry launched its first national manufacturing strategy outlining a 10-year plan to rebuild domestic textile and apparel production. Developed by the Australian Fashion Council with heritage brand R.M. Williams, the roadmap aims to strengthen sovereign manufacturing capability and position Australia as a global leader in premium, traceable, technology-enabled production by 2036. The strategy focuses on boosting demand for locally made goods, addressing an ageing workforce, investing in advanced manufacturing technologies, and improving coordination across the fragmented textile, clothing, and footwear sector.

Wanna work in sustainable fashion?

The SFF Job Board is your go-to hub for sustainability roles across fashion. From ESG and impact to circularity and compliance, we only post jobs that sit at the intersection of apparel, fashion, and sustainability. Click here to see every job.

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• Early bird tickets to SFF26 are live, and prices go up March 27th. This year we're going deep on what it actually takes to close the gap between sustainable systems and the people who are supposed to use them. If your work sits at the intersection of consumer behavior and sustainability, this is your room.

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Happy Sunday, Week/Enders!

Consumer behavior has once again entered the chat!

On Monday, Vestiaire Collective and WRÅD dropped a study surveying 5,000+ people on what they're calling the “I have nothing to wear” phenomenon. It turns out there’s a science-backed reason why telling people to just “wear what you own” doesn’t work.

I wrote about what the research gets right, where the campaign falls short, and what it signals for the future of sustainable fashion over on .

Now, on to the news!
-B

• A new study from Loughborough University suggests the industry may be oversimplifying the sustainability story around natural fibers. Researchers analyzed sediment from a UK lake and found textile fibers dating back 150 years, with cotton making up about 70% of those recovered, challenging the idea that switching from synthetics to natural fibers automatically solves textile pollution.

• The groundwork for the U.S.’s first large-scale textile EPR system is officially underway. California picked Landbell USA to run SB 707, a new law that makes apparel companies selling in the state help fund clothing collection, reuse, repair, and recycling systems.

• Circulose is linking back up with Spinnova to scale textile-to-textile recycling. By joining Spinnova’s ecosystem, it will supply recycled textile pulp that can be turned into new fibers with higher recycled content.

• Unspun named former The North Face Global Brand President Arne Arens as CEO, bringing in a veteran apparel executive as the company works to scale Vega, its 3D weaving technology designed to shorten lead times and reduce overproduction.

Wanna work in sustainable fashion? Start here!

The SFF Job Board is your go-to hub for sustainability roles across fashion. From ESG and impact to circularity and compliance, we only post jobs that sit at the intersection of fashion and sustainability. Click here to explore the full job board.

New on the SFF Job Board:

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• 🆕 Hermès | Administration & Sustainable Development Intern
  Hong Kong | On-Site · Part-Time · Internship
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• 🆕 lululemon | Responsible Supply Chain Program Manager
  Shanghai, China | Hybrid · Full-Time · 10+ yrs exp
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• Early bird tickets to SFF26 are live, and prices go up March 15th. This year we're going deep on what it actually takes to close the gap between sustainable systems and the people who are supposed to use them. If your work lives at the intersection of consumer behavior and sustainability, this is your room.

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Happy Saturday, Week/Enders!

I rolled my ankle and it hurrrrtts. So, we're skipping the small talk today and getting straight to the news. But real quick, have you seen the trailer for That Thrifting Show?

Will you be watching?

On to the news!
-B

• California’s Air Resources Board approved program fees and set August 10, 2026 as the first reporting deadline under SB 253, the state’s corporate climate disclosure law. Companies doing business in California with more than $1 billion in annual revenue have to begin reporting Scope 1 and 2 emissions in 2026, with Scope 3 disclosures starting in 2027. Climate risk reporting under SB 261 is voluntary for now due to a court order.

• The EU Council officially approved an “Omnibus” simplification that narrows and delays CSRD and CS3D requirements, raising company-size thresholds, easing due diligence obligations (including removing the climate transition plan requirement), and pushing CS3D compliance out to 2029.

• The Salvation Army launched “Thrift Score,” a digital thrift store inside Roblox, allowing players to browse and purchase thrift-inspired virtual items for their avatars. The experience is integrated into popular Roblox games and includes limited-edition digital fashion items created by platform influencers, with proceeds supporting the organization’s charitable programs.

• Zalando is expanding its Pre-owned category to include children’s clothing and accessories, launching immediately in 14 European markets. The program uses a C2B2C model: customers sell items back to Zalando directly, Zalando quality-checks them in-house, then relists them, with trade-in credit issued as a voucher for future purchases. Zalando says adult Pre-owned sales have doubled in recent years and that up to 50% of Pre-owned items sell within 24 hours (increasing to 90% for premium brands). It also claims that more than 40% of orders in 2025 were “mixed baskets,” with shoppers buying Pre-owned alongside new Fashion or Beauty in one checkout, suggesting the play here is less “separate resale destination,” more “resale as a default add-on inside a mainstream cart.”

• Resale platform Croissant closed a $28 million funding round. In a LinkedIn post, Co-Founder and CEO John Howard described the company’s growth as “brick by brick,” saying that guaranteed resale at checkout initially drove higher AOV and conversion, but wasn’t enough on its own. Over time, Croissant layered on credits, cross-brand redemption, customer acquisition tools, and financing, evolving into what he now describes as a broader discovery, loyalty, and capital platform for brands.

• The RealReal reported full-year results showing continued sales growth alongside its first year of consistently positive adjusted operating profit. The luxury resale platform also generated positive operating and free cash flow, while narrowing its net loss compared to the prior year.

• Urban Outfitters’ rental business Nuuly surpassed $568 million in annual net sales last fiscal year, exceeding a $500 million target set by executives, according to The Wall Street Journal. The platform expanded to roughly 420,000 average active monthly subscribers and generated $35 million in profit, up more than $21 million year over year. Nuuly now represents about 10% of Urban Outfitters’ total revenue and contributed roughly three percentage points to the parent company’s annual sales growth.

• eBay announced it’s laying off 800 roles across its workforce, one week after announcing it’s acquiring Depop from Etsy for $1.2 billion. The timing is notable: CEO Jamie Iannone recently called 2025 a milestone year after eBay posted Q4 revenue of $2.97 billion, beating estimates by $90 million. eBay says the layoffs are part of a broader effort to realign its structure with strategic priorities and are not AI-related, even as it continues to invest heavily in AI.

• Meanwhile, Nordstrom is partnering with the Fashion Institute of Technology to launch a nine-week tailoring certificate program, fully funding scholarships for its first cohort as part of a formal hiring pipeline for alterations roles. The in-person course trains adult learners and career pivoters on industrial machines and retail-specific tailoring techniques aligned with Nordstrom’s service standards, with graduates moving directly into store positions.

• Marks & Spencer announced a new partnership with sustainability firm Pilio to launch the ACE (Affordable Clean Environment) Cotton Program in India, focused on renewable energy access and biodiversity projects in cotton-growing communities. The new program will fund on- and off-farm solar technologies and support land restoration efforts like habitat creation and native plantings.

• H&M Group partnered with Canadian cleantech startup Viridis to pilot a wastewater treatment system inside three Bangladesh dyehouses. Viridis said the system removed over 99% of color from dye baths, reduced organic pollutants, and allowed treated water to be reused in subsequent dye cycles, with potential recovery of certain processing chemicals.

• The Ethical Supply Chain Program (ESCP), which runs a free, confidential helpline for factory workers across manufacturing supply chains in Asia, published its 2026 Worker Helpline Insights Report and found that pay disputes, working hours, resignation, and termination issues are the most common worker complaints.

