Quixotic or Prescient? 

It is no secret that sustainability has slipped down the priority list across many sectors. But as disruptions cascade, the costs of inaction compound. Constrained transit in the Strait of Hormuz and its shock to global energy supplies, persistent climate volatility, mercurial U.S. tariff policies, and well-intentioned but laborious European Union environmental directives affect the retail industry. Exploring how these forces converge at the day-long summit presented by Columbia University and The Global Fashion Agenda is hardly quixotic; it is prescient.

The retreat from climate concerns, led by the current administration in the United States, alleviates the pressure retailers face to address the issue’s long-term intractable challenges. Emma Håkansson, founder of Creative Fashion Justice, is blunt, saying, “The fashion industry has blown through the Paris Accords.” She points to the short- and long-term global production impacts of cashmere, leather, and wool, making a strong case for action.

Bioengineering Breakthroughs

Breakthrough work from researchers in Japan has developed a sustainability-oriented technology for genetically engineering colored silk from silkworms. The process adds a fluorescent protein to silkworm DNA, allowing the silkworms to produce colored silk threads, thus reducing or eliminating the need for dye. Another team of computational biologists, working with the Bezos Initiative, is developing colored cotton plants, similarly reducing the use of dyestuff. Dr. Helen H. Lu, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Senior Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs, Advancement, Applied Science Director at Columbia, says, “I am a medical doctor, and I work with biomaterials for health and medical solutions; my students are developing models using seaweed as a replacement for cartilage. At the same time, our fashion students are experimenting with seaweed to create fabrics and other materials, and our sustainability students are also working with seaweed and other biomaterials in construction and manufacturing. This cross-disciplinary approach allows us to share our research, creating new paths for innovation. We are also working with AI to help uncover more areas with intersectional potential.”

Polyester: Problems and Process

Research by FIBR, a textile identification initiative at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has found that “three in ten garments across 73 fashion retailers contain at least 50 percent polyester.” Although polyester is recyclable, separating it from other fibers in blended textiles is complicated and costly. Dr. Lu reports that new research in biodegradable polyester is making progress, and an increasingly popular method of producing polyester is spinning fiber from discarded plastic water bottles. Additionally, discarded 100 percent polyester clothing and textiles can be melted, then spun into recycled polyester thread. Malik Chua notes that due to the spike in crude oil prices, “Recycled polyester is now 20 percent cheaper than virgin polyester thread produced from oil.” Designer Gabriela Hearst, founder of her eponymous brand and former Creative Director at Chloé, is decisive: “Brands should stop using polyester. We should be unified as an industry.” Hearst uses polyester only “as a solution of last resort.” When she uses it (in fishnet stockings and sneaker soles this season), it is recycled polyester.

Wrangling Methane

While many fashion reformers join Hearst’s anti-polyester stance, she articulates her design perspective, which diverges from boisterous environmental advocates encouraging curtailing the use of animal- based materials, particularly wool, cashmere, and leather in garment production. Hearst, who grew up on a remote farm in South America, says, “Nothing was wasted; we didn’t buy new things. We had nowhere to shop and nowhere to throw things away; we used everything that we had.” She describes her perspective on designing with farm-based materials, “Leather and wool are natural byproducts of (livestock) farming; animals produce methane, but the skins and the wool exist, and if they aren’t used or sold, farmers often burn them. This is waste.”

Håkansson believes, “Methane emissions are totally overlooked in the considerations of many producers. Cutting methane emissions is one of the most effective steps the industry can take to slow climate change.” Copenhagen-based GANNI eliminated virgin leather products from its inventory in 2024, and the luxury conglomerate Kering has pledged to reduce its reliance on leather by 30 percent by 2028, with next-generation leather alternatives making up to 40 percent of its materials by 2035. Chua reports, “Leather accounts for roughly half of Kering’s total raw material use and remains its largest product category”. Additionally, U.S. based Tapestry has increased its investment in the recycled leather maker Gen Phoenix.

Government Foresight

Pending E.U. regulations will establish a framework intending to double the circular material use rate by 2030, develop certification standards for secondary raw materials, and establish an end-of-waste standard aimed at enforcing responsible garment disposal. María Luisa Martínez Díez, VP, Public Affairs at Global Fashion Agenda, stresses, “These are regulations, not directives. In Brussels, these two terms are different. Regulations are rules. Directives are suggestions.”

While the E.U.’s overall action addressing climate concerns targets the goals of the Paris Climate Accords, the Union’s industry-specific sustainability frameworks such as the Sustainable Products Regulations and Digital Product Passports, are industry focused and stringent. China’s initiatives toward climate challenges are holistic and systemic. Dr. Erica Downs, a Senior Research Scholar at the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy, says China’s approach to the clean energy transition is futures-oriented, geopolitical, and defensive, rather than an act of global climate leadership for its own sake. She adds, “China is building a new energy system as part of the CCP’s Five-Year Plan for energy (2026-2030).” The plan emphasizes energy security, self-reliance, and a green energy transition. Downs says, “It is moving off of fossil fuels, building new transmission lines, developing large-scale, next-generation battery technology, and establishing power market reforms.”

Behind the Curtain

The Bezos $10 billion Earth Fund “Protects and restores nature and repairs the climate.” Kelley Kizzier, Director of Materials Manufacturing at the Bezos Earth Fund, says the fund supports a range of projects including the ongoing research on genetically engineered colored cotton and the Prism Fund, an $11.5 million grant that backs a collaboration between Columbia University and The Fashion Institute of Technology. Prism is “a framework to develop a high-performance textile fiber grown by bacteria fed on agricultural waste, which will require no land, be compostable at the end-of-life, and produce no microplastic pollution.”

The work of these scientists and researchers deserves celebration, but solid climate, energy, and technology breakthroughs need costly infrastructure and sustained funding to scale. While the efforts of the Bezos Fund are admirable and necessary, relying on private philanthropy and institutions for climate research, and research more generally, says a lot about this country’s expressed values while laying a fragile foundation for our industry’s future.

The Cost of Inaction

For now, the U.S., at the highest levels, has opted out of the climate conversation. But as the conflict with Iran drags on and fuel prices climb, the cost of inaction will be impossible to ignore. Retailers will feel it in every freight invoice. The brands shipping on biofuels have already learned that good intentions can become good business. Retail’s weight in the economy gives the industry real influence in Washington. It is time to use this influence to insist that industry leaders opt back in, before the next tipping point tips without us.