The Climate Pledge, alongside Amazon, Stella McCartney, and Canopy have co-founded The Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition, with convening support from the World Economic Forum. The coalition supports more than 60 Climate Pledge signatories, including fashion brands, innovators, manufacturers, and retailers, in their work to reach net-zero carbon by 2040. By combining collective demand with new financing models, and new tools like the Fashion Coalition Lever Library, the coalition aims to help more sustainable materials and processes scale across the industry, reducing environmental effects across fashion supply chains.
Right now, the materials and processes that could significantly reduce fashion's environmental footprint are too expensive, too scarce, or too fragmented to compete with conventional alternatives at scale. The coalition exists to change that. Rather than focusing solely on end-of-life solutions, it targets innovation earlier in the product lifecycle, supporting the development, commercialization, and adoption of materials and processes with measurably lower environmental footprints. That includes organic, recycled, and next-generation fibers made from waste feedstocks, as well as manufacturing technologies that reduce water use, chemical inputs, and emissions. The goal is to make these options the new standard across the industry, bringing more sustainable fashion choices to customers at every price point.
Co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism in 2019, The Climate Pledge has grown to include more than 700 signatories across 60+ industries, all committed to reaching net-zero carbon by 2040. Fashion's supply chains cut across many of those industries, and that cross-sector network is what makes The Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition different. It builds on a proven model of collaboration and brings it to one of the world's most complex and resource-intensive industries.
The coalition brings together organizations representing every stage of the fashion value chain and gives them practical tools and structured pathways to help scale next-generation materials, technologies, and lower-carbon supply chains:
Structuring financing to encourage investment: The coalition helps align demand across signatories – not just at the brand level, but at each stage in the supply chain. Working with the World Economic Forum, it is developing blended financing mechanisms that combine development finance institution de-risking with private capital to unlock investment at scale. When innovators have committed volume over a long enough horizon, they can price closer to mainstream levels now — changing the investment case entirely and making it possible for more sustainable materials to compete on cost and move from pilot to commercial scale faster.
Connecting members with solutions: The Fashion Coalition Lever Library, built in consultation with 30+ brands and suppliers, helps companies identify which interventions will have the greatest impact on their specific supply chains, covering 100+ proven and emerging solutions, fiber-by-fiber guidance, and a directory of innovators. Through Next Gen Now, a Canopy-led initiative, the coalition draws on years of hands-on experience testing and vetting next-generation fibers with producers and innovators to connect signatories with the materials and technologies that are ready for commercial adoption.
Informing policy: By demonstrating that production-stage innovation works at scale, the coalition gives policymakers real-world evidence to inform smarter environmental policy.
Fashion-focused Climate Pledge signatories include Anna Sui, Another Tomorrow, Bananatex, Biofluff, Brooks Running, Christopher Esber, Circ, Ciucani, Collina Strada, DL1961, E.L.V Denim, Faherty, Mother Denim, Pure.Tech, Selfridges, unspun, and Vestiaire Collective.
Executive quotes
"Fashion has no shortage of ambition on sustainability. People are already looking for more sustainable options when they shop, and now the industry needs to deliver at scale. Through The Climate Pledge, we're bringing together more than 60 fashion and retail brands, manufacturers, and innovators to help make that happen,” says Kara Hurst, Chief Sustainability Officer, Amazon.
"For over two decades, I've worked alongside innovators proving that fashion can be made differently. The solutions already exist. What's been missing is the industry-wide commitment to help them scale. The Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition is about turning innovation into infrastructure, creating real demand for the next generation of materials and giving the pioneers a pathway from breakthrough to industry standard,” says Stella McCartney, Founder and Creative Director, Stella McCartney.
“Making sustainable materials the default rather than the premium choice requires entire value chains to move together. The Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition is designed to enable that alignment to ultimately increase the confidence that can unlock investment to scale. This is how we can accelerate adoption today, not a decade from now,” says Clemence Schmid, Head of Circular Economy Transformation & Director, Global Plastic Action Partnership, World Economic Forum.
"Transitions of this scale don't happen brand by brand, they happen when an industry moves together. By diversifying fashion's fiber basket with emerging Next Gen materials, this coalition builds more resilient supply chains, reduces sourcing risk, and keeps vital forests standing,” says Nicole Rycroft, Founder and Executive Director of Canopy.