• Major European mall operators including, URW and Ingka Centers, launched the Sustainable Retail Index Association, a new coalition to standardize how landlords assess the sustainability performance of retail tenants. The group will promote adoption of the Sustainable Retail Index (SRI), a scoring tool developed with ratings platform Good On You, which has already been used to assess more than 70% of eligible revenue across URW’s shopping centers and is now deployed across Ingka’s portfolio.

• Nike named manufacturing exec Cimarron Nix as its next Chief Sustainability Officer, effective March 15. Nix has been at Nike for close to a decade in sourcing/manufacturing roles.

Have a news tip? Send it our way!

Wanna work in sustainable fashion?
Start here! The SFF Job Board is your go-to hub for sustainability roles across fashion. From ESG and impact to circularity and compliance, we only post jobs that sit at the intersection of fashion and sustainability.

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Welcome to Week/End, your Saturday shortcut to the need-to-know sustainable fashion news: regulatory shifts, material breakthroughs, and business moves you need to know before Monday. Plus a roundup of the latest sustainability jobs in fashion and apparel.

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Happy Saturday, Week/Enders!

On Friday, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs 6-3, ruling he didn’t have the legal authority to impose them the way he did.

Today, Trump responded with a workaround, imposing a new 15% global tariff under a different legal authority that allows the president to act without congressional approval for up to 150 days.

Trump signaled he'll use the next few months to figure out what other tariffs he can legally reimpose.

The National Retail Federation called the ruling 'a moment of clarity' and is pushing for refunds to be processed quickly for businesses that overpaid.

Meanwhile, some Democratic governors are demanding the government refund households directly, citing $1,700 or more per family in tariff costs, though economists say consumer checks were never likely to happen and remain more political pressure than imminent reality.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I’ll leave you with this:

Now, on to the news!

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• eBay is buying Depop from Etsy for $1.2 billion in cash, taking a loss on its 2021 purchase of $1.625 billion. Etsy is walking away to focus on its core marketplace, while Depop keeps its name, brand, and culture with eBay's global scale now behind it.

  • Speaking of Depop: the resale platform just launched its first US campaign called “Depoponomics,” with two more slated to follow. Instead of leading with sustainability, the sell is financial savviness, social validation, and effortlessness. When asked, Steve Dool, director of brand and creative at Depop, said the intention was to “meet people where they are, financially and culturally.”

• Two years after filing for bankruptcy, textile recycler Circulose is restarting production at its Swedish factory in Q4 2026, this time with 11 brand commitments secured first.

• Circ added Madewell, Reformation, and C&A to its “Fiber Club,” a shared supply chain system that turns discarded poly-cotton blends into new clothing at commercial scale. The model works like a relay race: Circ recycles the waste into pulp, Lenzing makes it into fiber, Linz Textil spins it into yarn, and the brands take it from there to turn it into wearable garments.

• More than a dozen state laws targeting PFAS go into effect this year, with Vermont and Washington specifically banning or restricting their use in apparel and textiles.

• Tapestry (the parent company of Coach and Kate Spade) signed a 10-year deal with carbon removal company Climeworks, its first-ever purchase of carbon removal credits.

• Researchers found that kombucha can remove 63-79% of synthetic dye pollution from textile wastewater in lab tests. The bacterial film that forms during fermentation traps and absorbs synthetic dyes, which are toxic, persistent, and a significant source of water pollution in textile production.

• Remake, one of fashion's most prominent labor and climate accountability nonprofits, is shutting down due to a sharp drop in funding for labor organizing and climate justice work over the past two years, compounded by political pushback against the corporate accountability work they were known for. Their Instagram account however, isn't going dark; it's being handed off to their Director of Digital Media to run independently.

Have a news tip? Send it our way!

Start here! The SFF Job Board is your go-to hub for sustainability roles across fashion. From ESG and impact to circularity and compliance, we only post jobs that sit at the intersection of fashion and sustainability.

New on the SFF Job Board:

• 🆕 Arc'teryx | Climate Business Partner
  North Vancouver, BC | Hybrid · Full-Time · 5+ yrs exp
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• 🆕 H&M Group | Impact Lead - People
  Stockholm, Sweden | On-Site · Full-Time · 5+ yrs exp
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Moncler | Sustainable Innovation Internship
  Milan, Italy | On-Site · Full-Time
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• 🆕 Primark | Group Director of Sourcing, Quality & Sustainability
  Dublin, Ireland | On-Site · Full-Time · 15+ yrs exp
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

If you've applied to dozens of jobs, sat through multiple interviews and still didn't get the job...you're probably making the same mistake even the most qualified candidates get wrong. And it's costing you the job before you even finish the interview.

The fix is simpler than you think. And once you know it, you’ll never walk into an interview unprepared.

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Welcome to Week/End, your shortcut to the need-to-know sustainable fashion news at the intersection of culture, business, and consumer behavior. Each week, we break down the stories shaping sustainable fashion, the consumer behavior behind them + a roundup of the latest sustainability jobs in fashion and apparel.

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Happy Saturday, Week/Enders!

If you've been wondering why consumer adoption isn't matching consumer interest in sustainability, pay attention to what Starbucks just did.

From declining foot traffic and underperforming stores, to customers complaining the company had turned into an “overpriced fast-food window” focused on mobile orders and drive-thrus, the coffee giant has been losing ground for some time.

But under new CEO Brian Niccol (formerly of Chipotle), the company is fighting to reclaim its territory with a strategy literally called “Back to Starbucks,” focused on improved customer experiences and revenue gains.

Part of their strategy is simplifying the menu, adding more seating and power outlets, and even mandating the return of baristas writing names on cups with Sharpies to bring back the "human touch."

What caught my attention, however, was their doubling down on cultural relevance via New York Fashion Week and this quote from their Chief Global Brand Officer.

"Tapping into cultural relevance matters more than ever," Tressie Lieberman, Chief Global Brand Officer at Starbucks, told WWD. "As we continue our journey to get 'Back to Starbucks' and ignite the soul of the brand, we're leaning into moments and partnerships that truly excite our customers… Fashion is a powerful expression of identity."

This is something to pay attention to.

When a massive company in turnaround mode puts cultural relevance via fashion at the center of its strategy, as a solution to improved customer experiences and revenue gains, that’s a signal you can’t ignore.

When Gap Inc. hires a Chief Entertainment Officer, that’s a signal you can’t ignore.

Perceived value matters more than ever, and cultural relevance is how you build it. When consumers get pickier, brands that position themselves as culturally relevant win the discretionary spend. The question is whether your sustainability strategy is built for that reality.

You can't separate systems change from behavior change.

If you want to move the needle on sustainability in fashion. If you want sustainability to be mainstream. If you want to protect your budget, headcount, job security, and leverage within your organization, you need cultural positioning just as much as you need infrastructure.

That's where the Catch-22 comes in for most sustainability teams.

You can’t get budget without proving consumer participation. You can’t drive consumer participation without cultural relevance. You can’t build cultural relevance without budget.

But you don't need Starbucks's budget. You do, however, need to understand what Starbucks understands: Cultural relevance isn't about being everywhere or spending the most. It's about being where it matters by mapping where your customers are culturally positioned, then building bridges to the adjacent high-status categories they aspire to.

And if you’re reading this thinking, “Okay, but how?”… I’ll see you in Portland.

Now, on to the news!

• The CFDA and New York State opened applications for the CFDA x NY Forward Grant Fund, a matching grant that helps apparel businesses upgrade production equipment in NYC’s Garment District. The program covers up to two-thirds of eligible costs for machinery, related buildouts, required software and training. Applications close March 3, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET.

