Desk Report (RMG Times)  A new digital platform aims to make sustainable business decisions easier for the fashion industry. By matching actors along the supply chain and providing data-driven, solutions-focused information, Common Objective (CO) hopes to improve the day-to-day practices of textiles and clothing companies around the world.

As per the report of Sustainable Brands,  Common Objective (CO) will be a platform to facilitate industry connections and drive sustainability.

While the fashion world and the media have long embraced sustainability as a concept, the global clothing industry still has a very long way to go in improving its social and environmental impacts. The use and pollution of natural resources continues to be overwhelming. Up until now there have been too many gaps in knowledge and not enough industry collaboration to make significant change.

In 2018, 1 in 8 people in the world work in fashion and textiles and 192 million people across the globe are still in vulnerable and/or insecure work. The industry uses 12,400 Olympic swimming pools worth of oil each year and 83 percent of the world’s water is polluted with microplastics, of which the fashion industry is responsible for a third.

Yet, only 2.2 percent of factories participate in some kind of ethical or sustainable initiative or recognized certification.

CO is the first free global connection tool for the fashion industry and was developed by the Ethical Fashion Group in collaboration with the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), Fairtrade, World Fairtrade Organisation (WFTO), Fashion Revolution, and other leading fashion industry bodies.

The group calls CO “the most practical response to date to the negative environmental impact and human cost of the global fashion sector and provides essential help and guidance for fashion professionals.” The site was developed by a network of fashion professionals from across the supply chain committed to doing business better and making changes for good.