"The organisers of leading student sustainability event, the Youth Fashion Summit, recently partnered with the United Nations Global Compact in the form of a two-year student program, which sets out to challenge the 100 most talented students in the fashion industry to create a framework for the industry on how to reach two of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely SDG 3 and SDG 5."

The organisers of leading student sustainability event, the Youth Fashion Summit, recently partnered with the United Nations Global Compact in the form of a two-year student program, which sets out to challenge the 100 most talented students in the fashion industry to create a framework for the industry on how to reach two of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely SDG 3 and SDG 5.

The two-year sustainability program put together by the UN Global Compact in collaboration with the Global Fashion Agenda and Copenhagen School of Design and Technology will challenge students to specifically dive into SDG 3, ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, and SDG 5, achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The extracurricular program is organised around webinars providing the students with different approaches, tools, as well as practical examples, and all participants will receive reading lists and preliminary assignments.

Lise Kingo, CEO & Executive Director, UN Global Compact, explains, “I am very excited to see what comes out of the student challenge for SDG 3 and SDG 5. The potential of the fashion industry as trendsetters, employers and through their sourcing and manufacturing processes, is tremendous when it comes to promoting health and well-being and empowering women and girls. I really hope the students will challenge us to think in new and bold ways of how fashion can contribute to these interconnected themes.”

Having a global voice

The students’ work will culminate at the Youth Fashion Summit, where they will work for days to write several future scenarios and demands based on the SDGs. Their demands will then be presented for key decision-makers at the world’s leading business event on sustainability in fashion, Copenhagen Fashion Summit, on May 16, 2018. In 2019, the same 100 students will be invited back to transform their demands into corporate action in collaboration with international fashion companies and thereby align the companies' sustainability goals with broader societal aims. Eva Kruse, CEO, Global Fashion Agenda, organiser of the Youth Fashion Summit as well as Copenhagen Fashion Summit, said, “The perspectives, the opinions and the many brilliant ideas we hear from the students who participate in the Youth Fashion Summit are very valuable and highly appreciated. I'm therefore very excited to see the results of the hard work they will dedicate to the two-year program regarding the two SDGs.”