• The Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) released a new report, The Cost of Inaction, arguing that climate risk is becoming a direct financial threat for fashion brands, not just a sustainability issue. Based on input from 10 global apparel brands, the research models how increasing carbon prices plus higher raw material and energy costs could squeeze operating margins. Aii estimates bottom-line impacts of up to 34% by 2030 and up to 67% by 2040 if companies delay decarbonization.

• The European Commission adopted new rules under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) that will ban large companies from destroying unsold clothing, footwear, and accessories starting July 19, 2026. Large companies will no longer be able to incinerate or discard unsold apparel, with limited exceptions for safety or damaged goods under national oversight. Companies must also disclose volumes of unsold stock discarded using a standardized reporting format starting February 2027. The ban is expected to extend to medium-sized companies in 2030.

• Allbirds dropped a three-style sneaker line made with Innovera, a plant-protein-based leather alternative developed by Modern Meadow. The material contains more than 80% renewable carbon content, according to the company, and marks its first use in footwear.

• Fashion for Good launched Stretching Circularity, a pilot program testing bio-based, recycled, and regenerated elastane as alternatives to conventional fossil-based stretch fiber, which can contaminate textile recycling streams even at low percentages. The initiative will produce demonstrator garments (including tees with 2% and 10% elastane) and generate comparable data on performance, impact, cost, and scalability.

• Seven major fashion retailers (including ASOS and Zalando) launched a shared HREDD questionnaire developed with TrusTrace, Cascale and Fair Wear. The standardized self-assessment aligns with OECD guidance and is housed in a new platform called One Retail Hub, where brands can complete the questionnaire once and share it across participating retailers.

• According to a new report from USAgain and Cascadia Consulting Group, California spends about $99 million a year to landfill roughly 1.2 million tons of textiles, based on 2021 data.

• Reju announced Lacq, France as the site for an industrial-scale “Regeneration Hub” that would process post-consumer polyester textiles into recycled PET, via depolymerization. The facility joins a demo plant in Frankfurt and planned hubs in the Netherlands and Rochester, New York.

Launching a report, spotlighting an initiative, or have a news tip? Reach 9,400+ subscribers with a 54% open rate. Get in touch!

Start here! The SFF Job Board is your go-to hub for sustainability roles across fashion. From ESG and impact to circularity and compliance, we only post jobs that sit at the intersection of fashion and sustainability.

New on the SFF Job Board:

• 🆕 Christian Dior Couture | Trainee, DEI, CSR & Internal Communications
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• 🆕 BESTSELLER | Environmental Manager (Supply Chain)
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• 🆕 Saint Laurent | Leathergoods & Shoes Sustainability Specialist
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• 🆕 Stella McCartney | Sustainability Intern
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  ↳ Apply here

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Unlock All Jobs

• Tickets to our annual conference are LIVE! We’re bridging systems change with behavior change. Learn how to align your sustainability targets with consumer reality and turn behavioral insight into action.

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• Let’s stay in touch: LinkedIn | Instagram | Email

• Launching a report, spotlighting an initiative, or have a news tip? Reach 9,400+ subscribers with a 54% open rate. Get in touch!

Welcome to Week/End, your shortcut to the need-to-know sustainable fashion news at the intersection of culture, business, and consumer behavior. Each week, we break down the stories shaping sustainable fashion, the consumer behavior behind them + a roundup of the latest sustainability jobs in fashion and apparel.

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Happy Saturday Week/Enders,

Earlier this week, Primark launched a denim collection designed specifically for end-of-life recycling.

They spent 18 months removing stretch fabric, eliminating metal rivets, using 100% cotton labels and recycled thread, and testing for durability.

It’s their first collection designed for circularity from the ground up. And most consumers will never know.

On the product page, there’s no mention of sustainability, recyclability, or durability. There’s nothing telling shoppers this isn’t just ‘regular’ denim.

This is what greenhushing looks like.

When consumer-facing sustainability messaging becomes a legal risk, brands go silent.

The irony is that regulators say the tougher “crackdown” on greenwashing is meant to protect shoppers from misleading claims. But the outcome is the opposite: less information, not more.

We keep asking whether sustainability drives consumer behavior. But how can it if talking about sustainability has become a legal risk?

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been in back-to-back meetings with sustainability leaders at global brands, CMOs, circularity experts, and consultants about this exact gap, and the question keeps coming up: how do you tie sustainability to consumer behavior in an environment where saying it the wrong way can trigger scrutiny?

SFF26 is being directly shaped by these conversations, not from one perspective and not in a vacuum.

If you’ve got strong opinions about what would help you in your work, hit reply and let me know. We’re building this with the industry, not just for it.

Now, on to the news!

• Shein pulled its net-zero pledge in Germany after watchdog group Deutsche Umwelthilfe forced them to prove it or drop it.

• More than 100 of the 143 original brands have re-signed the Pakistan Accord, the legally binding program for independent factory safety inspections and remediation. Notable holdouts include LPP and Hugo Boss, both with active sourcing in Pakistan and suppliers flagged for serious safety hazards.

• Sparxell raised $5M to scale structural color technology made from wood pulp cellulose without synthetic dyes, heavy metals, or petroleum. Commercial production is planned for 2026.

• Haelixa raised €2M to expand its invisible, plant-based DNA markers embedded in raw materials so brands can verify origin and authenticity on finished products later.

• The UK government published its first national plan to tackle PFAS ("forever chemicals"), coordinating action across government, regulators, and industry.

  • In beauty news: An Ontario court issued a $750,000 CAD (~$548,000 USD) fine to Estée Lauder after the company pleaded guilty to violating the Canadian Environmental Protection Act tied to a PFAS ingredient found in select eyeliner products.

• ZDHC released a Chemical Watchlist, a hazard-based reference of ~1,700 substances of concern for textiles, apparel, leather, and footwear, designed to support chemical transparency and reporting without adding new requirements.

• Worldly expanded its Scope 3 calculator to 260+ consumer goods categories beyond apparel (including footwear, furniture, sporting goods, and home). The tool links supplier and material data to product-level carbon footprints.

• Primark announced a Pre-Loved Capsule Denim Collection, described as its first denim range made with post-consumer recycled denim, designed for fiber-to-fiber recycling and tested against its Durability Framework.

  • Despite the circular positioning in corporate messaging, sustainability credentials are absent from the product detail page

• Vestiaire Collective said it will turn its first annual profit this year after 15 years in business.

• ICYMI: A study in Nature’s Scientific Reports found that durability isn’t universal, it’s shaped by culture, climate, price perception, and tradition. (Aka physical and emotional durability.) Researchers across five countries found that in some markets, traditional garments are considered more durable simply because of how they’re valued and cared for. The implication: future textile regulation can’t treat durability as a fixed standard.

If you’re looking to break into the fashion industry, a few headlines this week put words to what a lot of people are feeling in the job market:

New on the SFF Job Board this week:

• 🆕 J.Crew | Sustainability Associate
  New York, NY | Hybrid · Associate Level | $72.5k/yr - $90k/yr
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Deckers Brands (HOKA / UGG) | Analyst, Sustainability
  Remote (US) |

  Full-Time | $80k/yr - $85k/yr
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

Unlock All Jobs

• Tickets to our annual conference are LIVE! We’re bridging systems change with behavior change. Learn how to align your sustainability targets with consumer reality and turn behavioral insight into action.

• Looking to make your next career move at the intersection of fashion and sustainability? Browse jobs on the SFF Job Board.

• Let’s stay in touch: LinkedIn | Instagram | Email

• Launching a report, spotlighting an initiative, or looking to get in front of the right eyes? Partner with us!

