The apparel industry has a massive impact on the environment. The industry is the second-highest consumer of water and it drives almost 10% of global carbon emissions. Despite thousands of smart people working to make this industry cleaner and all sorts of investments by brands, emissions are still increasing. 

To learn about this problem and get an inside look at the efforts to address it, I caught up with two old friends, Jason Kibbey and Evan Wiener. 

Jason was the founder of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and more recently a technology company called Worldly that helps businesses track their supply chains. Evan is a sustainability expert at McKinsey & Company who previously worked at Nike and H&M. 

These guys know the fashion industry inside and out. We talked about the state of sustainability in the apparel industry, the challenges of competitive and pricing pressures, the role of legislation, the opportunity for startups, the questionable authenticity of corporate sustainability aspirations, what needs to change, and much more. 

This is an industry that simply needs to change dramatically, and I learned a lot about how we might get there. Let’s go.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• [03:07] Backgrounds of Jason Kibbe and Evan Wiener
• [08:19] Environmental and Societal Impact of the Apparel Industry
• [11:11] Progress and Challenges in Sustainability Efforts
• [16:16] Role of Regulation and Industry Response
• [25:31] Opportunities for Startups and Innovation
• [37:33] Consumer and Investor Roles in Sustainability
• [42:50] Reconciling Optimism with Industry Challenges
• [44:51] Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Resources Mentioned

• Cascale (formerly Sustainable Apparel Coalition)
• Worldly
• McKinsey & Company 

Connect with Jason Kibbey and Evan Wiener

• Connect with Jason on LinkedIn
• Connect with Evan on LinkedIn

Connect with Jason Rissman

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

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