Swedish electric car brand Polestar is the main partner at the 2022 Global Fashion Summit (Copenhagen 7-8 June 2022), the leading international forum for sustainability in fashion. The Summit brings together members of the fashion industry, policy makers and stakeholders from a range of industries. Recognising the urgency for cross-industry collaboration, this year’s headline theme is “Alliances for a new era”.
Polestar is the only automotive brand involved in the event, participating with the aim of finding new partners to join the Polestar 0 project – its ‘moonshot goal’ to create a truly climate neutral car by 2030 (without relying on off-setting). Key to achieving this is innovation in textiles, an area Polestar believes the fashion industry is spearheading. Following the open call for collaboration on the Polestar 0 project earlier in 2022, the Swedish brand is now looking for potential new partners within the textile industry, through panels and strategic networking at the summit.
“The biggest obstacle to sustainable innovation is our own lack of imagination – we need to reimagine everything in order to make real change. This starts with collaboration within, and beyond, our industry,” says Fredrika Klarén, Head of Sustainability at Polestar. “Textiles and soft interior materials in particular remain a huge a challenge on our quest to deliver on climate neutrality.”
The fashion industry and the transport industry together account for a large share of global emissions. The potential for reduction is immense, and even greater if underpinned by collaboration[1],[2].
Fredrika Klarén continues: “The fashion and automotive industries are two heavy emitters of CO2e.Both industries share many complex challenges when it comes to sustainability, related to resource use, human rights and transparency. We are now in the ‘climate decade’ and working in silos just won’t cut it.”
Federica Marchionni, CEO, Global Fashion Agenda states: “Bringing Polestar as principal partner to the Summit is the essence of what we aimed to achieve with our new and expanded cross industry-scope. Polestar is spearheading sustainability in the car industry with its bold, near-time goals. Polestar’s approach, especially when it comes to favouring radical change rather than incremental improvements, is an inspiration for the fashion industry too. For those working with sustainable materials and textiles, Polestar’s search for collaboration will be a great opportunity and business case to explore and apply innovations in a new area.”
SOURCE: Polestar
