Marian Temmen

Next Generation Business journal MT/Sprout interviewed me about the crisis in textile recycling in the Netherlands. The textile recycling industry is under immense pressure due to the rise of fast fashion brands like Shein and Temu, which flood the market with low-quality polyester garments. This trend has drastically reduced the value of recycled textiles and led to a significant surplus. 📉 Current Challenges: Fast Fashion's Impact: The rapid growth of ultra-fast fashion has caused a massive shift in consumer behavior, leading to increased clothing waste. Polyester Predicament: Much of the discarded clothing is made from polyester, which is difficult to recycle efficiently. Export Challenges: Traditional markets for second-hand clothing, such as Eastern Europe and Africa, are closing due to various geopolitical and economic factors. Cost Pressures: The cost of sorting and storing surplus clothing is rising, further straining the industry. 🔄 Industry's Response: Innovation in Recycling: Companies like Saxcell and Frankenhuis are developing new recycling technologies to create fibers from waste cotton. Legislative Push: New laws aim to hold fashion brands accountable for waste, but implementation remains slow. 🤝 Call to Action: Financial Support Needed: The industry requires immediate financial backing to sustain operations and invest in new technologies. Policy Change: Advocates are calling for mandatory use of recycled materials in fashion to drive demand for sustainable products. The future of the textile recycling industry depends on innovation, policy change, and collaboration across sectors. It's time to rethink how we approach fashion and sustainability. The full article (in Dutch) can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eAmyWfvZ #textilerecycling #crisis #fastfashion #sustainability

29

4 commentaren

Inside the mind of a Nimby. Change is about people, and humans are not rational beings. If we want our sustainability investments to happen, and to deliver a fair financial return, we need to understand why they face opposition. As we frequently point out, change is hard. And it's especially hard if it challenges our core beliefs. Change is about people, and humans are not rational beings (despite what economists might tell you). Which brings us to NIMBY's. For those not familiar with the term it stands for Not In My BackYard. It's now largely used to describe anyone who doesn't want change. It's generally used as a negative and critical term. NIMBY's 'block' new housing, mines, roads, and overhead power connectors. The reality for investors is that for sustainability change to happen we need to find a way to minimise or manage this resistance. And for that to happen we need to better understand where the 'other side', the so called NIMBY's, are coming from. And that other side is sometimes the public, but it can also be an industry or a company. Two books helped me understand this challenge better. The first is a book called Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene. It's basic premise is that many of our conflicts, big and small, start from the different moral perspectives we have. My tribe sees the world differently from your's. And we see your moral compass as being wrong. This seems to neatly encapsulate the situation with sustainability people and finance people. We largely cannot understand the other side's moral code, and as a result we can struggle to reach agreement. We frame the questions in totally different ways. The second is The Road to Somewhere by David Goodhart. The concept of Somewhere's (grounded in a place) and Anywhere's (international in outlook) can be taken too far, but I find it a useful shorthand for why some of the major cultural gaps exist. Somewhere's and Anywhere's see the world very differently. Most people (half if Goodhart's estimates are correct) are Somewhere's. Most decision makers, in politics, in investing, and in companies, are Anywhere's. As Joshua Greene would say - from very different tribes. And it's not always public interest groups that are the Nimby. Sometimes it's corporate and political interests that spill over into public support. Lobbyist's have got very good at working out how to 'push people's buttons' on these issues. They can stimulate public opposition, and generate negative press coverage. A good example is the lack of progress in the US in grid modernisation, which is holding up the roll out of renewables and batteries. For investors in the sustainability transition, this is probably the most material barrier to change. Without it we are likely to find our projects are delayed and our financial returns are lower. This was the topic of a recent Sunday Brunch for The Sustainable Investor, you can read it for free by following the links in my profile.

