Fashion 4 Development (F4D) Launches ‘The World Collective’

The World Collective is a global impact-driven initiative that supports the activation and execution needed for a more prosperous, healthy, and responsible industry. And it will bridge the gap between legislation and SMEs.

NEW YORK, NY, USA – Fashion 4 Development recently announced the launch of The World Collective. World Collective is one of the first global initiatives to work on a solution to support SMEs in their sustainability efforts with no further legislation or additional budget. Launched in 2022, World Collective (WC) is an outgrowth of Fashion 4 Development, a private sector global platform committed to supporting the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals since 2015.

“The WC is the pioneer non-profit consortium to scale transformative actions for supply chain innovation targeting SMEs worldwide. Its program’s sustainability criteria are based on a certification compliance database ensuring full transparency and traceability from Tier 1 Assembly factories to Tier 4 raw material suppliers,” explains Jeanine Ballone, co-founder of The World Collective. “All resources are aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) which include poverty reduction, environmental protection, and a limit to the increase in global temperatures levels.”

Today’s fashion and lifestyle brands are under tremendous pressure to implement environmental, social, and governance solutions to their supply chains. Customers expect it and the planet requires it. Current geopolitical developments further force businesses to deal with increased energy prices and uncertain access to raw materials. Never has there been such urgency to evolve supply chain norms to meet shifting demands.

In compliance with the UN Decade of Action, Governments around the globe are enforcing legislation for more sustainable production and consumption processes. With the recent legislation proposed by New York State, The Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act would require all fashion companies that do business in New York and generate more than $100 million in revenues to map at least 50 percent of their supply chains and disclose impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions, water footprint, and chemical use.

For systemic change to occur, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must be part of the solution. Unfortunately, these organizations are often deterred from making necessary changes due to concerns about change management, financial investment, resources, and in-house capabilities.

To address these challenges, F4D Founder, Evie Evangelou & Jeanine Ballone launched The World Collective to unlock commitments scaling transformative actions toward the SDGs.

While providing access to multiple transformative initiatives to its members through a digital hub, the WC also supports members by connecting them to software that measures transparency & traceability as they transform their supply chain. Membership requires a three-year commitment and accountability in innovation implementation, with yearly progress reports.

Members are encouraged to incorporate supply chain transformation metrics and successes into their organization’s marketing materials and public branding. This platform allows companies the opportunity to build the supply chains that support new proposed legislation as well as build a responsible supply chain with a low entry barrier & cost risk into a brand. By linking and negotiating the cost barriers across all the support structures, the program allows SMEs to build and support a transparent and sustainable business model.

Pooling solutions and therefore allowing for competitive pricing for SMEs is one of the strong points of WC’s approach to engaging SMEs in sustainability efforts.

Many businesses lack appropriate and dedicated budgets to explore innovation for clean supply chains and thus, simply cannot afford to switch to more sustainable systems. Furthermore, data on best practices are scattered across various platforms, reports, and databases and often issued by biased sources, making it impossible to validate claims and assess high-quality insights. Proactively working on a sustainable business pays in the long run. Aside from long-term cost advantages, 70% of customers are willing to pay a 5% price premium for products produced by more-sustainable means.

“Solutions like the World Collective (WC) can temporarily bridge the gap between legislation and SMEs but they are not developed to replace governmental oversight and associated regulations,” says Evangelou. “By providing SMEs support and access to efficient pricing and data, solutions like the World Collective are superior complementary tools for the effective implementation of the new legislation. To really change the fashion and lifestyle industry we need to focus on the heart of the industry: the SMEs.”

By targeting SMEs worldwide, the World Collective will democratize supply chain solutions and take the lead as a global frontrunner in transition management, offering the most promising initiatives for a sustainable change in the consumer goods industry.

To sign up more The World Collective membership, visit: https://world-collective.com/membership/

To learn more about The World Collective, visit: https://world-collective.com/

For more information and other inquiries, please contact:

Jeanine Ballone

jeanine@world-collective.com

Media Contact
Company Name: World Collective
Contact Person: Jeanine Ballone
Email: Send Email
City: New York
State: NY
Country: United States
Website: https://world-collective.com/