Welcome to Week/End, your shortcut to the need-to-know sustainable fashion news at the intersection of culture, business, and consumer behavior. Each week, we break down the stories shaping sustainable fashion, the consumer behavior behind them + a roundup of the latest sustainability jobs in fashion and apparel.

Not on the list? This button is for you. 👇🏾

Subscribe now

Happy Saturday, Week/Enders.

I’ll be honest. This week I was feeling a little…blah.

Sometimes I think working in sustainability is its own special kind of hard.

At work, you’re tasked with what feels like pushing a boulder uphill, trying to rewire systems that actively resist change and are structurally designed to do the opposite.

Then, when you clock out (if you have a healthy work-life balance), the economy, the political and social climate, and whatever’s happening in your personal life all pile on, and it can feel like you’re pushing another boulder uphill at home, too.

It can feel relentless and all-encompassing.

I was there this week, so I revisited my conversation with climate and environmental psychologist , and it reminded me how important it is to pay attention to how we relate to what’s happening around us.

Nothing happening around you (or even to you) carries inherent meaning until you give it meaning. Yes, the events and circumstances are real (and sometimes really hard), but the weight they have on you and your life is shaped by the meaning you give them.

That doesn’t mean you have to be overly positive or pretend you’re not affected. It just means you can feel what you feel and still choose how you move through it.

The feelings of grief and frustration are real. But you still have a choice in how you interpret them. “Everything is falling apart and we’re doomed” is one interpretation. “We’re in a messy, painful transitional period. I don’t know where it leads, but I can choose how I move through it” is another.

Both things can be true: this is hard, and I can choose my next move.

I needed that reminder this week. It doesn’t make the boulder lighter, but it’s helping change my relationship to the hill. If you’re feeling similar, I hope it helps shift your perspective of the hill, too.

Now, on to the news!

• Cascale’s new “state of the industry” report shows the gap is widening: fashion is drifting further from climate targets, not closer. A few takeaways:

  • A third of all energy used to make clothes comes from coal. In the factories that dye and process fabrics, it’s even worse at 40% coal.

  • Solar, wind, etc. make up just 2% of fashion’s energy use. This percent didn’t change from 2023 to 2024, even though more factories say they’re using some renewables.

  • Most of fashion’s carbon emissions come from a relatively small group of high-energy facilities, mostly the ones doing wet processing (dyeing, washing, finishing). Which means if brands actually focused investment on those specific factories instead of spreading efforts thin, they could make a real dent. (Can't help but think of Truman's famous line: "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.)

• MycoWorks was acquired by DFX Corporation, led by Daniel Frydenlund. Co-founders Philip Ross and Sophia Wang will move to advisory roles, with SVP of Technology Maud Ohler taking the helm to lead commercialization of the company’s Mycelium material.

• Congressman Greg Murphy (R-NC) and Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL) introduced the Buying American Cotton Act, a bipartisan bill proposing tax credits for products made with U.S.-grown cotton. The credit would go to the first U.S. entity selling directly to consumers, with the amount based on proof of U.S. origin, volume of domestic cotton in the product, and where it was manufactured.

• A new position paper from World Collective and Kinset flags a structural issue with the EU’s upcoming Digital Product Passport for textiles that makes brands legally responsible to disclose supply chain data they don’t have access to. The paper argues that without shared infrastructure enabling suppliers to contribute standardized data at the point of origin, DPP compliance becomes “reconstruction theater,” with brands piecing together whatever documentation they can find after production. World Collective and Kinset are piloting a distributed accountability model with suppliers in India, Taiwan, Turkey, UK, and Bangladesh, bundling compliance data with fabric purchases instead of chasing paperwork later.

• For those tasked with unlocking the untapped inventory hiding in people’s closets, this journalist’s reselling experiment is a useful reality check. After years of covering side hustles, she tried selling items from her own wardrobe and found that while it’s easy to start, fees, shipping, and fulfillment quickly erode margins, making resale less a casual income stream and more a scale-dependent business, and ultimately not worth it for her.

• Resale cracked the culture. Now rental wants its moment.. Nuuly (Urban Outfitters’ clothing rental service) is partnering with Netflix’s Bridgerton for a 24-piece capsule collection timed to the Season 4 Part 2.

If you’re looking to break into the fashion industry, a few headlines this week put words to what a lot of people are feeling in the job market:

• Vogue Business surveyed 300+ current and aspiring fashion professionals about AI and found a stark generational split. Just 32% of students feel positive about AI’s impact on their careers, versus 47% of non-students. Students were more worried about creativity being flattened and raised more ethical and environmental concerns, while senior professionals who lived through e-commerce largely see AI as the next evolution. If you’re job searching and concerned about AI, career advisors say employers are prioritizing judgment over tool skills: critical thinking, strong questions, and the ability to explain the why behind decisions.

  • The BoF podcast echoed Gen Z’s concerns about AI and framed the current moment as a power shift back to employers. You can see that leverage showing up in return-to-office mandates and stricter expectations. And you can see it in hiring too. Between a tightening labor market, layoffs, and companies using AI to absorb junior-level work like copywriting, entry-level hiring is getting squeezed. So what does that mean if you’re trying to get hired right now?

    • Your path into fashion might not be a straight line. Students and recent grads are getting creative, taking retail, restaurant, and hospitality jobs in fashion-heavy cities to stay close to the scene and build connections.

    • Retail is no longer a dead end. Some companies are rebuilding real pipelines from store roles to corporate.

    • Shop floor experience is leverage. It builds consumer intuition, tech exposure, and transferable skills that can open doors later.

    • Old-school signals are working again. Recruiters are responding to human touches: printed portfolios left behind, showing up in person, and anything that makes you memorable beyond a link to your website or Instagram.

New on the SFF Job Board this week:

• 🆕 Fabletics | Sustainability Data & Reporting Analyst
  El Segundo, CA | Hybrid · Full-Time | $64K/yr - $85K/yr
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Carter’s Inc. | Sr. Sustainability Analyst
  Atlanta, GA | On-Site · Full-Time
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕Arc’teryx | Senior Supply Chain Specialist, Climate
  North Vancouver, BC | Hybrid · Full-Time | CAD $94K/yr - CAD $117K/yr
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Christian Dior Couture | Sustainable and Nature Sourcing Manager
  Paris, France | On-Site · Full-Time
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Saint Laurent | Sustainability Internship
  Vigonza, Italy | On-Site · Full-Time
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

Unlock All Jobs

• Tickets to our annual conference are LIVE! We’re bridging systems change with behavior change. Learn how to align your sustainability targets with consumer reality and turn behavioral insight into action.

• Looking to make your next career move at the intersection of fashion and sustainability? Browse jobs on the SFF Job Board.

• Launching a report, spotlighting an initiative, or looking to get in front of the right eyes? Partner with us!

• Let’s stay in touch: LinkedIn | Instagram | Email

Welcome to Week/End, your shortcut to the need-to-know sustainable fashion news at the intersection of culture, business, and consumer behavior. Each week, we break down the stories shaping sustainable fashion, the consumer behavior behind them, and share a roundup of the latest sustainability jobs in fashion and apparel.

Not on the list? This button is for you. 👇🏾

Subscribe now

In today’s newsletter: The CMA just made green claims everyone's legal risk, France targeted ultra-fast fashion with new EPR eco-modulation fees, Balenciaga debuted lab-made silk and 3D-woven tailoring, Canopy launched a $2 billion blended finance model for next-gen materials, and more.

