Sustainability meets Competitiveness: How to Square the Circle?

The textile and clothing industry is at an historical crossroads: "in order to remain a leader in the global market, it needs to develop a forward-looking business model reconciling competitiveness with sustainability. This requires a “smart” approach to legislation, the use of innovative technologies and a change in consumer behaviour together with strong global environmental and social commitments."

The Porto Convention – co-organised by EURATEX and ATP on the 13-14 October in Porto, Portugal – will look at how companies can anticipate the new European regulatory framework, embrace innovation, and develop a business model where sustainability becomes a source of competitiveness and growth. In the current economic, social and political environment, Europe is facing many challenges: increased energy prices, unforeseen inflation and climate change, which add to the day-to-day challenges of running a business. Embracing the European Union’s commitment to a green, digital and social transformation, the textile industry needs to also move towards a new circular economy where recycling is at the core of the design process supported by digitalisation, innovation and new skills, and creativity.

But how to do so? The conference will address this question, and explore solutions to turn quality and sustainability into a source of competitiveness.

The convention is the most important event at European level for the textile and apparel sector, where representatives of national and European institutions, leading experts from the industry and like-minded entrepreneurs come together to discuss ideas, share experiences and find solutions to face common challenges. On Thursday, there will see the participation of the Portuguese Secretary of State, as well as authorities from the European Commission followed by the intervention of a keynote speech by Mr. Pedro Siza Vieira ,Former Minister for the Economy and Digital Transition of Portugal, and two CEOs panels.

Both panels will be composed by a moderator and four high profile speakers from the industry as panel lists:

How to Measure and Communicate about Sustainability: Lucy Shea, CEO of Futerra (moderator), Barbara Cimmino, CSO at Yamamay, Shahriare Mahmood, CSO at Spinnova, Robert Simek, Director of RETEX, Isabel Furtado, CEO of TMG Automotive.

Show me the money – financing sustainability: Sarah Kent, Chief Sustainability Correspondent at the Business of Fashion (moderator), Giovanni Schneider, President of Schneider Group, Andrea Baldo, CEO of Ganni, Ricardo Silva, CEO Tintex Textiles, Elif Semra Ceylan, Senior Manager at EY Turkiye Consulting.

The afternoon will see four workshops with industry experts for a hands-on experience addressing the themes of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in Textiles, Digital Product Passport, Recycling Textile Waste and Labelling Textile.

Finally, The second day of the convention will offer the participants the opportunity to visit local textiles companies and the CITEVE research centre to further understand the European textile context in practice. The visit will include: Têxteis J.F. Almeida, RIOPELE, and TMG Automotive. In the evening of the convention, participants will also have the opportunity to attend the gala dinner at the beautiful location of Palacio da Bolsa.

For any further information, you may consult the convention website - or contact Cristina Gatti (cristina.gatti@euratex.eu).