to discuss potential ways forward. Some have been facilitated by NAG, others by NFA/NICE and/or SFA, but also Copenhagen Business School (CBS), MISTRA, Copenhagen School of Design and Technology (KEA) and LAUNCH Nordic have offered a setting for bringing forward concerns and challenges facing the Nordic fashion and textile sector. There are clearly many engaged stake-holders, and several themes have emerged at these meetings and workshops. The ability to cooperate as a region, with a basis in the existing networks, is a strength. However, some of these networks also have discovered that there are rivalries among national organizations and NGOs. In the mapping we see some initiatives overlapping and the question arises: Why? Is this an effective use of time and money? Could cooperation or coordination be better? The cooperation between the three Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden and Denmark) is perhaps more effective, because of language and proximity, than the Nordic cooperation, where language becomes an issue. We see some close cooperation across borders, perhaps more than close cooperation inside the borders, as we see with NFA, LAUNCH Nordic, MISTRA, etc. Where cooperation arises, it is often based on a common interest in one aspect, one raw material or one specific problem. Thus MISTRA has divided its many projects into separate working groups. NFA is perhaps the one organization that tries to address all stages in the value-chain – and all Nordic countries – under one umbrella. In relation to language, there is a question of semantics and specifically related to the expression sustainable fashion. Sustainability as a concept was coined by former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, and sustainable development is the kind of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). As almost all fashion and textile production somehow depletes resources, many critics have pointed to this contradiction in terms. For in spite of a 30% resource efficiency increase over the last 30 years (Worldwatch Institute 2011:82), high levels of consumption have overshadowed this reduction. However, we would like to point out one example of carbon sequestration which could make garments carbon-positive. The project in question is Fibershed, where Rebecca Burgess through planning a sun-powered scouring mill, yarn, knit and weaving factory in California based on local wool and returning effluent as fertilizer to the soil, will be able to sequester carbon (Fibershed, 2013). This feeds into new data on wool’s environmental profile in LCAs and other assessments, an area where Norway has
Mapping sustainable textile initiatives
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