Happy Saturday, Week/Enders! Last week I mentioned leaning into signals outside the sustainable fashion bubble. This week, a few things caught my eye:

• Structural power shifts inside luxury are undermining both creativity and sustainability. Brands are responding to economic pressure by tightening control around KPIs, and it's changing who has influence, what gets made, and which priorities survive. If sustainability doesn't translate into taste, desire, and identity at the creative level, it's getting value-engineered out.

• At a time when luxury is under scrutiny for feeling overpriced, out of touch, and overly corporate, Jacquemus just announced its first-ever brand ambassador: Simon Porte Jacquemus' 79-year-old grandmother. The post is part love letter, part satire of exclusivity clauses. It's a reminder that in luxury, the story is the product, often more than the clothes.

• As consumers continue to question the true value of the things they're buying, clean beauty brand Merit dropped a campaign called "The Swipe Experiment," where they operationalized the concept of value by swatching an entire concealer stick in order to count the exact number of uses, breaking down the upfront price into a tangible, daily utility cost. Cost-per-wear is already a familiar metric in fashion, but I've never seen a beauty brand do this. I like it.

• Cosmopolitan UK declared second-hand shopping 'fashion's biggest flex.' This tracks with what I wrote about resale’s cultural repositioning: the shift from ‘I couldn’t afford new’ to ‘I scored this.’

• In case you also need a laugh.

Now, on to the news...

🚨 The CMA Just Made Greenwashing Everyone’s Legal Risk

Last week, the Competition and Markets Authority published new guidance clarifying who's legally responsible for environmental claims across supply chains, raising the stakes for brands, retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers making "sustainability" claims.

Building on its Green Claims Code, the CMA's explainer makes one thing clear: liability doesn’t stop with the brand.

Any business that makes, repeats, or passes on an environmental claim can be held responsible if it's misleading.

So, for example, if you're a retailer and you add sustainability credentials or a "sustainable" badge on a product page based on what a brand told you, you could be investigated.

Under UK consumer law:

• It doesn't matter who originated the claim

• It doesn't matter that the retailer relied on supplier information

• It doesn't matter that the retailer acted in good faith

If you communicate the claim to consumers, you own the risk, and the CMA can directly impose fines, order changes to business practices, and force companies to compensate consumers, without even going to court.

So what can you say?

To provide clarity, the CMA gave "guidance" including examples and checklists aimed at helping fashion companies get compliant, with a heavy emphasis on maintaining robust evidence, building internal verification processes, reviewing claims regularly, and updating messaging when supply chains change.

But even their own guidance won’t protect you.

If you remember, Nike, Lacoste, and Superdry had their ads banned in the UK by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for being misleading. But the issue wasn't that the brands lacked data, it was that consumers weren't given the necessary context in the Goolgle Ad...with a 90-character limit.

According to the CMA, it's not enough that the proof exists somewhere on your website. If a consumer has to click, expand a tab, scan a QR code, the CMA may still view the claim as misleading at the point they encounter it.

This is regulatory absurdity: they're telling you to have the data, but having the data doesn't protect you. You can be compliant on paper and still get banned because of platform constraints you don't control.

I'm all for holding brands accountable for greenwashing, but the way we're going about this is NOT it.

If the safest legal move is to say nothing, brands will say nothing. And then consumers who actually want to shop sustainably have less information to work with, not more. The regulation ends up harming the people it's supposed to protect.

Yes, enforce against clearly misleading claims. But don't punish brands who have the data just because it doesn't fit in a Google Ad.

From my POV, the solution is simple: establish a common language and shared benchmarks. But, if you're going to enforce without a shared understanding, at least be consistent about what "having proof" means.

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• Reju wants to bring its first U.S. industrial-scale textile-to-textile recycling facility to New York. The planned 18.9-acre “Regeneration Hub” at Eastman Business Park is designed to process the equivalent of up to 300 million garments a year and produce rBHET, a PET intermediate that would be repolymerized into Reju-branded polyester. The project remains subject to a final investment decision by Reju’s parent company, Technip Energies.

• United Repair Center is opening a new repair hub in Paris this February, expanding its repair network beyond Amsterdam and London.

• Balenciaga debuted lab-made silk and 3D-woven tailoring for Spring 2026 collection. Backed by Kering’s Material Innovation Lab, the brand is introducing spider-inspired bioengineered silk from AMSilk and 3D woven tailoring developed with UK startup Weffan. The 3D weaving approach builds elements like seams, pockets, and sleeves directly into the fabric, which Balenciaga says reduces offcuts and shortens production time by cutting pattern pieces and construction steps.

• France is turning its recycling system into a pressure point for ultra-fast fashion. France has formally instructed Refashion, the body that sets and collects textile EPR eco-contributions, to design a targeted eco-modulation malus aimed at ultra-fast fashion models associated with platforms like Shein and Temu. The Ministry of Ecological Transition has given the eco-organization 10 days to submit concrete proposals and a clear action plan, with the goal of applying higher fees to high-volume, low-durability products placed on the French market starting in 2026.

• Canopy launched a $2 billion blended finance model to scale next-gen materials. The environmental nonprofit announced the blueprint at the World Economic Forum in Davos, positioning it as a way to mobilize $2 billion in investment to expand low-carbon alternatives to wood-based fibre across paper, packaging, and textiles, starting in India. The model is designed to de-risk early projects and attract institutional capital into next-gen materials made from agricultural residues and recycled textiles.

• Transformers Foundation says power imbalances are stalling fashion’s climate innovation. In a new report, Transformers Foundation argues the biggest blocker to scaling climate innovation in fashion is not a lack of solutions, it’s how cost, risk, and decision-making get distributed across the supply chain. Based on 32 in-depth interviews, the report flags three repeat friction points: knowledge gaps that create misaligned expectations on cost and speed, uneven risk-sharing that leaves suppliers funding R&D, testing, and disruption without guaranteed orders, and weak brand commitment that favors short-term flexibility over long-term demand signals. It calls for more equitable partnership models that bring suppliers into decision-making earlier, clearer commercial commitments that reduce risk for first-movers, and practical readiness checklists for brands, suppliers, and innovators to set expectations before pilots turn into expensive dead ends.

• Amazon, Gap, Starbucks, and Ecolab partnered with Matt Damon–founded Water.org to launch Get Blue, a new water and sanitation initiative announced this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

• PETA footage puts “responsible mohair” claims back under the microscope. A new PETA Asia investigation is raising new questions about animal welfare certifications after undercover footage from mohair farms in South Africa and Lesotho showed goats being beaten, dragged, and injured during shearing at sites PETA says were Responsible Mohair Standard (RMS) certified.

Want to work in Sustainable Fashion?

Start here! The SFF Job Board is your go-to hub for sustainability roles across fashion. From ESG and impact to circularity and compliance, we only post jobs that sit at the intersection of fashion and sustainability.

New this week:

• 🆕 Calvin Klein (PVH) | Sourcing Manager
  New York, NY | On-Site · Mid-Senior Level (6+ yrs exp) · $101k - $137k
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Veronica Beard | Product Compliance Specialist
  New York, NY | Hybrid · Full-Time · Senior Level (6+ years exp)
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Hugo Boss | Supply Chain Traceability Specialist
  Metzingen, Germany | Hybrid · Mid-Level (3-5 yrs exp)
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Balenciaga | Sustainable Materials Research Intern
  Paris, France | On-Site · Internship
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Karl Lagerfeld | Sustainability Data Intern
  Amsterdam, Netherlands | Hybrid · Internship (6 Months) · Starts Feb 15
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Patagonia | Ocean Category Manager
  Amsterdam, Netherlands | Hybrid · Full-Time · Senior Level
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

Unlock All Jobs

• Tickets to our annual conference are LIVE! We’re bridging systems change with behavior change. Learn how to align your sustainability targets with consumer reality and turn behavioral insight into action.

