PowerPoint Presentation

An initiative to transform the apparel industry through the work of social entrepreneurs

March 7, 2016Dan Schiff, Ashoka Engagement Manager for Fabric of ChangeCornell UniversityMarch 21, 2017

Ashoka: 37 years of supporting social entrepreneursFounded in 1980.Represents the worlds largest network of leading social entrepreneurs, with more than 3,300 Ashoka Fellows in 85 countries.Social entrepreneurs are innovators with models for completely changing an industry or system, for the benefit of society.Ashoka Fellows in the US include Van Jones (Ella Baker Center for Human Rights), Wendy Kopp (Teach for America) and Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia).Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.-Bill Drayton, Ashoka founder and CEOAshoka + C&A Foundation

Van Jones was elected Ashoka Fellow in 2000, he founded Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in San Francisco, which was a platform for community organizing and also launched PoliceWatch Hotline, which was at the time the only legal hotline for police abuse survivors in the country.

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Ashoka Fellow selection criteriaThe Knockout Test: Does the social entrepreneur have a new idea, solution or approach to a social or environmental problem that will change the pattern in a field?Creativity: Does the social entrepreneur have a vision for meeting some human need better than it has been met before?Entrepreneurial Quality: Is the individual totally absorbed in his/her idea and committed to transforming it into reality over the next 10-15 years?Social Impact of the Idea: Will the idea change the field significantly and trigger impact or change at the national, regional or global level?Ethical Fiber: Does this person inspire a level of trust in others that will allow him/her to introduce major structural changes in society?Ashoka + C&A Foundation

But there are social entrepreneurs at every level

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Cornell is a Changemaker Campus!www.CenterforTransformativeAction.org Ashoka U oversees a network of 37 universities committed to institutional change by embedding social innovation in academics and in partnerships with the community. Ashoka U supports campus change leaders with processes for building their team, getting institutional buy-in, sharing other successful models in the field.The Center for Transformative Action at Cornell provides fiscal sponsorship to transformative, non-profit social ventures on campus and around the Ithaca region. These ventures benefit from the Centers mentorship, business services and social entrepreneurship education offerings. Ashoka + C&A Foundation

Good examples of embedding: Northhampton, USD, PSU, Rollins College, Miami-Dade, Marquette. Building requirements around social innovation and changemaking in first-year requirements. At Marquette, everyone takes English course in first year; focuses on applying writing skills to engage as a changemaker in their community. Miami-Dade has a global engagement requirement; students have to take a course that focuses on these learning outcomes. Not just service learning - its about collaboratively working to address underlying cause of challenges, entrepreneurial approach rather than meeting an immediate need.

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Anabels Grocery: A student-run grocery store that addresses food insecurity on campus by providing access to healthy, affordable food, increasing food literacy, and running educational programs on healthy and cost-effective eating.

The Dorothy Cotton Institute: Building a network and community of civil and human rights leadership.

Ethical Shareholder Initiative: Seeks to educate investors to play a positive role in encouraging corporations to act in an ethical, socially responsible fashion.Ashoka + C&A Foundation

Select projects in Ithaca

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A partnership to reimagine fashion as a force for good. C&A is a fashion retailer with more than 1,500 stores and 35,000 employees in Europe, Latin America and China.The Foundation focuses on sustainable livelihoods for garment workers, organic cotton, and value chain transparency.Ashoka + C&A FoundationFabric of Change is a three-year partnership in which Ashoka and C&A Foundation are sourcing and supporting a new wave of social entrepreneurs with innovations to reshape the apparel industry.

Our theory of changeStrategiesProvide lifecycle support to leading social entrepreneurs (stipends, pro bono expertise, industry connections)Encourage more institutions, organizations, experts and resources to support innovative industry solutionsEncourage collaboration to drive bigger results with limited resourcesOutcomesIncreased acceptance among industry players of social entrepreneurs as a key source for solutionsLeading social entrepreneurs have the support and resources to widely implement their innovationsWorkers, consumers and communities along the value chain benefit from social entrepreneurs workImpactAn industry that offers transparency and fair wages, whose (primarily women) workers feel safe and supported An industry that replenishes rather than depletes our natural resources, and minimizes environmental harmAn industry that offers greater economic and social inclusion for its workers, families and communities

Ashoka + C&A Foundation

April 24, 2013Ashoka + C&A Foundation

More than 1100 people died in the Rana Plaza factory collapseWas making garments for C&A, Spanish brand Mango, Walmart, others