1

A few (incomplete) impressions from Climate Week: 🎯Voluntary #sustainability target setting leads to a bevy of self congratulatory trivial achievements. e.g. * a fashion sustainability leader shared her company’s water reductions of 30% / unit….(but did not include water at the farm level)… * an industry collaboration trumpeted a goal to zero out participants carbon emissions (but, only for their own operations, which represent 2% of the total).. * an airline executive touted carbon reductions from slowing docking speeds and lowering food waste…(when 99% of airline emissions are related to burning fossil fuels). 🛍️ Profits are distributed unevenly in value chains and those with the biggest profits are often furthest from the "outsourced" social and environmental impact. By contrast, suppliers who deliver the biggest negative impacts often have the least resources. 💰Sustainability costs money and most investments are NPV negative. Discussions of innovative “creative financing” and collaboration lack scale. 🌎 Committed NGOs describe the mounting challenges…executives nod…and the chasm between the two remains vast. 🔬Planetary challenges are science based….but…almost no companies are reporting their “sustainability” progress using science and comparing their progress to planetary boundaries.  📲Impressive energy and courage from founders #ClimateTech ventures seeking to address carbon emissions, agriculture productivity, low emissions mobility, alternative proteins, (see, for example, Yard Stick PBC, Vow, Reflect Orbital, Zeno, AM Batteries , Revel, ZymoChem….). As long as system structure, rules and incentives remain broken….#ClimateWeek will remain aspirational and inadequate. Alison Taylor John Elkington Joel Makower Heather Clancy Maxine Bédat Sarah Kent Rachel Arthur Rachel Cernansky Kate A Larsen Samantha Taylor Noel Kinder Deanna Bratter Bill Baue Cynthia Cummis Tariq Fancy Lisa Sachs Leslie Johnston, M.Sc.Tom Lyon Mike Barnett Auden Schendler Adam Rome Nolan Lindquist Andrew King Andy Hoffman Matt Powell Tim Mohin Denise Hearn Gillian Marcelle, PhD Mads Oscar Haumann

338

49 commentaren

Plastics is fantastic(*) Plastics is often considered as the fourth pillar of the modern world- because of our strong reliance on that category of materials (https://lnkd.in/ejeU6-ic). Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Global production in 2023 was about 460 million tons (https://lnkd.in/eFmZnNQf) and 35% .is used for packaging. Plastics production and end of life is responsible for about 3.3% of global emissions (https://lnkd.in/e4zrTc7J). And speaking of end-of-life, as illustrated in the graph below, produced plastics mainly end up as waste. The graph shows the total material flow from 1950 to 2015 (so one can probably add a couple billion tons to the numbers) based on production of resins and monomers (the building blocks). In 2015, about 8.3 billion tons of primary material had been produced, and 2.5 billion tons were in stock. That leaves close to 5 billion tons which are accumulating in landfills or in the natural environment- and hardly 9% which have been recycled... And remember: plastics are being produced mainly from fossil fuels for now... An interesting history of plastics development and use here: https://lnkd.in/e3T84f4a Source of the graph: https://lnkd.in/ebjU2V3Y (*) reference to French song by Elmer Food Beat (https://lnkd.in/eHjVJWZr) #materials #circularity #fossilfuels

45

16 commentaren

When delving into sustainability matters, I thought I had reached a stage where I could see through processes and high-level decisions. And then I read the news and I suddenly lose the big picture, and it all starts from square one again. For all of us who are trying to push through decarb strategies into our companies every single day of our professional existence, dealing with the Science-Based Targets has been like holding a solid handle while traveling on a wrecked bus steering through a bumpy road. But then suddenly the board of SBTi announces that the archenemy called "Offsetting" becomes the house guest and you don't know what to think about it, you don't have an opinion anymore. You read on and you discover that one of the biggest sponsors of the Initiative is Bezos' Earth Fund and that the carbon market organisations are suddenly getting ready for a Bull market. What amazes me is how SBTi is not realizing that this decision will be a destructive move for its own reputation, and a big hiccup for all of those little chaps - like myself - that built all their company strategy development on and around the SBTi's standards. As if this was not enough, you keep reading and you find out that the Initiative states that they "[...] will not embark in validating carbon credits quality. Other entities are better positioned to deal with this activity. SBTi will enable all validating entities to have clear access and complete understanding of the demand side guardrails and rules established by SBTi for this purpose. [...]" (see SBTi Official Statement dated 9th April 2024). This looks very unprofessional to me, I am afraid: they open up for credits and leave it to those who manage - financially, too - such credits to decide whether they are good stuff or not. Anyone else other than me sees a short circuit of any kind here? I guess we will all need to sit still and wait until July, when the next statement from the SBTi is poised to be issued. But to me this is like watching an ad inbetween the final part of an horror movie. #sbti #wheretonow #carbonremovalcredits #nocompensationnoparty

