Up to €500,000 to help C&A Foundation build ‘inclusive, fair circular apparel industry’
28/06/2019
In an announcement at the end of June calling for proposals, the foundation said the grants were for projects that seek to increase understanding of how the “inclusive and fair circular apparel industry” it envisages can “enable positive outcomes” for workers, employees, customers and society as a whole.
It quoted a figure from consultancy firm McKinsey that estimates that adopting circular business principles could generate an economic benefit for the European Union alone of €1.8 trillion by 2030. It added: “Different circular business models, including rental, reuse, re-commerce, repair, fashion-as-a-service and closed-loop production systems, are already being implemented and tested by different apparel brands and retailers.”
Nevertheless, it said it is still unclear how the transition to circular business models will affect apparel workers and their communities, especially those that are most vulnerable.
It is the foundation’s belief that the transition towards circularity can help improve lives and livelihoods in the apparel industry, increase the industry’s capacity for addressing social issues, and improve the way current circular business models in the apparel industry address questions of gender and social inclusion.
Its head of circular transformation, Douwe Jan Joustra, said on announcing the new grants: “We have seen cases in which new business models, in the gig economy for example, have perpetuated inequality and poor working conditions, for the greater economic gain of the few. There is an opportunity to design and operate a new economic system that addresses this culture of uneven power dynamics.”
He said C&A Foundation is offering the grants because it wants to compile concrete evidence of how best to build “an inclusive circular business model within the apparel sector”.
Proposals for research or implementation initiatives can fit into two categories: grants of up to €100,000, and grants of between €100,000 and €500,000. The initiatives must involve work in at least one of C&A Foundation’s focus countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Sri Lanka.
Interested parties have until July 30 to submit details of their ideas. Shortlisted applicants will then be invited to submit a full proposal by September 30. Applicants for grants of up to €100,000 will be informed of a decision by December 15, and applicants for the larger grants will be informed of a decision by May 30, 2020.
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