• Looking to make your next career move at the intersection of fashion and sustainability? Browse jobs on the SFF Job Board.

• Launching a report, spotlighting an initiative, or looking to get in front of the right eyes? Partner with us!

• Let’s stay in touch: LinkedIn | Instagram | Email

Welcome to Week/End, your shortcut to the need-to-know sustainable fashion news at the intersection of culture, business, and consumer behavior. Each week, we break down the stories shaping sustainable fashion, the consumer behavior behind them, and share a roundup of the latest sustainability jobs in fashion and apparel. Not on the list? This button is for you. 👇🏾

Subscribe now

In today’s newsletter: Gap hired a Chief Entertainment Officer and there are 6 glaring lessons for sustainability teams. Plus: Germany is preparing a new textile law that would make brands cover disposal costs; Levi’s launched a free repair curriculum for Gen Z; the EU may require new textile packaging labels; eBay’s Circular Fashion Fund is open; and two major updates to this newsletter.

Happy Saturday, Week/Enders! Thank you to the paid subscribers who took the reader survey. Based on your feedback so far, here are two things that are changing.

Starting in February, Week/End will be one Saturday email per week that combines the news recap with deeper analysis on consumer behavior and sustainability strategy, all in a single post. Fair warning: this means every post will be lengthy, so reading on desktop might be the new move.

Second: I’m leaning harder into our real superpower: my obsession with the overlap between marketing, sustainability, fashion, and culture.

One of the biggest issues I see with sustainability is that it ends up niching itself into a corner. It becomes its own little universe. I’m constantly telling the industry not to do that, and yet I realized I’ve been doing it with this newsletter. There are so many parallels and signals outside the sustainable fashion bubble that we should be paying attention to, learning from, and pivoting because of.

Several of you told me you're here specifically for my POV on these intersections. (Thank you!🙏🏾) So I'm happily leaning in because yapping about these things with my husband just really isn’t the same as yapping with you.

We’re testing out this format today, so let me know what you think.

If you have strong feelings about this (good or bad), now’s the time to tell me. The survey will stay open for paid subscribers for one more week.

Now, on to the news...

• A new peer-reviewed study suggests wool’s climate impact may be dramatically overstated under current measurement tools, finding that emissions intensity can fall by up to 102% when biogenic carbon flows on farms are counted. The research, published in Agricultural Systems, applied the ISO 14067:2018 standard to six existing wool case studies and found that conventional life-cycle assessments treat sheep farming like a factory process, ignoring the carbon naturally captured by grass and returned to soils through manure.

• BOSS debuted NovaPoly, a recycled polyester yarn, at the Australian Open in Melbourne, with ambassadors Taylor Fritz and Matteo Berrettini wearing NovaPoly jerseys, shorts, and caps during play. The company says the yarn, developed with Jiaren Chemical Recycling and NBC LLC, is made from pre- and post-consumer textile waste and is positioned as an alternative to virgin polyester, using an additive that BOSS claims speeds up degradability versus conventional polyester and can make the fiber “biodegradable” in an anaerobic, microbially active environment.

• Canopy is warning that wood-based materials across textiles, packaging, and paper could get more expensive and less reliable. In a new brief, Paper Thin Comfort – Wood Fiber Risk in a Finite Forest World, the non-profit and investment firm Finance Earth warn that climate impacts, tighter forest rules, and competition from energy and construction are colliding to make paper, packaging, and viscose inputs more volatile and harder to source at scale. Canopy says brands need to cut reliance on virgin wood by scaling recycled and next-gen fibers made from residues and textile waste or brace for higher costs and a tighter supply.

• NFW is back in business with new funding to scale its next-gen materials. After announcing it would wind down operations, layoffs, and leadership turnover at the end of 2025, Natural Fiber Welding secured a strategic investment from Provest Equity Partners and CTW Venture Partners, allowing the company to restart operations and accelerate commercialization and global-scale production of its plant-based materials platform. The company says it’s expanding production of MIRUM (plastic-free leather alternative) and PLIANT (naturally cured rubber outsoles), with PLIANT currently available to order.

• CovationBio exited its BioPDO joint venture and shifted focus to a corn-based spandex material. CovationBio is selling its share of Primient Covation, the joint venture that makes BioPDO, an ingredient used in Sorona polymer, and has signed a long-term supply deal so Sorona production continues. The company is now prioritizing bioPTMEG, a corn-cob-derived replacement for petroleum PTMEG used in spandex and other stretch materials (activewear, footwear, and auto parts), with commercialization planned for 2026.

• Brands using textile packaging in the EU may face new, standardized labeling requirements. The EU’s Joint Research Centre published a technical proposal for a single, harmonized set of recycling labels to appear on packaging and on waste bins across all member states, including a new dedicated label for textile packaging like fabric pouches and cloth bags. The plan is to match labels on the package and the bin so people can sort waste correctly, even when rules differ by country. The proposal will inform upcoming EU implementing acts under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, but it does not apply to used clothing or other non-packaging textiles.

• Rumor has it, that Germany is preparing a new textile law that would require fashion brands selling into the country help cover the rising costs of collecting and disposing of used clothing, after donation bins were overwhelmed by low-quality fast fashion following the start of mandatory separate textile collection in January 2025. Environment Minister Carsten Schneider confirmed the plan in an interview with Rheinische Post, linking it to the EU’s producer-responsibility push, with adoption expected in summer 2027. Industry groups are already pushing back, arguing that German quality brands shouldn’t foot the bill for waste driven by ultra-cheap imports and calling for durability and recyclability requirements, not just cost-sharing.

• eBay opened applications for its annual Circular Fashion Fund, this year expanding the program to applicants the in EU, Switzerland, and Canada for the first time. The fund will give eight startups $50,000 grants and a chance at a $300,000 investment from eBay Ventures to scale repair, resale, or recycling tech. Applications close March 8.

• In other eBay news, the company laid out its roadmap to reach net-zero emissions by 2045 in its inaugural Climate Transition Plan.

• The EU is testing a “get paid to return your clothes” system to boost reuse and keep textiles out of landfill, starting with pilots in Spain and Finland. TexMat, led by Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre and 14 partners across seven EU countries, runs from Oct. 1, 2025, through March 31, 2029, and uses “smart” drop-off bins that scan items, sort them into reuse or waste, and reward consumers based on second-hand value. The setup is built to plug into upcoming Digital Product Passports and Extended Producer Responsibility rules so that returned garments can be tracked, valued, and routed for reuse rather than disposal.

  • EDITOR’S NOTE: I talk a lot about the non-negotiable need to bridge systems change and behavior change. The tech here is definitely impressive, but this only works if people actually use it and bring clothes back into the system instead of tossing them or letting them pile up at home. The pilot includes financial rewards, which should help, but I’ll be watching for two things: how they market it to consumers, and whether they share real participation data during the pilot (not just that the hardware performed as designed at the end).

    I want to know: how many people used the bins, what share of the local population participated at least once, whether rewards changed behavior or just attracted the already-motivated crowd, and how many people came back a second and third time (repeat use vs. one-and-done). Bonus points if they share whether rewards were claimed immediately or sat unused (low perceived value), and whether participation dropped once the novelty wore off.

• Levi’s launched a free repair curriculum for Gen Z. After commissioning a U.S. study that found 41% of Gen Z lack basic repair/customization skills, but 35% would keep clothes longer if they knew how to fix or personalize them, Levi’s launched the Wear Longer Project with Discovery Education. The program targets grades 9–12 with free, classroom-ready lessons (plus in-school sessions and community workshops led by teachers and Levi’s employees). The intuitive is starting in San Francisco with plans to scale through community partners and select retail activations.

