Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) is a non-profit organisation that fosters industry collaboration on sustainability in fashion to accelerate impact.

The apparel and footwear industry accounted for some 2.1 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2018, about 4% of the global total. For context, this is the same quantity of CO2 per year as the economies of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined. 48 million tones of clothing are disposed worldwide every year. 73% is incinerated, 12% is reused, 12% is downcycled, and only less then 1% is turned into new clothes.

System problems require system solutions. No brand, no matter the size, has the power to make the circular and green transitions on its own. GFA vision is to accelerate the fashion industry towards a net positive industry for people and the planet. An industry that puts back more into society, the environment, and the global economy than it takes out. To drive this change and spark action, GFA is on a mission to mobilise, inspire, influence and educate all stakeholders. GFA has launched two intiatives on the circular economy: The Circular Fashion Partnerhsip and The Global Circular Fashion Forum.

The Circular Fashion Partnership is a cross-sectorial project to support the development of the textile recycling industry in Bangladesh by capturing and directing post-production fashion waste back into the production of new fashion products. In addition, the partnership seeks to find solutions for the COVID-19 related pile-up of deadstock and to engage regulators and investors around the current barriers and economic opportunities in the country. The partnership facilitates circular commercial collaborations between textile and garment manufacturers, recyclers and fashion brands operating in Bangladesh.

The Global Circular Fashion Forum (GCFF) is a new global initiative that is being established by Global Fashion Agenda to spur local action in textile manufacturing countries to accelerate and scale recycling of post-industrial textile waste –an effort to achieve a long-term, scalable, and just transition to a circular fashion industry. The GCFF builds on GFA’s experiences with the Circular Fashion Partnerships (CFP) in Bangladesh during 2020-2021 that demonstrated the potential for domestically accelerating & scaling recycling of post-industrial textile waste to create new textiles. As per June 2022, the GCFF is in initiation phase. Candidate countries include Bangladesh (CFP project scaling), Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and potentially Kenya, India and Turkey on basis of political climate, funding availability and/or industry interest.

Through policy engagement, GFA proactively advocates for legislation and supportive measures that reinforce sustainability targets and incentivise necessary change. Recognising an increasing interest at the European Union level in building circularity across the textile value chain, Global Fashion Agenda’s policy engagement has heightened its focus on the circular economy within a European context in the last year.