A new investment fund aims at promoting scalable solutions around key supply chain challenges. Good Fashion Fund is focused solely on the implementation of innovative solutions in the fashion industry. The fund will be dispersed to manufacturers as loans to enable them to adopt highly disruptive, early-stage technologies.

The garment and fashion industry has a broad negative impact on people and the planet. This includes labor abuses, water pollution and waste management. Several companies have shown it’s possible to create an ethical apparel supply chain. The problem is that these companies only account for a tiny percentage of global garment production — and whatever impact they have had has more than been outweighed by the overall growth in demand for clothing and fast fashion.

While sustainable solutions do exist there is a lack of capital available to scale these technologies within the supply chain. The fund was created to address this gap — connecting the most promising technologies to the industry to collaboratively tackle its challenges. The fund wants to make a dent in several sustainability and ethical gaps including the high water use of cotton; the fact that over 70 per cent of used textiles end up in landfills, rather than being recycled or reused; low wages; and pervasive gender inequality.