How to Choose the Most Eco-Friendly Fabric For Your Garment

Choosing the most eco-friendly fabric is a complex process involving different data sets and tools. This guide seeks to de-mystify the fabric selection process, so that you can mak...

Sourcing Innovative Materials For Luxury Brands

Cecilia Takayama, Director of the Materials Innovation Lab at global luxury group Kering, shares insights into how they are approaching material sourcing. ...

Sourcing Sustainable Manufacturers: How An Expert Does It

Discover the strategies Maeve Wadge, experienced production manager and founder of Sourcing Sustainably garment production consultancy, uses to build sustainable supply chains for ...

5 Ways To Evaluate Suppliers And Minimize Risk

There is no point in carefully assessing the social and environmental impact of your supply chain if it isn’t commercially viable. This introduction to managing business risk can...

How Sustainable Is Paper And Cardboard Packaging?

With so many brands switching from plastic to paper and cardboard packaging, is it really the more sustainable option? CO looks at the data to give you the low down. ...

Masterclass: Sourcing Sustainable Packaging

Each Masterclass in our series takes a deep dive into a pressing sustainability topic, providing an overview of the solutions on offer as well as talking to business leaders to fin...

5 Sustainable Consumer Packaging Trends to Watch

CO tracks the top five trends shaping consumer facing packaging from compostable and reusable mailers to ocean plastic beauty bottles. ...

Fashion’s Polybag Addiction: Drowning In Plastic

Polybags are fashion's dirty little secret, with half a billion of them produced and thrown away each year. ...

Highlights From Future Fabrics Expo 2020

CO gives you the low down on the key themes from this year’s event and why it should be a must-see in your calendar. ...

Masterclass: Sustainable Fabric Innovations

Each Masterclass in our series takes a deep dive into a pressing sustainability topic, providing an overview of the solutions on offer as well as talking to business leaders to fin...

Sourcing Excellence: How to build your sustainable supplier base

We convene industry experts, practitioners, and the CO team to share recommendations on sourcing best practice, and introduce how brands and buyers can use CO and CO Expo to grow ...

Masterclass: Sourcing Fabrics to Reduce Climate Impact

Our Masterclass series takes an in-depth look at pressing sustainability issues. For this edition we picked the brains of leading fabric experts to reveal their take on fabric sour...

Sourcing Sustainable Fabrics - Where To Start?

80% of a product’s environmental footprint is decided at the design stage.  This quick guide provides topline information on key sustainability issues with co...

5 Reasons You Should Look to India for Sustainable Sourcing

Sustainable production is booming in India. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider sourcing there. ...

Introducing the CO x Latin American Hub

Common Objective (CO) and Slow Fashion World are joining forces to showcase Latin American suppliers, producers and changemakers committed to a 3D business and a clear sustainabili...

13 Questions To Ask Suppliers About Environmental Impact

As a buyer or a production manager, it’s not always easy to ascertain whether a supplier is implementing the kind of environmental management practices you’d like to see in you...

How To Get The Most Out Of A Supplier's Social Audit

While widely used to assess working practices in the supply chain, audits are flawed when considered in isolation. We show you how to get the most out of audits, and also how you c...

How Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills Became A Leading Sustainable Supplier

Established in 1934, Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills, based in Kolkata, India, was transformed from a co...

13 Questions To Ask Suppliers About Working Conditions

As a buyer or a production manager, it’s not always easy to ascertain whether a supplier you have found is employing their workers properly. We’ve put together some questions t...

How To Find An Ethical Supplier

“Can you help me find a supplier?”  “How will I know if they are ethical?" I worked for 15 years as a consultant on ethical and ...

Why Collaboration Is The Key To Success For Filippa K

Will employing a Fabric Manager be cost effective in the long run? Find out how Filippa K's Jodi Everding works both internally and with suppliers to meet environmental and financi...