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Ashoka + C&A Foundation

More than 1100 people died in the Rana Plaza factory collapseWas making garments for C&A, Spanish brand Mango, Walmart, others

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Ashoka + C&A Foundation

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Roadblocks to industry transformation:Four barriers to target for change

Hidden from View: Conditions in forests, farms and factories are only visible to a fewA Job is Not Enough: Low-income workers cannot secure long-term wellbeingConsumers are Unaware or Unmotivated: Consumption habits are hard to shift without easy avenues for changeSustainability is Not Yet in the DNA: Current system disincentivizes value-driven businessAshoka + C&A Foundation

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Unlocking a sustainable future:Four design principles to tackle systemic problems

Unite More than Voice: Tap into community capital and collective resourcesActivate Local Know-How for Driving Solutions: Build opportunities for workers to become leadersDisrupt Business as Usual: Target key players who can influence the bottom lineTransform the Chain into a Web: Link unlikely sectors to open new pathways to sustainabilityAshoka + C&A Foundation

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Lingering questions need for additional solutionsHow can small suppliers and the murky middle be incentivized to become sustainable?How can more industries be linked to activate conscious consumerism?How can solutions better empower and improve the lives of women (about 70% of the global apparel workforce)?

Key additional stakeholders to engageSocial entrepreneurs outside the industry who can inspire new solutionsGovernments that can ensure that sustainability is a long-term priority by institutionalizing standardsYoung consumers who can create an entirely new system in which fashion is a force for good

Ashoka + C&A Foundation

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Ashoka Fellow Suraiya Haque, founder of PhulkiSuraiya founded Phulki to provide child-care options for Bangladeshi garment factory workers, 80% of whom are women.Phulkis business-friendly model gives factories the option of sharing costs with workers for operating the on-site day-care centers.Today, Phulki operates about 90 community-based and 25 factory-based child-care centers in Dhaka.Barrier: A Job is Not Enough Low-income workers cannot secure long-term wellbeingSolution: Transforming the Chain into a Web Focusing on community needs to support holistic local developmentSolution: Unite More than Voice Use cost-sharing to provide social protection servicesAshoka + C&A Foundation

Phulki is convincing the business community that child care and health education of workers are a norm and good for business.https://www.virgin.com/virgin-unite/unlocking-workplace-daycare-children-garment-workers-bangladesh

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Ashoka Fellow Saif Rashid, founder of APONSaif developed the APON benefits scheme, subtitled Inclusive well-being for makers. It is now in pilot stage.APON shops set up inside Bangladeshs ready-made garment factories, selling discounted consumer packaged goods to factory workers.Workers earn points that accumulate until they have enough to access APONs zero-cash health coverage.The aim is to increase the workers disposable income, maintain the health of the workers and their families, and reduce factory workforce turnover.Barrier: A Job is Not Enough Low-income workers cannot secure long-term wellbeingSolution: Unite More than Voice Use cost-sharing to provide social protection servicesAshoka + C&A Foundation

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Nest ensuring craft artisans benefit from sourcing partnerships.Winner of the Fabric of Change Challenge 20,000 second prize, awarded May 2016 at Copenhagen Fashion Summit.Founder Rebecca van Bergen has developed a set of open-source compliance standards to ensure women artisans benefit from ethical and economically viable sourcing partnerships with retailers.Up to 60% of garment production gets sub-contracted from factories to women in their homes; Nest builds up their capacity and increases transparency around their work.Ashoka + C&A Foundation

What if we could make home-work regulated, and safe, and ensure that women are paid fairly and working in safe conditions? It's an enormous opportunity for women globally to be employed.

Rebecca van Bergen, Nest

Ashoka Fellow Kohl Gill, founder of Labor VoicesKohl founded LaborVoices to provide on-the-ground information about working conditions at supplier factories.Through the Symphony platform, more than 10,000 workers anonymously report real-time data, which helps big brands comply with regulations against labor exploitation and modern slavery. Like TripAdvisor for workers, allowing them to find the best jobs and improve conditions where they already work. Barrier: Hidden from View Conditions in forests, farms and factories are only visible to a fewSolution: Unite More Than Voice Enable workers to be their own advocatesCreate a common language to compare behavior across suppliersAshoka + C&A Foundation

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Ashoka + C&A Foundation

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Ashoka Fellow Nicole Rycroft, founder of CanopyNicole and Canopy work with business partners in the publishing and fashion industries to transform their value chains in a way that protects ancient forests.Every year, 120 million trees are felled for rayon and viscose used in apparel production; projected to double by 2020.Canopy drives behavior change among designers and purchasing/procurement leaders at companies such as H&M, Zara, EILEEN FISHER, Levi Strauss & Co. Barrier: Sustainability is Not Yet in the DNA The current system disincentivizes value-driven businessSolution: Disrupt Business as Usual Develop future demand by engaging the design communitySolution: Transform the Chain into a Web Involve R&D to create sustainable alternatives for necessary natural inputsAshoka + C&A Foundation

