Power imbalance slows fashion’s progress on climate innovation

Jangoulun Singsit

Mon, January 26, 2026 astatine 5:09 AM CST 2 min read

The report, titled ‘Unlocking Equity successful Innovation: Balancing the Scales successful Supply Chain Partnerships,’ finds that this disconnect successful tempo, coupled with an uneven organisation of risk, contributes to persistent powerfulness imbalances that hinder the enactment of broad, equitable partnerships needed to conscionable clime objectives.

The probe is based connected much than 30 interviews with stakeholders worldwide, spanning the apparel proviso chain.

Findings amusement that existent barriers to advancement see misaligned expectations betwixt manufacture actors, a deficiency of designation and compensation for suppliers, and irregular commitments from brands.

The study notes that though brands, investors and innovators person important power implicit sustainable change, suppliers who transportation retired the implementation of innovations stay “under-recognised and under-compensated”.

• Systemic misalignment wherever unrealistic expectations regarding costs and timelines marque commercialisation difficult

• Supplier inequity, arsenic suppliers are required to instrumentality connected a disproportionate stock of fiscal and operational hazard during the co-creation and implementation of innovation

• Low marque commitment, with astir enactment focused connected short-term aviator projects alternatively than semipermanent acquisition agreements oregon concern partnerships needed for scaling up.

Transformers Foundation quality manager Melinda Tually said: “Suppliers are captious worth creators of innovation. Without adjacent partnership, the manufacture cannot execute the scale, speed, oregon interaction needed to conscionable its clime goals.”

• Closing cognition gaps done open-source sharing betwixt brands, suppliers and different stakeholders to enactment proviso concatenation standardisation

• Recognising and incentivising suppliers by promoting supplier roles and partnerships to summation appreciation for their contributions, with an accent connected starting partnerships with suppliers

• Embracing systems alteration by encouraging pre-competitive collaboration, processing beardown concern cases beyond sustainability oregon method factors, and offsetting terms premiums to assistance standard innovation.

Transformers Foundation laminitis Andrew Olah said: “Innovation won’t alteration the manufacture unless it’s built connected fair, transparent partnerships. This study is simply a telephone to reimagine however worth and hazard are distributed, and to guarantee suppliers person an adjacent spot astatine the table.”

"Power imbalance slows fashion’s advancement connected clime innovation" was primitively created and published by Just Style, a GlobalData owned brand.