APPAREL IMPACT INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES FIRST GRANT RECIPIENTS

Today, the nonprofit organization Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) announced its first deployment of grants from its Climate Solutions Portfolio (CSP). This registry of proven carbon reduction solutions for the fashion industry is based on effectiveness, reach, scale, and cost, and represents the first deployed capital from Aii’s catalytic Fashion Climate Fund. These grants are funded by philanthropic contributions from the Fashion Climate Fund’s lead partners including H&M Foundation, H&M Group, Lululemon, The PVH Foundation, Target, and the Schmidt Family Foundation, and will provide $250M to de-risk and accelerate proven decarbonization solutions and unlock up to $2B of capital, with a carbon reduction goal of 100M tonnes by 2030. Honored grantees include Precision Development, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Made2Flow, BluWin, and PwC.

The application was designed by the CSP Advisory Council, which is composed of industry leaders: Kurt Kipka, Aii Chief Impact Officer; Linda Greer, Scientist and Consultant; Phil Patterson, Managing Director at Colour Connections Textile Consultancy; Beth Jensen, Director, Climate+ Impact at Textile Exchange; Crispin Wong, Senior Director of Product Sustainability and Environment at Lululemon; Mallory McConnell, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at PVH Corp.; and Abhishek Bansal, Head of Sustainability at Arvind Mills.

In tandem with the grantee recipient announcement, Aii has launched the Climate Solutions Portfolio online platform. Developed in response to the industry’s urgent need for standardized data to enhance decision-making and supply chain solutions, the platform will serve as a central hub for brands, retailers, industry stakeholders, and external commercial financing partners looking to accelerate decarbonization efforts. The platform includes a registry of Aii-vetted impact programs and incorporates essential reporting capabilities – such as advanced analytics and ROI insights – with the goal of increasing transparency across the industry to ensure the most successful solutions are identified, funded, and scaled.

The development of the CSP platform was funded by philanthropic contributions from Farfetch, H&M Group, Lululemon, The PVH Foundation, Ralph Lauren, and Target.

More information on the CSP online platform can be found at apparelimpact.org/cspplatform.

While the initial submissions for Climate Solutions Portfolio grants included remarkable innovations, the process also demonstrated a lack of reliable data and industry-wide knowledge in two important solution areas: thermal energy and energy storage. Filling this research gap is essential to further identify and scale decarbonization solutions successfully.

Aii’s ongoing commitment to researching and identifying solutions has continued with a call for partners to develop data-driven roadmaps focused on these key topics. Information gathered through this process will lay the groundwork needed to accelerate the investment in – and deployment of – thermal energy and energy storage solutions.

In the latter half of 2024, Aii will be seeking potential grant recipients that focus largely on thermal energy and energy storage. Additionally, solutions providers outside these areas are encouraged to apply now to be part of the registry to gain industry exposure and ease the process of applying for funding in the future.

Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) is a 501(c)(3) global nonprofit collective founded in 2017 by four industry leaders: the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), and Target Corporation.The organization is dedicated to identifying, funding, scaling, and measuring the apparel and footwear industry’s proven environmental impact solutions. Aii has built a $250M Fashion Climate Fund to leverage a first-of-its-kind collaborative funding model between philanthropy and corporate entities. It is designed to catalyze climate action by funding and scaling solutions for decarbonization, and marked to unlock a total of $2B in blended capital, to meet the industry’s goal to halve carbon emissions by 2030. Most recently, Aii has updated its widely credited 2021 “Roadmap to Net Zero,” a report and guide calling for the system-wide collaboration needed to reduce GHG emissions in the apparel and footwear industry by 45% at minimum by 2030 and to zero by 2050.

Above image, Nothing Ahead.