Solidaridad and Sympany launch platform on fashion and sustainability

By

Shomara Roosblad

Published
May 16, 2018

Textile collecting company Sympany and international operating social organization Solidaridad have jointly launched the online sustainable fashion platform, Mode-bewust. The platform aims to inform Dutch consumers on how to create a more sustainable personal wardrobe.

Website visitors are able to read tips and tricks on how to buy less or look for the origin of textile and clothing. Furthermore, the website will also inform readers on the pitfalls in the textile industry such as low wages, unsafe factories and pollution.

Heske Verburg, director at Solidaridad Europe, said in a press release: “While sustainable food is becoming increasingly common, the sustainability of clothing is still lagging behind. Fashion companies need to change faster. Consumers can boost that, but often do not know what they can do. Mode-bewust helps them on their way. Together we can ensure that ‘green’ becomes and remains the trend.”

The organizations said that the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster has awakened the textile industry, but that structural change is still lacking. In addition to the website, the initiative is part of a long-term cooperation that should lead to a fair and sustainable development of the clothing and textile sector, with special attention to an emerging production country, Ethiopia.

Solidaridad and Sympany are currently working on a three-year project with textile factories in Ethiopia. The organizations have the ambition to operate in about 75 factories. At the moment, 11 factories have joined the project.