16

1 commentaar

♻️Recycling: The Emotional Attachment and the Realities ♻️ Do people really know what this means? Or is it just a way to feel better about our overconsumption into reuse? Today, the recycling icon is everywhere — on plastic bottles, cereal boxes, and curbside bins. However, it's often misleading, especially on non-recyclable plastic products. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) even labeled its use on many plastics as "deceptive." Recycling rules are a maze of confusion. No easy answers here, but consumer education and consistent guidelines are a must! #Circularity #Recycling #CircularEconomy #EnvironmentalAwareness

68

6 commentaren

Bricks made from wasted clothing ✅ Can you beat that ✅🤗🙏 I'm convinced that the next big thing is Circular Economy ✅👌🙏 I read adidas sustainability article yesterday, highly impressive ✅, they talked about Circularity as their game plan for a circular future,a three point series on their approach to circularity,as they transition to a circular future. Interesting how large corporates now have sustainability at the center of their activities, that's the most sustainable pathway into the future anyways ✅🙏 So for those companies that are still gaslighting,I hope the CEO won't be saying in a few years,we didn't do anything wrong ✅🤗🙏. Listen 👏,we all have a part to play in sustainability, whether you are SMEs, medium or large corporates, you all have to put sustainability at the center of your operations. Please watch this video as these guys turn wasted clothing to bricks for construction,it's amazing, right 🤗 Let's share in your thoughts 👏 #sustainability #circulareconomy #sustainablesolution #circularity #thefutureishere

209

15 commentaren

Julia Freer Goldstein and Paul Foulkes-Arellano granted Packaging Europe early access to their new book, #Materials & #Sustainability: Building A #Circular Future. In this article, we discuss just some of its many points of interest, from the ancient origins of certain #packaging materials to up-and-coming solutions to the #plastic #waste crisis. #CircularEconomy #Innovation #Circularity #Encyclopedia #Textbook #Coursebook

12

✨​[CIRCULAR ECONOMY WORKSHOP]✨​ What do a phone 📞 and office carpet 🖥️​ have in common? What sounds like the beginning of a (bad) joke is actually the start of... rethinking our economy ☘️🤔 Confused about what you just read ? To clear things up, feel free to sign up for the Circular Economy Workshop I’m hosting online on August 6th from 1pm to 4pm (Paris time !) : https://lnkd.in/eFZp2BaT 💡​And in case you're too curious to wait for August 6th : the answer resides in the way the product is designed! The circular economy approach aims to eliminate the concept of waste (among other things). This involves rethinking how we buy and consume everyday products, such as our phone and office carpet. ➡️​Interface (https://www.interface.com/), a carpet manufacturer, has transformed its business model to reduce its environmental impact. They produce modular carpet tiles from recycled materials, including old Interface products retrieved from customers. This allows them to replace only the worn tiles rather than the entire carpet. ➡️​Fairphone (https://lnkd.in/ev9pmhCq) designs durable and easily repairable smartphones. The phones are modular, allowing users to replace defective and/or outdated components (battery, camera, processor, etc.) themselves. They use materials sourced responsibly and ethically, including conflict-free minerals. Interested in the circular economy approach ? Then quickly sign up for the workshop I'm hosting on August 6th from 1-4pm (Paris time). We’ll talk about phones, carpets... and much more 😉

4

1 commentaar

Attending the 19th Sustainability Summit, Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change is the Chief Guest and spoke about complete ban on single use plastic among other things. However, countries that have overcome the challenge of waste have doe it differently. In The Netherlands, for instance, everytime you go to a store to buy monthly groceries, packaging ( plastic, beer cans and others) surcharge gets added to your bill. Next time when you go shopping and take empty cans and bottles, the amount gets knocked off your bill. Since there's a value attached to empty bottles, cans etc, what goes into trash, gets collected by the homeless and returned to the store for money. So manufacturers can take back packaging when they deliver goods. When it comes to Plastic bags these too are charged and people use them to shop. Therefore, I believe that ban on plastic is not the solution, we need to change our behaviour towards use of plastic. Because we give packaging free, Indian consumers attach no value to it and hence throw it on the garbage.

