Sustainability in 2025 is incredibly nuanced, politicised, and as urgent as ever. At the same time, there is an abundance of solutions and collaborations, driven by growing determination. 

From 3-5 June, Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition 2025 addressed the duality of this moment – bringing together over 1,000 participants to accelerate progress towards a net positive industry. Presented by Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) and hosted at the iconic Copenhagen Concert Hall, this year’s Summit provided a timely opportunity to examine the fashion sector’s biggest sustainability challenges and the tools required to overcome them. In a time shaped by intersecting crises and shifting policy priorities, the Summit was a critical forum to define the next steps for the industry.

Innovation to Bridge Gaps

From regenerative materials and circular business models to advanced textile identification technologies, many of the solutions required to drive meaningful change in fashion already exist. The industry is now called to integrate proven innovations into business models, supply chains, and consumer experiences.

Through this year’s Innovation Forum at the Summit, over 400 stakeholders were connected with 30 solution providers. A newly introduced Ignite Stage featured dynamic, innovation-led content, highlighting practical ways for the industry to scale impact. Meanwhile, strategic roundtable meetings gathered relevant stakeholders to tackle topics such as ‘Breaking Down Barriers to Scale Up Scaling’ and ‘Accelerating Circular Fashion Models with Logistics’. 

The Trailblazer Programme 2025 received over 200 applications from 44 countries, underscoring the global reach of the innovation community. At the Summit, Refiberd was announced as this year’s winner for its work addressing a key bottleneck in textile circularity: accurate material identification. Their AI-powered hyperspectral imaging enables precise sorting for recycling, authentication, and traceability – essential steps in building a circular fashion system.

While innovation in fashion is thriving, early-stage companies often face visibility and funding gaps. The Trailblazer Programme aims to address this by offering catalytic investment, strategic mentorship, and exposure at an international platform. As fashion moves from ideas to action, initiatives like Trailblazer can help ensure that innovation reaches the scale it needs to make a lasting difference.

Global Solutions and Representation 

Achieving systemic change in fashion relies on diverse perspectives and inclusive engagement. At this year’s Summit, more than 100 speakers from 26 countries took to the stage, reflecting a range of lived experience and expertise required to transform the industry. With support from H&M Foundation, GFA was able to facilitate the travel and participation of speakers from countries such as Bangladesh, Ghana, Nigeria, India, Brazil, and South Africa.

The Summit programme addressed issues across the global value chain, with stage sessions and leadership roundtables focused on the importance of respectful and secure work environments in different manufacturing regions. In the fireside conversation ‘Jobs with Dignity’, Kalpona Akter, Founder and Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity, highlighted the urgency of worker representation in sustainability dialogues: “In all the discussions happening in this part of the world, I always see a missing puzzle piece, and that is the workers. The discussion is not worker centric, and that needs to happen.” In addition, Luca Sburlati, President of Confindustria Moda, shared a video message following the new memorandum of understanding to tackle the illegality and exploitation found in areas of the local Italian fashion supply chain, explaining that, “together we want to defend and to preserve the legality of what 99% of the companies around Italy are doing every day.”

Beyond the Summit, GFA continues to work in key manufacturing regions through local engagement and events, most recently in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Accessibility, representation, and inclusion remain central to GFA’s mission and are continuously prioritised across its events and year-round activities.

Nature as a Stakeholder and Storyteller

Recognising nature not as a resource to be depleted but as a stakeholder to include is essential to reshaping the values that underpin the fashion industry. During the Next Gen Assembly 2025 session ‘How Can Fashion Value the Rights of Nature?’, Sanya Singh said: “If we really want fashion to protect nature, then we must let nature shape fashion.”

This perspective was echoed in ‘Sustaining Textile Systems: Regeneration in Practice’, where 7th Generation Wool and Mohair Producer, Brett Walker, spoke of the need for mutual education and trust between brands and land stewards: “There needs to be trust between the brands and the farmers… I think a top-down approach is not the right approach.” 

During the ‘Navigating Global Freshwater Use’ session, experts discussed how we can rethink water stewardship by adopting systemic approaches to sourcing across fiber and material types. Payal Luthra, Global Apparel & Textiles Lead at WWF, emphasised the urgency of this shift and the vulnerability of the industry, stating: “Water has long been undervalued and overlooked, and we are paying that price.” She went on to cite several alarming figures, including: “We have lost 85% of freshwater biodiversity since 1970… We are losing wetlands three times faster than forests.” Luthra reiterated that these trends reflect the degradation of ecosystems that regulate the flow and quality of water essential to both people and businesses. This is why the recent launch of Kering’s Water-Positive Strategy is so essential – an initiative explored during the panel by Rachel Kolbe Semhoun, Head of Sustainable Sourcing and Nature Initiatives at Kering.

Storytelling also emerged as a key theme in this regard. In ‘On Bodies of Water’, Writer and Documentary Film Director, Andri Snær Magnason, recalled a conversation with a climate scientist who challenged him to bridge the gap between data and public understanding: “People do not understand data, but people understand stories.” To shift mindsets and inspire action, the fashion sector must continue to elevate the stories that connect people with the natural world and with one another.

A New Era for Regulation

Fashion is entering a new policy landscape. The sector is moving from largely voluntary frameworks to a complex and evolving network of national and international regulations. While legislation varies between regions, it presents a shared opportunity: to shape regulatory frameworks that support progress, incentivise innovation, and accelerate systemic transformation.

In a policy masterclass that preluded the Summit, there was a strong call for conducive regulation to support circularity and transparency, and for the harmonisation of EPR (extended producer responsibility) both in the different EU countries and on a global level. This was explored further in multiple roundtables where industry representatives tried to establish solutions to navigate a rapidly evolving patchwork of EPR frameworks.

At the Summit, policy took centre stage with high-level discussions on regulation, compliance, and competitiveness. In her keynote address ‘The EU’s Circular Textile Journey: What’s Next?’, Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, stated: “Sustainability is not a barrier to growth. It is a bridge – a bridge to competitiveness, to innovation, to inspiration.” This bridge was explored further in an executive roundtable meeting that delved into implementing real circularity in the EU.

GFA has long supported the development of industry-aligned policy frameworks and continues to bridge the gap between policymakers and practitioners. As legislation becomes a driving force for change, platforms like the Summit play a vital role in ensuring that regulation is informed by the realities of the fashion value chain and developed in collaboration with industry stakeholders.

Courageous Leadership and Realism

In her opening address, Federica Marchionni, CEO of Global Fashion Agenda, called on industry leaders to rise to the moment: “The only certainty in this uncertain world is climate change. Leadership is needed most in times of adversity. Now is the time to assert your vision and courageously drive action on sustainability.”

As the fashion sector navigates economic instability, social disruption and accelerating climate risk, the importance of bold and determined leadership cannot be overstated. The Summit offered space for knowledge sharing, community building and aligned action, but it is only one piece of a much larger puzzle. Throughout the year, GFA works globally to advance implementation through regional programmes, strategic partnerships and advocacy. This work continues beyond the Copenhagen stage, guided by a vision for a net positive fashion industry.

Fashion is a global force. It is economically powerful, culturally influential, and uniquely placed to lead by example. The path to transformation will be challenging, but the tools and partnerships required are already in motion. 

At Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition 2025, the sector came together to examine dualities: barriers and bridges, resistance and resilience, challenge and change. With commitment, collaboration, and courage, fashion can not only adapt to a changing world, but shape a better one.