Transforming Fashion's Footprint: Innovation and Business

Monday, September 22, 2025 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

International Affairs Building, 420 W. 118 St., New York, NY 10027
Room/Area: 1501

Following last year’s Renewing Fashion event, this year’s Transforming Fashion's Footprint: Innovation and Business digs deeper into key challenges and opportunities for climate and energy transition actions in the fashion sector. While various efforts continue to be made to estimate fashion’s environmental footprint, major gaps remain in how to decarbonize material production and reshape business practices. Our first session explores cutting-edge materials innovations where the biggest contribution could be made in ameliorating the largest share of the fashion value chain’s carbon emissions. The second session turns to business models. How can fashion bridge the gap between academic research and real-world enterprise? What strategies work to scale sustainability while maintaining commercial viability? 

Key Questions:

• What are the most promising materials innovations to cut carbon in fashion?
• How can regenerative agriculture and bio-based materials reshape supply chains?
• What does a business model look like when it centers both addressing climate impact and profitability?
• How can academia and industry collaborate more effectively to accelerate and scale solutions?
• What roles do brands play in reshaping the fashion ecosystem?

Confirmed Speakers: 

• Inka Apter, Senior Director of Materials and Circularity, Eileen Fisher
• Christina Castle, Senior Manager, Impact & Product Sustainability, DÔEN
• Michelle Gabriel, Lecturer, Columbia Climate School
• Kelley Kizzier, Director of Corporate Action and Markets, Bezos Earth Fund
• Sandra Goldmark, Associate Dean for Engagement and Impact, Columbia Climate School
• Amy Jaffe, Director, Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab, NYU
• Kevin Karl, Co-Director, Fashion, Energy, and Climate Network, Columbia Climate School
• Sarah Kent, Chief Sustainability Correspondent, Business of Fashion
• Lewis Perkins, President and CEO, Apparel Impact Institute 
• Miguel Modestino , Director, Sustainable Engineering Initiative, NYU Tandon
• Stwart Peña Feliz, Co-Founder & CEO, MacroCycle Technologies
• Sally Qiu , Co-Director, Fashion, Energy, and Climate Network, Columbia Climate School
• Indré Rockefeller, Founder, The Circularity Project 
• Jon Veldhouse, CEO, Qore

Click Here to Register

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April 2025

Culture for Climate: Bridging Art, Fashion, and Education

Co-hosted by Four Earth Networks at Columbia Climate School, the event explored the intersection of creativity and climate action through two dynamic panel discussions on how climate issues are embedded in creative industries and careers, and on building purpose-driven paths in fashion, sports, and education. It also featured a student showcase presenting innovative low-waste fashion design, a guide to secondhand shopping in NYC, and digital art critiquing the fashion industry.

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February 2025

Sustainable Fashion Exchange

Over 100 students, alumni, researchers, and industry professionals gathered for an evening of inspiring dialogue and networking around sustainable fashion. Co-hosted by Four Earth Networks at Columbia Climate School and Yale's Moving the Needle, the event opened with remarks from Sandra Goldmark, who emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary and institutional collaboration. A panel discussion featuring Michelle Gabriel, Kevin Karl, Dr. Meital Mizrachi, and Sally Qiu provided insights into sustainability and creative industries. The evening concluded with post-panel networking, including icebreaker activities and community-building discussions.

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November 2024

Role of policy in circular fashion

We were thrilled to host an insightful discussion on the “Role of Policy in Supporting Circular Fashion” with the Ethical Fashion Working Group at SIPA and Earth Networks’ Fashion, Energy, and Climate at Columbia Climate School. Amy Myers Jaffe, a distinguished leader in energy, climate policy, and sustainability, shared her expertise on the policy drivers shaping the future of sustainable fashion. As Co-Chair of CGEP’s Women in Energy Steering Committee and Director of the Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab at NYU, Jaffe brought invaluable insights from her extensive experience in academia and policy advisory roles.

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September 2024

Renewing Fashion: Clean Energy and Circular Economy

This event brought together leading voices driving fashion’s clean and circular transition to address these pressing issues. The panel explored how to phase out fossil fuels, curb oversupply, scale textile-to-textile recycling, align global goals with local policies, and finance the industry’s transformation. Speakers also shared best practices and strategies for creating a sustainable, net-positive future for fashion.

The discussion tackled key questions such as the role of clean energy in circularity, the most effective strategies to scale fabric recycling, approaches to reduce oversupply through design and behavior change, and the financing mechanisms needed to support this transition.

Speakers included:
Maxine Bédat (The New Standard Institute), Tricia Carey (Transformers Foundation, Accelerating Circularity), Sandra Goldmark (Columbia Climate School), Amy Jaffe (Columbia University & NYU), Sarah Kent (The Business of Fashion), Dennis Nobelius (Syre), and Nicolaj Reffstrup (GANNI). The session was moderated by Sally Qiu, Co-Director of the Fashion, Energy, and Climate Network.