La Rhea Pepper is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the global non-profit Textile Exchange and a life-long advocate for more sustainable practices in the apparel and textile industry.  For more than 18 years, Textile Exchange has been at the forefront of driving meaningful change towards preferred, organic and regenerative fibers. After spearheading the successful growth of the organic cotton market, Textile Exchange (formerly Organic Exchange) has expanded the chain of custody...

Amina Razvi is the Executive Director of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). Under Amina’s leadership, the SAC’s 250+ members develop the Higg Index, a suite of tools that measure environmental and social impacts in the apparel, footwear, and textile industry. Previously, Amina was the Vice President of Membership at the SAC. Prior to joining the SAC, Amina led environmental initiatives on Gap Inc.’s global sustainability team. She has a Master of Architecture degree from the...

Marci has been instrumental in driving authenticity, environmental leadership & social justice worldwide for nearly three decades. With a degree from the Haas Business School at UC Berkeley, Marci co-founded a thriving health & environmental educational center in 1990 with an organic café, AVEDA concept salon, and national magazine. Now known as The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, it is the largest professional health coach certification program in the world. ECOFASHION Marci...

Burak Cakmak is a strategic catalyst with extensive experience in corporate, academic and non-profit organizations building innovation driven sustainable solutions. He is the co-founder of Thean.co, a strategic fashion consultancy and The Digital Fashion Group, a European collaboration between fashion and technology. Most recently he served 5 years as the Dean of Fashion at Parsons School of Design where he led the implementation of a new innovative curriculum for fashion design and...

KURT KIPKA, VICE PRESIDENT at APPAREL IMPACT INSTITUTE As Vice President of Apparel Impact Institute, Kurt manages the growth and longevity of global programs including Clean by Design – a proven platform for improving the resource efficiency of textile mills in collaboration with multinational brands. Prior to joining Aii, he spent three years at the environmental non-profit, Natural Resources Defense Council, where he focused on developing platforms and tools to measure and improve...

On Earth Day, Aii President, Lewis Perkins, talks about where we are in the sustainable fashion movement, how consumer/ citizens can better address their closet and make "green" choices, and what's coming next....   Join us.  About Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) Aii identifies, funds, scales and measures proven quality solutions to accelerate positive impact in the fashion industry. At Aii, we look for scalable solutions and best practices that can be applied to the entire value chain. By...

Jasmin Malik Chua is the sourcing and labor editor at Sourcing Journal, where she writes about the apparel and footwear industry through the lens of sustainability and human rights. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Vogue Business, the Business of Fashion, Vox, The Daily Beast, Nylon and InStyle, among others. https://jasminchua.com/ Instagram+Twitter: @jasminchua

Bandana Tewari is a lifestyle journalist and sustainability activist.  She writes for The Business of Fashion extensively on a variety of topics from indigenous ‘made-by-hand’ economies of India and Indonesia, to transgender and LGBTQ representation in fashion. For Paro Good Earth, her writing focusses on ancient Indian wisdom—Vedanta.  She is a Special Advisor to Copenhagen Fashion Summit and sits on several advisory boards—NEST (NYC), Redress (Hong Kong), Global Fashion Agenda...

Meet Kali Hough.   Activist and Student Leader for FashionX. A Brooklynite and Stanford student, Kali Hough currently leads the student group, FashionX, a collective of young people thinking, discussing and writing about some of fashion's most pressing questions. While her own research focuses on sustainability and waste management within the industry, she aims to encourage more POC youth into fashion as they challenge issues of diversity, labor and technology. Learn more about FashionX:...

About Zem Joaquin: Zem founded the Near Future Summit, a visionary event that seeks to scale solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. It is driven by leading tech founders, investors, inventors, and influencers. Prior to Near Future, she founded ecofabulous.com which became part of Huffington Post in 2015 and remains the reigning authority on stylish sustainability. Zem helped create, and is still an active board member of the Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Institute. She...

Linda Greer is a specialist in industrial chemical pollution, currently working as a Global Fellow with the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, the leading environmental NGO in China.   A Ph.D. toxicologist by training, Linda has worked extensively to improve US environmental law and policy as well as on voluntary corporate sustainability initiatives.  She created Clean by Design, a green supply chain initiative to reduce the impact of the apparel sector with efficiency...

Adriana Galijasevic is a designer, action researcher, innovator, educator and an advocate for circular economy in the fashion industry based on the Cradle to Cradle design principles. Before starting as an independent consultant, she spent the last decade working with G-Star RAW in an interdepartmental expert role. Here, she collaborated with design, merchandising and with the sustainability team to drive and implement sustainable material targets and circular economy innovations within...

Lewis speaks with friend and industry "influencer" before social media became the tastemaker of our times.  Fashion industry veteran Julie Gilhart is Chief Development Officer of Tomorrow and President of Tomorrow Projects. In 2011, she founded Julie Gilhart Consulting to connect and grow fashion brands with a desire to have a positive impact, and merged her business with Tomorrow in 2019. Prior to establishing her firm, Ms. Gilhart was Senior Vice President Fashion Director at Barneys New...

Lewis Perkins, President at Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) speak with sustainable fashion leader - Claire Bergkamp - the Chief Operating Officer at Textile Exchange. Previous to joining Textile Exchange she held the position of Worldwide Sustainability and Innovation Director for over eight years at Stella McCartney, leading the global environmental, human rights and innovation strategy for the brand. During her time at the brand she built a qualified, high-functioning sustainability...

Eva Kruse is the former CEO of the Global Fashion Agenda, with its flagship event being Copenhagen Fashion Summit, the world’s most important forum on sustainable fashion. In 2013, Kruse gave a TEDx Talk on the topic “Changing the world through fashion.” In 2016, she put forward a new and ambitious strategy for Copenhagen Fashion Summit and created the overarching Global Fashion Agenda, which aims to take global leadership on creating a movement within fashion towards positive change and...

In this episode, we speak to Kristy Caylor, long time apparel industry leader, and advocate for ethical and sustainable supply chains.  We worked together at Cradle to Cradle's Fashion Positive Initiative, when she was leading Maiyet, a luxury brand who was exploring circular and safe cashmere for their products, by applying better standards for production.  Today, Kristy is leading an apparel brand called For Days, which provides a subscription style approach to basic cotton tees.  Much more...