33

🌱 Question for the network: How much does switching to preferred materials actually reduce the overall environmental impact of a garment? Or maybe phrased differently, if raw materials take up roughly 12% of the climate impact of a garment, how much is this reduced/shifted by using preferred materials? I’m looking for data, charts, graphics, or insights into how this change affects total impact. Any resources or experiences to share?

15

13 commentaren

🚀 Exciting News! 🚀 Our CEO, prof. dr. Bram Desmet, has released his latest book, "Rethinking Supply Chain." 📚✨ In this new publication, Bram explores how to modernize supply chains to achieve sustainability and resilience in today’s volatile business environment. A key focus is on Integrated Value Planning, a crucial framework for aligning strategic choices with financial performance. 🔍 Get a sneak peek: https://hubs.la/Q02F-KYY0 #SupplyChain #Innovation #Leadership #Sustainability #BusinessStrategy

20

2 commentaren

If you work on textile you should already know that fashion is polluting our blood and our rivers. We need forceful laws to stop selling synthetic clothing ( first and second hand) . Emily Macintosh, from the European Environmental Bureau , will be in this webinar , we can talk with her about the current laws that are not protecting us neither our ecosystem. We know about microplastic from 2011 and we need to ask her for laws that reward plastic-free brands and penalize plastic brand that have been encouraging overproduction with taxes to pay the ecological debt. We need a new directive for labelling with ALL fibers and materials included, warning about microplastics instead of QR with biased and incomplete environmental and social information. Fashion’s Plastic Paralysis: How Brands Worsen Microplastic Pollution. In it, we’ll discuss the environmental and health risks posed by the fashion industry’s reliance on synthetic, fossil-fuel-based textiles. This one-hour session on 16th October will illuminate critical insights from our latest report, Fashion's Plastic Paralysis, and discuss solutions for driving meaningful change in the fashion sector. Urska Trunk, Senior Campaigner at Changing Markets Foundation, will reveal findings from our Fashion’s Plastic Paralysis report, highlighting major brands’ continued use of synthetic fibres. Professor Barbro Melgert, from the University of Groningen, will address how synthetic fibres enter the human body and their health implications. Emily Macintosh, from the European Environmental Bureau, will discuss regulatory gaps and offer actionable solutions for lawmakers.

6

1 commentaar

I asked Carolina Lopez what inspired her to create "BEJOU". And her answer will surely pique your interest! 🤔💡 Product & Packaging Powerhouse: Available on Apple, Spotify, Google, and our site. #podcast #Sustainability #SkinCare #Packaging #BeautyIndustry

