Global innovator to use this year’s event to drive a call to action, providing industry-wide solutions and a united approach
New York, 7th May 2019 – Global leader in innovative materials science and
manufacturing, Avery Dennison looks to the Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2019 as a pivot
point for the global fashion industry. As the event’s principal sponsor, the company is
harnessing the summit’s focus on sustainability to present tangible initiatives that enable
actionable industry-wide change.
Committed to leading sustainable and material change, Avery Dennison is developing a new
way of doing business that prioritizes positive progress, internal and external collaborations
as key success drivers, and sustainability as an innovation platform. Key to this commitment
are ten solutions that will be showcased on the summit’s exhibition floor and available for
creative directors of the world’s leading retailers to experience first-hand.
Sustainable solutions
In celebration of the event’s 10th year, the Design Studio by Avery Dennison will exhibit ten
solutions developed for a sustainable future over the course of the two-day summit.
Additionally, designer and Avery Dennison brand partner Christopher Raeburn will take part
in The Power of Creatives panel on day one, while Michael Barton, vice president and
general manager, Global Commercial, Avery Dennison RBIS, will be a featured main stage
panellist on day two, as he discusses how to disrupt an industry.
Central to Avery Dennison’s showcase sits ALYX, a proof of concept innovative blockchain
solution for the apparel industry that was developed in partnership with 1017 ALYX 9SM and
is powered by EVRYTHNG. The Intelligent Label system can be scanned to provide
trustworthy product authentication and supply chain transparency for every individual
garment. Crucially, ALYX enables the digital traceability of goods with a highly secure
distributed ledger technology and no centralized entity controlling the information. Brands
can have full visibility of their product’s journey throughout the supply chain, and access to
data and statistics across different sales channels and consumer preferences.
Avery Dennison will also showcase its partnership with the Plastic Bank, a social enterprise
that provides a root-cause solution to ocean plastic and helps alleviate extreme poverty by
effectively monetising plastic waste. This key partnership supports Avery Dennison’s aim to
reduce waste and help minimise the fashion industry’s impact on the planet.
Systemic change driven by innovative collaboration
According to the Ellen Macarthur Foundation’s 2017 research, over 8 million tonnes of
plastic waste is dumped into the ocean each year – the equivalent of a dump-truck’s worth
per minute. Considering the ever-rising production and consumption of virgin plastic
material, it’s estimated that plastic will outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050. Unless we
change.
“The scale of change required to improve the sustainability of our industry simply won’t
happen in isolation,” says Barton. “In order to shift the bar in a significant way, we need to
positively disrupt the supply chain in collaboration with our brand partners and our
competitors.”
“Collaboration is central to our innovation and sustainability strategy” adds Michael
Colarossi, vice president of innovation, product line management and sustainability, Avery
Dennison RBIS. “We believe that acting together as an industry, rather than individual
entities, is the fastest and most efficient way of bringing solutions to our most challenging
problems. The progress we’ve made in product innovation and sustainability practices is
already making a difference at local levels. But by scaling these solutions globally, the
fashion industry can have an outsized positive impact.”
Alongside ALYX and the Plastic Bank sits Avery Dennison’s N.G.S.M. (Next Generation
Sustainable Materials) initiative, born with the aim of taking a major step towards
sustainability in terms of substrates for all paper items as well as Kraft Bag, a durable and
sustainable material developed with e-commerce shipments in mind, and the 100%
Recycled Polybag made from industrial waste that otherwise would end up in landfills or in
our oceans.
