1. What Good Business Looks Like: How a CEO or company showed up in 2020 will be a new and powerful yardstick by which they are measured. Companies that demonstrate a lack of empathy, that don’t stretch themselves to serve others, that remain silent or self-serving, whose leaders refuse to share in the economic pain, risk finding their brands and reputations permanently scarred. – Read More on HBR
2.Regenerative Agriculture Can Change the Fashion Industry—and the World. But What Is It? Regenerative farming is essentially the new organic or sustainable farming, but it goes a few steps further. In addition to omitting chemicals, regenerative agriculture actually replenishes and strengthens the plants, the soil, and the nature surrounding it. And because most of our clothes started as plants, “regenerative ag” is becoming a shiny new buzzword in the sustainable fashion conversation. – Read More on Vogue
3. Covid-19 is a nightmare for independent fashion designers: Independent designers often operate on tight budgets, using sales from one collection to fund the next. Many still rely on selling wholesale to retailers for the bulk of their earnings, and may sell just a few items straight to shoppers. Either way, any delays or disruptions in their sales can interrupt their cash flow and play havoc with the whole business. – Read More on Quartz
4. How Walmart, Gap and other fashion retailers hit by lockdowns put women at risk of slavery in developing countries by not paying their bills: Some fashion retailers have committed to paying for orders in full, but others have not, causing garment factories to lay off staff, who are mostly women. – Read More on SCMP
5. RELATED READ: The Global Garment Supply Chain Faces Significant Job Uncertainty Due to Coronavirus. With so many jobs on the line, working conditions risk quickly deteriorating at the hands of unscrupulous employers, particularly as worker desperation rises. “This can result in modern slavery, including situations of forced labor,” they state, noting the already-precarious conditions that are regularly created when “purchasing practices [by large apparel companies] put extreme pressure on suppliers [by way of] extremely tight production windows, short-term contracts, last-minute or short-term orders and severe payment terms.” – Read More on TFL