16

1 commentaar

"What progress have we made towards industry alignment on sustainability?" This is how the Innovation Forum "Sustainable Apparel Conference" started this week in Amsterdam. And it was excellent with great introductory speech by Pascal Brun from Zalando! Some reflections from the many conferences and 1:1 during those 2 days: 🤝 "#Collaboration" and "#Partnerships" are on every sustainability professionals' lips. This is the way forward if we want to achieve decarbonization and halt biodiversity loss at scale. Beyond those statements, challenges are still there to get a whole industry to share sensitive data and efforts. But it was great to see leading european brands co-investing in material innovation technologies. 📜 European Regulations are about to succeed on making value chains more transparent where we have struggled for too long knowing where the garments we buy are made, by whom and in which conditions. The need for more information on environmental impact of apparel is driving this as part of the Green Deal, and this is a good news even if it means more work for brands. This is inevitably leading brands to transform the skills and capabilities of their teams as well as the relationship with their partners and the use of data & digital tools. 🗑 #Circularity has been front and center during this conference, and it is a good sign business models are evolving for more sobriety while keeping the consumers' excitement towards style. Combining sustainability, and the desire to reinvent our style is the challenge of circularity. Great insights from Laura Coppen and Anna Turrell around what's being achieved at H&M and Decathlon  ! 🖥 #Digitalization is a great lever for companies willing to decarbonize their supply chain, measure their progress towards their SBT or NetZero commitments, as well as complying with ecolabeling upcoming requirements. I have met with many companies developing groundbreaking solutions for traceability (Retraced, TrusTrace, TextileGenesis , Temera ) and product footprint measurements (FAIRLY MADE , Carbonfact). The digitalization of sustainability at fashion brands is happening and we should look at it as an opportunity to scale decarbonization. This sector is blooming with a lot of actors and brands have a hard time: - making sense of the needs of their internal stakeholders, - selecting the right partner addressing their needs but also with a chance to still be there in 5 years (as the market will inevitably consolidate), - getting the right environmental data (see #eQosphere solution Quantis) - and setting the appropriate data governance, processes and usage (reporting, ecodesign, portfolio management, etc.) throughout the organization This is the space where Quantis can help brands be future fit by advising them on the best way to go on their sustainability digitalization journey!

46

1 commentaar

🌳 Do I own the trees in my garden? I'd say no. ➡ A linear economy is characterised by ignoring what happens before and after I control the materials. ➿ A circular economy is characterised by considering the total life cycle of resources. Changing the market structure in a circular direction is necessary if we want companies to act accordingly. 🧠 But changing 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 is another driver towards the circular and regenerative economy. Considering myself as a 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 will help me see fields of care and new 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀. 👉 I elaborate on that idea in my latest #bGreenLeaders article about Fighting Waste. Find it at the CIRCULAZE by CURAZE by Messe Muenchen & Curaze platform here: https://lnkd.in/eZ82b-cu What do you "own"? #circulareconomy #regeneration #stewardship #sustainability #productmanagement

25

5 commentaren

Curious about #Circularity in #Apparel and #Fashion! CEO of PFW Advisory Pamela Fierst-Walsh demystifies circularity and why it's so important for the apparel industry. We also discuss the Textile Exchange recent report on the Future of #Synthetics. #standards #textileexchange #sustainability #GHGReduction #EUGreendeal

13

1 commentaar

One, if not the, most problematic plastic problems in society today is expanded polystyrene (EPS). It is insidious, everywhere, and harmful to both people and the planet. As such, an immediate societal solution is required. At Phantm, we love tackling complex and difficult material problems. It's in our company DNA. So, we are putting our minds to solving EPS. I am excited to announce that we have formed an EPS Replacement Consortium, assembling experts from across the globe to address the problem. The consortium has brought together leaders in materials innovation, industry, and environmental advocacy to develop viable, sustainable alternatives. The first phase of our consortium is limited to 30 companies, and several major national and multinational corporations have already expressed interest. If you're part of or know a business with EPS in its supply chain or operations, we invite you to embark on this important journey to be part of the solution. Learn more here ➡ https://lnkd.in/g4gcCDyd

53

4 commentaren

Breaking news from Brussels! The YES vote on both the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (#PPWR) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (#CSDDD) marks a pivotal moment for sustainability in the European Union. These new regulations will profoundly influence how companies across the EU manage packaging waste and corporate responsibility. For businesses, this means a critical shift towards more sustainable practices and enhanced due diligence in sustainability matters. Compliance professionals, especially those in retail and trade, need to be prepared for these changes. They will affect not only environmental strategies but also governance and operational frameworks across industries. I dare say, it might be time for many businesses to conduct a new SWOT analysis to fully understand these changes' implications. Follow me to discuss how to proactively adapt to these regulations and lead the way in sustainable business practices. What strategies does your organization plan to implement in response to these new requirements? #Sustainability #EURegulations #CorporateResponsibility #EnvironmentalImpact #Leadership #ChangeManagement

27