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Evrnu recycling cotton garment waste into pristine fiber.Winner of the Fabric of Change Challenge 50,000 grand prize, awarded May 2016 at Copenhagen Fashion Summit.Founded by Stacy Flynn, former fabric sourcing manager for DuPont and Target. Evrnu's technology breaks down cotton waste to the molecular level and rebuilds it into new fiber finer than silk and stronger than cotton, with minimal water usage and no farmland.Ashoka + C&A FoundationOur goal is to render destructive methods of manufacturing completely obsolete. Our approach is to get large brands and retailers migrated to safer, cleaner, more effective ways of working, so that destructive methods are put out of business, period.Stacy Flynn, Evrnu

Ambercycle developing ways to use plastics in infinite lifecycles.Winner of the Fabric of Change Challenge 20,000 second prize, awarded May 2016 at Copenhagen Fashion Summit.Co-founded by Akshay Sethi while a biochemistry student at UC Davis, as a project to solve the worlds plastic waste problem.Ambercycle engineers microbes that eat waste plastic and produce the raw materials for 100% renewably sourced polyesters that are cheaper to produce than virgin materials.Ashoka + C&A Foundation

If polyester were to become a circular material, we could continually reuse it and save a lot of energy, a lot of time, and a lot of resources to solve other more important problems.

Akshay Sethi, Ambercycle

Ashoka + C&A Foundation

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Is circularity the future of fashion and consumerism?Principles of CircularityPreserve and enhance natural capital (get away from monstrous hybrids)Optimize resource yields (maintain a garments maximum utility as long as possible)Foster system effectiveness (make feedback mechanisms more accurately reflect true costs)Ashoka + C&A Foundation

Principle 1: Preserve & Enhance Natural Capital-Cotton-poly blend is the prime monstrous hybrid-Dematerialize utility. (Jeans leasing model)-CanopyStyle-Design for biological and technical nutrient cycles - plan for putting them together AND taking them apart

Principle 2: Optimize Resource Yields-Highest utility of a shirt is as a shirt -- how can we keep it at its highest utility as long as possible?-We want to design to extend product and material life, AND design for material reutilization-Design for remanufacturing, refurbishing and recycling

Principle 3: Foster System Effectiveness-Addressing negative externalities; prices and other feedback mechanisms (ways that you know something is happening) should reflect true costs (environmental degradation, natural resources, water pollution, labor conditions, etc.)-Diversity as asset to be cultivated; effective systems host a diversity of skills, ideas and scale-Diversity builds strength and resilience in companies-Feedback mechanisms should include true costs of clothing - if your shirt only costs $6, the price is not an accurate feedback mechanism-Collaboration and partnership to scale and accelerate

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Circularity initiatives already in motion

Ashoka + C&A Foundation

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-renewal-workshop-environmenthttps://www.fastcoexist.com/3065862/how-hm-is-trying-to-counteract-fast-fashion-with-revolutionary-recyclinghttp://www.eileenfisher.com/green-eileen/green-eileen-recycling-for-a-cause/24

Ashoka + C&A Foundation

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Ashoka Fellow Lis Suarez-Visbal, founder of FEM InternationalLis and FEM help women immigrants to Canada, as well as womens citizen organizations around the world, to build their capacity as social entrepreneurs in fashion.Building up capacity and network connections with workshops in Canada, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Mali, Thailand.For Lis, the social and environmental parts of the fashion value chain are intrinsically linked:We believe that we cannot be repeating entrepreneurial models that are linear because they are creating the problems that we have today. The circular economy, we see it as a systemic approach. Not only working in microbusinesses that incorporate their waste into their production, but also allowing different kinds of businesses to emergeservicing, for example, rather than product creation.Ashoka + C&A Foundation

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Which brands are driving real change in fashion?What more needs to be done?

Ashoka + C&A Foundation

In 2012which included about nine months of the buy less marketingPatagonia sales increased almost one-third, to $543 million, as the company opened 14 more stores. In short, the pitch helped crank out $158 million worth of new apparel.https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/patagonia-labor-clothing-factory-exploitation/394658/Patagonia creed: Cause no unnecessary harm.

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www.changemakers.com/fabricofchange