Egypt's Ministry of Environment will present the Green Fashion startup initiative at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), now under way at the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.
- The Green Fashion initiative is an environmental and social project founded by three youths in 2018 to spread awareness about the importance of sustainable fashion.
- The initiative’s ideas and products are being showcased in the Green Zone at the COP27 premises as part of the platform of Egypt's Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, according to Al-Monitor news portal.
The Startup Idea: The project was launched with the backdrop of the 820,000 tonnes of wasted cut-offs that factories in Egypt create every year, which usually end their cycle in being burnt and harming the environment.
- The project started tracking these cut-offs to discover that they usually end up as trash, mostly in the waste dumps of Sadat City and Hay Elzablin, a slum.
- On evaluating the situation in the city and the villages nearby, the project's founders discovered lots of unemployed youths, and specially marginalised women, who were supporting their families and found it hard to find a decent job.
- Green Fashion took up the motto 'Green environment- upcycle fashion' to manage the huge amounts of cut-offs and secondhand pieces with the efforts of its hardworking team and their simple yet talented hands.
- The team comprises mainly women from these slums who now create fashionable items that are ready to compete in the market.
- The Green Fashion initiative now provides a livelihood for these women and mitigates environmental destruction at the same time.
- The organisation is led by Hadeer Shalaby, Co-Founder and CEO and Amgad Mostafa, Co-Founder and COO.