Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) announced that Lululemon and H&M are the lead funders in its $250 million Fashion Climate Fund.
Bringing together clothing brands, philanthropic donors and industry stakeholders, Aii’s Climate Fund intends to increase its donor funds by $2 billion once effective, sustainable solutions are found and scaled.
Early backers include the H&M Foundation and the Schmidt Family Foundation.
According to Aii and World Resources Institute’s recent report, Roadmap to Net Zero: Delivering Science-Based Targets in the Apparel Sector, 96 percent of the fashion industry’s emissions come from third-party farms and factories that are shared across the industry and deemed too risky for brands, retailers or traditional sources of capital to make necessary upgrades and overhauls.
The fund will finance initiatives, including expanding renewable energy, developing next-generation materials, removing the use of coal in manufacturing, and improving energy efficiency.
The organization hopes that using philanthropic capital to help fund early-stage projects and partnerships with retailers to scale up successful initiatives will encourage industry participants to meet future funding needs to reach $10 million over the next eight years.
Lewis Perkins, President of Aii, said: “By aligning industry leaders and climate-focused philanthropists behind scalable solutions, the Fashion Climate Fund opens a pathway for greater collaboration and cross-pollination of solutions, facilitating greater investment and stronger collective action toward the industry goal of halving emissions by 2030, while also seeking climate justice for the citizens and communities where our fashion is made. We are greatly encouraged by the leadership and decisiveness shown today from these lead partners and honored to play this role as we open up this first phase of the project finance.”
