CLIMATE ACTION WEEK: Ken Pucker is a thought leader and an independent voice. Is anyone listening?
Release Date: 06/13/2025
CLIMATE ACTION WEEK: Do we need to reimagine growth in apparel? Textile Exchange makes the case.
Big Closets Small Planet
A few years ago Professor Jason Hickel was invited to speak during an annual Textile Exchange conference. Why was that invitation noteworthy? Because Jason is an advocate for degrowth in fashion. Fast forward to 2024 and Textile Exchange released the report Reimagining Growth Landscape Analysis. Perhaps Jason’s intervention struck a chord? In this conversation, Michael speaks with Beth Jensen from Textile Exchange and Rachel Arthur, the report’s lead author, to explore the reasoning behind and the conclusions drawn in the report. In short, the report concludes that the industry’s...
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CLIMATE ACTION WEEK: Ken Pucker is a thought leader and an independent voice. Is anyone listening?
Big Closets Small Planet
Ken Pucker, former COO at Timberland and now Professor of Practice at Tufts University, sustainable industry analyst, opinion columnist and critic, views himself as a completely independent voice when it comes to issues concerning fashion and sustainability. During last year’s Climate Action Week, Michael and Ken discussed a number of topics, including his views regarding the rise and negative impacts of instant fashion and why voluntary sustainability initiatives do not work and thus why we need smart legislation. We invited Ken back to comment on what has happened in the past year...
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CLIMATE ACTION WEEK: How much is enough? Can a “sufficiency” approach be applied to textile policy?
Big Closets Small Planet
The idea that the fashion and apparel industry can continue to grow by employing a green-growth model has been questioned by many leading thinkers. It is argued that for the industry to reduce its emissions at the pace and scale required and to operate within the planetary boundaries, overproduction and overconsumption must stop. This is especially challenging because, as critics explain, the dominant economic business model relies on growth, and business growth often neutralizes gains in emission reductions. During Climate Action Week 2024, Katia Dayan Vladimirova, Chief Executive Officer at...
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CLIMATE ACTION WEEK: How Elisabeth Peregi, the Kappahl Group’s CEO, views climate action.
Big Closets Small Planet
The Kappahl Group is a signatory in STICA’s Company Climate Action Program. That is why we invited Elisabeth Peregi, CEO of the Kappahl Group, for a conversation about how a CEO from a midsized, privately owned apparel brand understands the challenges and opportunities with climate action. Michael and Elisabeth discuss if it’s possible to achieve financial growth and reduce emissions simultaneously, if legislation and financial incentives are necessary to enable the Kappahl Group and the industry overall to achieve their climate targets, how long term relationships and authentic engagement...
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CLIMATE ACTION WEEK: Status Update: Will the New York and California Fashion Act bills pass?
Big Closets Small Planet
During STICA’s 2024 Climate Action Week, Maxine Bédat and her colleagues from the NRDC and the New York State Assembly updated us on the arguments for and status of the New York Fashion Act. Since then more has happened. Similar bills have been introduced in California and Massachusetts. In this conversation, Michael asks Maxine to provide an update on the status of the bills, including how they address climate action specifically, if and how the bills align or differ, why she thinks they will be effective, and why there are no major industry organizations and only a few global brands...
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CLIMATE ACTION WEEK: Will EU’s textile legislation reduce industry emissions at the pace and scale required?
Big Closets Small Planet
According to a recent report by the European Environment Agency, the greenhouse gas emissions from textile consumption in the EU was 355kg CO2e per person (based on 2022 data). So how does the EU Commission, which is responsible for developing and implementing the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, think about climate action and textiles? Michael invited Matjaž Malgaj, the Coordinator of the cross-Directorate General team (DG ENV, DG GROW, and DG ENER) that works on making sustainable products the norm in the EU, and Head of Unit for Sustainable Products in DG ENV, to weigh...
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CLIMATE ACTION WEEK: Watchdogs Action Speaks Louder & Fashion Revolution want more from the industry.
Big Closets Small Planet
During the past few years, a number of NGO campaign organizations, sometimes referred to as watchdogs, have set their sights on accelerating climate action in the apparel industry. Michael sat down Ruth MacGilp from Action Speaks Louder and Liv Simpliciano from Fashion Revolution to discuss what they want brands and other stakeholders to be doing, their complementary methods for getting them to do it, and how they assess progress to date. Their conversation explored topics such as the importance of data and transparency to support informed action, new reporting demands that ask brands to...
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CLIMATE ACTION WEEK: Heat is putting Indian garment workers’ lives at risk today. We need to act now.
Big Closets Small Planet
Nandita Shivakumar is a labor organizer and campaigner whose work has focused on gender justice, sustainability, and migrant rights in global fashion supply chains. She also represents the Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union (TTCU), a 12,000 worker strong, Dalit women-led trade union, working to ensure dignity, safety and decent work for textile workers. In this conversation Nandita describes how she is witnessing first hand the impacts of global warming and specifically increasing heat stress on garment workers. As she describes it, increasing heat and temperatures are having...
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CLIMATE ACTION WEEK: Professor Hakan Karaosman is still asking: “Where are the workers’ voices?”
Big Closets Small Planet
Hakan Karaosman, whose mother was a garment worker, is a Professor in supply chain management from Cardiff University. Six years ago, Hakan and his colleagues asked “Where are the workers' voices in the discussions and decisions about climate strategies?” At that time no one was looking into fairness, inclusion, and justice in the context of climate action. Since then his research has uncovered inconvenient truths and best practices. In this conversation Michael and Hakan explore what is a “Just Transition” both theoretically and in practice. Hakan presents conclusions from his...
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CLIMATE ACTION WEEK: The Laudes Foundation explains its approach for ensuring a Just Transition.
Big Closets Small Planet
The Laudes Foundation is one of the few philanthropic organizations that funds sustainability initiatives that specifically impact the apparel industry. The Foundation is also actively promoting the need for a Just Transition. That is why Michael Schragger invited Amol Mehra, human rights lawyer and Director of Industry Programmes at the Laudes Foundation, to explain the Foundation’s definition, vision and strategy for enabling a Just Transition in the apparel industry. Michael and Amol discuss the problems with brand driven climate action and why suppliers and workers need to be in the...
info_outlineKen Pucker, former COO at Timberland and now Professor of Practice at Tufts University, sustainable industry analyst, opinion columnist and critic, views himself as a completely independent voice when it comes to issues concerning fashion and sustainability. During last year’s Climate Action Week, Michael and Ken discussed a number of topics, including his views regarding the rise and negative impacts of instant fashion and why voluntary sustainability initiatives do not work and thus why we need smart legislation. We invited Ken back to comment on what has happened in the past year regarding instant fashion, including the continuing saga involving Shein’s IPO and its newly approved science-based target, the status of the New York and California Fashion Acts, how congestion pricing could be a model climate action in the apparel industry, circular fantasies and myth busting, and whether he thinks his work is having an impact. Ken is always very insightful and thought provoking.
“Shein’s emissions are now the biggest in the industry. They’ve grown 3x in the last three years.”
“Congestion pricing worked in New York and London. Why not apply similar thinking to fashion?”
“I recognise that I am in a special place, I am gifted the opportunity to be independent and most people cannot be. So I don’t take that responsibility or gift lightly.”
For more information about this podcast and our guest experts, or to listen to other Climate Action Week 2025 podcast conversations, please visit: https://sustainablefashionacademy.org/stica/climate-action-week-2025/