• Fashion’s sustainability strategy is getting a CFO lens: Global Fashion Agenda and BCG opened a confidential survey for fashion CFOs on how sustainability is being priced into planning, budgets, and investment decisions. The aggregated results will feed an industry report landing in 2026. Submissions are due January 23, 2026.

Want to work in Sustainable Fashion?

Start here! The SFF Job Board is your go-to hub for sustainability roles across fashion. From ESG and impact to circularity and compliance, We only post jobs that sit at the intersection of fashion and sustainability.

New this week:

• 🆕 Kontoor Brands (Wrangler/Lee) | Sustainability Intern
  Greensboro, NC | On-Site · Internship (Summer 2026)
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Mango | Environment & Sustainability Intern
  Barcelona, Spain | Hybrid · Internship (6 Months) · Full-Time (40h)
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Patagonia | Environmental Activism Lead (EMEA)
  Amsterdam, Netherlands | Hybrid · Full-Time · Senior Level (7+ Years Exp)
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Jimmy Choo | Advisor, Sustainability & Compliance
  Scandicci, Italy | Hybrid · Full-Time · Advisor Level (1-3 years exp)
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Gap Inc. | Manager, Sustainability - Climate
  Delhi, India | On-site · Manager Level (4-6 yrs exp) .
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

Unlock All Jobs

We’re just two weeks into 2026 and Gap Inc. made one of the most interesting moves in fashion news, hiring a Chief Entertainment Officer to build its “Fashiontainment” platform.

I can’t stop thinking (and reading) about what this structural shift signals about how Gap intends to grow and, more broadly, the future of what a global fashion retailer will evolve into as consumer behavior continues to change.

And it comes with a sustainability lesson, even if that wasn’t the intent. Gap didn’t make this hire in service of sustainability, but the mechanism is transferable.

The same underlying mechanism Gap is betting on for growth is the one sustainability teams can use to scale adoption. Below, I break down how, plus six outcomes sustainability teams can measure to justify investment, protect margins, and tie sustainability to growth rather than just compliance.

Read more

Read more

In today’s newsletter: A French policy brief proposed textile border tariffs modeled on carbon taxes, a new report outlines why Digital Product Passports won't save textile recycling, and Nike finally settled with 3,300 garment workers over pandemic-era wage theft.

Subscribe now

Happy Saturday, Week/Enders! Welcome to the first Week/End of 2026.

We’re back to sending our weekly news recaps on Saturday mornings because it’s easier for me (therefore better for you) and it better aligns with our plans for this newsletter in 2026. More on this soon!

I’ve been reading a lot of industry predictions this week—what’s in, what’s out, what brands should/shouldn’t focus on in 2026. Here’s one of mine: If you’re still relying on “feel-good messaging” to drive participation in your sustainability programs or sales, you’re about to have the same year you just had.

Over the last two years, we’ve seen the rise of the value-conscious consumer, shoppers across income levels who stopped using price as a shortcut for quality or status. New research from Kearney Consumer Institute puts a finer point on it: the consumer is shifting from “savvy to frugal,” but not in the traditional sense of scarcity or sacrifice. Frugality now extends beyond money to time, energy, social interaction, health, and self-identity. In their model, minimalism, sustainability, and health converge — consumers are recalibrating everything, not just their wallets. They evaluate purchases through:

Utility (does this solve a real problem in my life?)
Cultural relevance (does this make me feel current or connected?)
Identity (does this say something about who I am?)
Trust (do I believe this brand deserves my money?)
Optionality (can I get access without full ownership?)

That mindset shift is carrying into 2026, and it’s actually a perfect setup for sustainability to win. But only if we engineer for it.

The old playbook for communicating and marketing sustainability, which never worked at scale, isn’t gonna cut it. In 2026, you can’t assume sustainability equals value in the mind of the customer.

If you’re asking customers to take an extra step (return, scan, repair, pay more, trust a claim), you’re in the behavior-change business. And behavior change takes a helluva lot more than a feel-good sustainability message. You need proven behavior levers that reduce friction, build social proof, foster belonging, and connect the action to a form of perceived value your customer actually cares about, not just what you think they should.

If you’re wondering how to apply this to your brand/program specifically, we’re bringing together sustainability leaders, behavioral scientists, and brand strategists at SFF26 to re-engineer the value proposition of sustainability for the modern consumer.

Not with better claims. Not with louder messaging. But by designing systems that work with human behavior instead of against it.

We’ll be unpacking what actually drives participation, what breaks it, and how to tie these initiatives back to revenue-driving metrics that justify the investment.

If you’re ready to stop guessing why your sustainability initiatives aren’t hitting and start designing for actual human behavior, you need to be in the room.

Now, on to the news!

After five years of pressure from labor advocates, a dispute over unpaid wages at Nike supplier Hong Seng Knitting in Thailand has ended with a $42,000 payment to Kyaw San Oo, a migrant worker who left the country after the factory filed criminal charges against him

The case dates to April 2020, when workers signed documents waiving certain wage payments during Covid-related shutdowns. The Worker Rights Consortium said workers were coerced; the Fair Labor Association, which also investigated, found the signatures were voluntary, while acknowledging heightened workplace tensions.

The payout follows sustained campaigning by US student groups, unions and organizations including Clean Clothes Campaign, with momentum accelerating after the resignation of FLA board member Nazma Akter, who publicly objected to the organization’s handling of the case.

The final payment to Kyaw San Oo was $42,000, 23x what the FLA recommended, making it one of the largest payouts ever to a garment worker targeted for retaliation. The 3,300 Hong Seng workers have also received compensation for the disputed wages, though advocates say the outcome differs from what they originally sought.

• A French policy brief proposes €10-15 small parcel fees and textile border tariffs to curb fast fashion. A new policy brief from France’s Haut-Commissariat à la Stratégie et au Plan builds on the country’s ongoing fast fashion crackdown with broader economic proposals. The report argues that fast fashion is a false economy for households, costing more per wear than quality clothing, while deepening France’s import dependency (97% of clothing is imported).

  
  The report recommends:

  • A €10–€15 flat fee on small packages entering the EU (the Commission proposed €2, which the report calls more of a revenue move than a behavior change lever)

  • A “textile border tax” that factors in both environmental and labor impacts, similar to the EU’s carbon border tax

  • Up to €250/year in employer co-funded eco-vouchers for lower-income families (under 1.5x minimum wage) to buy longer-lasting, EU-made clothing

  • Raising producer eco-fees to 1% of the sale price

  • Fees or penalties for clothing with high synthetic fiber content

  • Lower taxes on repairs

  • Expanding green industry tax credits to include textile manufacturing

• The U.S. pulled out of 66 international organizations, including the global climate treaty. On Wednesday, the Trump administration signed a memo withdrawing from 66 international organizations and treaties, including several that touch fashion supply chains: the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (the parent treaty to the Paris Agreement).

• A new report says digital product passports won’t fix textile recycling without better data infrastructure. A policy brief from EU-funded research project PESCO-UP warns that the EU’s upcoming DPPs won’t enable large-scale textile-to-textile recycling unless policymakers address data gaps and low digitization across the supply chain. The report argues that though the policy framework is coming, the infrastructure to make it work isn’t. Read the report.

• Recycling Europe Textiles is pushing the EU Commission to make recycled content mandatory in all textiles sold in Europe. The trade group (formerly EuRIC Textiles) is calling for targets of 10% by 2028, 15% by 2030, and 30% by 2035, with increasing requirements that the material come from EU-collected post-consumer textile waste, not post-industrial scraps or recycled plastic bottles. They’re also asking for verification through mass balance systems and Digital Product Passports. The push comes as Europe's textile recycling industry faces oversupply of low-quality waste and weak demand for recycled fibers.

