Nonprofit Apparel Impact Institute (AII) has announced its first deployment of the $250 million grants to de-risk and accelerate proven decarbonization solutions and unlock up to $2 billion of capital, with a carbon reduction goal of 100 million tonnes by 2030.
- The grants, from AII’s Climate Solutions Portfolio (CSP), go to a registry of "proven" carbon reduction solutions for the fashion industry based on effectiveness, reach, scale, and cost, and represents the first deployed capital from AII's catalytic Fashion Climate Fund.
GRANTEES & FUNDING: The grantees include Precision Development, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Made2Flow, BluWin and PwC.
- The grants, funded by philanthropic contributions from the Fashion Climate Fund's lead partners, include H&M Foundation, H&M Group, Lululemon, The PVH Foundation, Target and the Schmidt Family Foundation.
ONLINE PLATFORM: Along with the grantee recipient, AII also launched the Climate Solutions Portfolio’s online platform, developed in response to the industry's urgent need for standardised data to enhance decision-making and supply chain solutions.
- The platform will serve as a central hub for brands, retailers, industry stakeholders, and external commercial financing partners looking to accelerate decarbonization efforts.
- The platform includes a registry of AII-vetted impact programmes and incorporates essential reporting capabilities such as advanced analytics and ROI insights, with the goal of increasing transparency across the industry to ensure that the most successful solutions are identified, funded, and scaled.
- The development of the CSP platform was funded by philanthropic contributions from Farfetch, H&M Group, Lululemon, The PVH Foundation, Ralph Lauren, and Target.
While the initial submissions for the Climate Solutions Portfolio grants included remarkable innovations, the process also demonstrated a lack of reliable data and industry-wide knowledge in two important solution areas: thermal energy and energy storage.
- AII’s ongoing commitment to researching and identifying solutions has continued with a call for partners to develop data-driven roadmaps focused on these key topics.
- In the latter half of 2024, AII will be seeking potential grant recipients that focus largely on thermal energy and energy storage.
About AII: The Apparel Impact Institute (AII) is a global nonprofit collective founded in 2017 by four industry leaders: the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), and Target Corporation.
- The organisation is dedicated to identifying, funding, scaling, and measuring the apparel and footwear industry's proven environmental impact solutions.
- AII has built a $250 million Fashion Climate Fund to leverage a first-of-its-kind collaborative funding model between philanthropy and corporate entities.