Living Wage Tools for Fairer, More Productive Supply Chains

We round up the 14 most useful tools and guides that can help you drive change in your supply chains, from leading living wage methodologies to global data on monthly wages and ben...

Combating The Complex Subcontracting Crisis

With on-going trade wars and political instability, the risk of unauthorised subcontracting in global supply chains is on the rise. CO explores what brands can do to tackle this en...

5 Tips for Choosing a Sustainable Clothing Manufacturer

Looking for an environmentally sustainable garment manufacturer but not sure what questions to ask? We speak with Atul Malhotra, managing director of sustainable manufacturer Evolv...

Why Source From Artisans

Artisans and smaller scale producers are ideally placed to respond to growing trends for products with sustainable and ethical provenance....

Podcast: Artisan Fashion In Kenya

Wardrobe Crisis is the podcast that unzips fashion's issues, presented by Vogue Australia's Sustainability Editor-at-Large, Clare Press. In it she interviews industry leaders to ta...

KOCO Share The Secrets To Working Successfully With Artisans

Danielle Giels from KOCO shares top tips on how how to have an efficient and productive relationship with artisan producers....

Practical Guidelines For Working Ethically With Artisans

Engage meaningfully with artisans and designs from traditional cultures throughout the design process for their benefit and yours....

Can Global Craft Be The Future Of Luxury Fashion?

Contemporary global craft and artisanship from developing countries is generally undervalued, relegated to touristic keepsakes, irrelevant of the history, culture and craft that...

Working With Artisan Suppliers: 5 Companies That Make It Simple

Deciding to produce with artisans can feel daunting. Here, we offer some tips and advice on where to start, and look at four suppliers who make the whole thing less complicated....

Richard Malone Wins 2020 International Woolmark Prize

Irish designer Richard Malone wins this year’s International Woolmark Prize and CO, who worked with the finalists on their sustainability roadmaps as part of the competition, cou...

Direct Impact Business Models: Leo Carlton

We hear from Leo Carlton, a milliner at the forefront of digital design. Using virtual reality sculpting, body scanning and experimenting with biomaterials, Carlton is pushing the ...

How Much Does Certification Cost?

Although certification is a trusted method of guaranteeing environmental and social standards for fashion brands, the costs involved can often seem opaque. We provide example costs...

Why Certification Matters

5 reasons why it may be worth investing in environmental or social certification for your fashion label....

Guide To Key Fashion Sustainability Certifications

In this piece, we introduce some of the fashion industry's most commonly used certifications, and some tips for how to choose the right one for your business. ...

How White Stuff Went Fairtrade And Why Consumers Love It

CO talks to White Stuff about how they switched to Fairtrade cotton to understand the challenges and opportunities for established brands interested in sourcing Fairtrade cotton....

The Top Biodiversity Certifications You Need To Know

Interested in finding out more about biodiversity certifications but not sure where to start? Then read on for an overview of the leading standards in the biodiversity space. ...

The Impact of Buying Practices on Building Ethical Supply Chains

Buying practices can greatly affect a relationship between brand and supplier – for good or bad. We examine how different buying practices can impact the ability for suppliers to...

How to Improve Buying Practices

Changing purchasing practices is one of the...

Practical Steps for Responsible Buying

This guide, published by the joint Ethical Trading Initiatives of Denmark, Norway and the UK draws on a supplier survey co...

Combating The Complex Subcontracting Crisis

With on-going trade wars and political instability, the risk of unauthorised subcontracting in global supply chains is on the rise. CO explores what brands can do to tackle this en...

News: Transparency Index Reveals Shortfall in Buying Transparency

In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis this year’s Fashion Transparency Index has revealed just how far brands have to go when it comes to openly sharing buying practices. ...

Masterclass: How To Take Action On Biodiversity In Fashion

Each Masterclass in our series takes a deep dive into a pressing sustainability topic, providing an overview of the solutions on offer as well as talking to experts to find out how...