• CFDA and Ralph Lauren launched two grant programs to fund U.S. fashion manufacturing. The CFDA x NY Forward Grant Fund will provide matching grants to NYC Garment District manufacturers in 2026 and 2027, while the U.S. Fashion Manufacturing Fund (2027-2029) expands nationally to support factories investing in machinery, software, and workforce training.

Want to work in Sustainable Fashion?

Start here! The SFF Job Board is your go-to hub for sustainability roles across fashion. From ESG and impact to circularity and compliance, We only post jobs that sit at the intersection of fashion and sustainability.

New this week:

• 🆕 Keen | Corporate Sustainability Intern
  Portland, OR | On-Site · Internship (Summer 2026) | $22/hr
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Aritzia | Impact - Analyst/Senior Analyst, Sustainability
  Vancouver, BC | On-Site・Full-Time
  CAD $50K/yr - CAD $100K/yr
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Arc’teryx Equipment | Senior Supply Chain Specialist, Climate
  Vancouver, BC | On-Site・Full-Time
  CAD $94K/yr - CAD $117K/yr

• 🆕 Balenciaga | Sustainability Impact Intern
  Paris, France | On-Site · Internship
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

Unlock All Jobs

• Tickets to our annual conference are LIVE! We’re bridging systems change with behavior change. Learn how to align your sustainability targets with consumer reality and turn behavioral insight into action.

• Looking to make your next career move at the intersection of fashion and sustainability? Browse jobs on the SFF Job Board.

• Launching a report, spotlighting an initiative, or looking to get in front of the right eyes? Partner with us!

• Let’s stay in touch: LinkedIn | Instagram | Email

When news broke that Nike, Superdry, and Lacoste had their ads banned in the UK by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), my LinkedIn feed exploded in celebration.

All over my timeline, people were cheering that the greenwashing era was officially ending, while others circulated step-by-step checklists on how brands can avoid the same fate.

The assumption was that these brands must’ve overreached in how they framed their sustainability credentials, and that staying safe was simply a matter of better verification, third-party certifications, and cleaner review processes.

But when you read the rulings, this wasn’t a case of rogue copywriters or missing nuance.

These brands weren’t making wild, unsubstantiated claims. They had the receipts and the data to back up their claims.

And yet, their ads were still banned.

If you work in sustainability, the ASA rulings signal a new reality in 2026: “having the receipts” is no longer protection, and sustainability teams are the ones who will absorb the legal and reputational risk when ads get pulled.

Read more

We called it.

At the start of 2025 we warned that the industry was trapped in what we called the ‘toolbox paradox.’

Solutions were everywhere, from frameworks and platforms to certifications and initiatives. But even with all these tools, the industry still wasn’t delivering meaningful, measurable progress. Instead, it created the appearance of progress. Well-intentioned, overlapping efforts fragmented impact, generated headlines, but rarely built real momentum.

Our bet for 2025 was that this friction would force consolidation, and that the sheer weight of the toolbox would eventually collapse in on itself, leaving only the most effective, interoperable tools standing.

In many ways, the brutal stress test of 2025 did exactly that.

But what we didn’t see coming was policy reversals, tariff shocks, and climate events that forced sustainability teams to trade long-term roadmaps for triage.

Revisiting our 2025 predictions, here’s what we got right, what the industry can’t afford to ignore heading into 2026, and how to use these shifts to your advantage.

Read more

Happy Sunday, Week/Enders.

Do me a favor? Go in your laundry room right now and make sure the drain hose to your washing machine is secured to the wall.

I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning, threw a load of laundry in, and went downstairs to make some coffee.

About ten minutes later, I heard a faint rhythmic trickling. But it wasn’t raining. Suddenly, I realized water was dripping from the ceiling behind the stove, down the walls, and out of the outlets.

I ran upstairs, and before I even got to the laundry room, I stepped in a massive puddle of cold water. That’s when I saw water seeping out from under the door.

I opened it, and it was absolute chaos.

The drain hose had ejected itself from the wall outlet, something I didn’t even know was possible. Instead of sipping coffee, I spent my morning wading through a flooded laundry room.

Welcome to homeownership.

To top it off, both my husband and I are sick, so this Week/End newsletter is going to be a short one. A bit of a heads up: I’ll also be taking next Sunday off to celebrate the holidays, so I’ll see you all in two weeks (hopefully dry and healthy)!

On to the news!

• After publishing its first Youth Report with GlobalData in October, Pacsun launched PS Vintage, a resale shop powered by SPRINGY and shaped by Gen Z input from its Youth Advisory Council.

• Back in July, Textile Exchange announced it was overhauling its certification system and consolidating its material sustainability standards into a single, impact-focused framework. The final criteria for the Materials Matter Standard have now been published. Developed with input from producers, brands, and NGOs, the standard covers environmental, social, and ethical impacts—from land and water use to animal welfare and human rights. The new standard becomes effective Dec 31, 2026, with mandatory compliance by Dec 31, 2027.

• SuperCircle, an AI-driven platform that analyzes 50+ data points to optimize the next, most profitable and responsible step for unsold, returned, or end-of-life retail products, raised $24M to scale its system for managing waste and unlocking value across supply chains.

• Following Condé Nast’s fur ban in October and the CFDA banning fur from New York Fashion Week, Hearst Magazines has also banned animal fur across its editorial and advertising content.

• Carbonfact launched Carbonfact for Suppliers, a free platform that lets brands instantly access verified environmental data from material suppliers, so comparing low-impact materials no longer means juggling spreadsheets or chasing the same data over and over.

• Armedangels signed a letter of intent with Spinnova to use the Finnish innovator’s material in future collections.

Despite consumer sentiment near historic lows, holiday spending has already reached record highs. It’s the paradox everyone was talking about—but once you realize that spending is driven more by psychology than by actual financial ability, it all starts to make sense.

If you’re working to build sustainability into the mainstream, in this week’s Green Behavior, I break down how desire, belonging, and short-term gratification drive consumption and what it really means for sustainable fashion brands trying to make impact stick.

Want to work in Sustainable Fashion? Start here! The SFF Job Board is your go-to hub for sustainability roles across fashion. From ESG and impact to circularity and compliance, We only post jobs that sit at the intersection of fashion and sustainability.

New This Week:

• 🆕Columbia Sportswear Company | Community Impact Program Manager Portland, OR | Hybrid・Full-Time
  Note: This is a Social Impact & Philanthropy role (CSR). You will manage non-profit partnerships, employee volunteering, and community grants focused on conservation and outdoor access.
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Keen | Corporate Sustainability Intern
  Portland, OR | On-site · Internship (Summer 2026) · $22/hr
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Christian Dior Couture | Sustainable Sourcing & Nature Manager
  Paris, France | On-Site · Full-Time
  ↳ Apply here

• 🆕 Kering | Sustainability Intern (RTW)
  Milan, Italy | On-site · Internship
  ↳ Apply here

🔓 Paid subscribers get access to the full job board, updated every week.

Unlock All Jobs

• Tickets to our annal conference are LIVE! We’re bridging systems change with behavior change. Learn how to align your sustainability targets with consumer reality and turn behavioral insight into action.

• Looking to make your next career move at the intersection of fashion and sustainability? Browse jobs on the SFF Job Board.

• Launching a report, spotlighting an initiative, or looking to get in front of the right eyes? Partner with us!

• Let’s stay in touch: LinkedIn | Instagram | Email

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