Cascale team and members join the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen, hosted by Arizona Muse.
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / May 27, 2026 / Global Fashion Agenda returned with its 17th annual Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen earlier this month. Host Arizona Muse and chief executive officer Federica Marchionni played guiding roles throughout the event which spanned 140 speakers and hundreds of global attendees, including Cascale staff and members.
Insights from GFS
Treat sustainability like enterprise risk management.
Companies that prioritize long-term business value come out on top.
Inclusion across the value chain is integral.
Finance, policy, artificial intelligence, luxury retail, consumer behavior, and more were among the three-day programming.
Financing sustainability was another topical subject. One session included H&M's head of green investment Ulrika Leverenz; BESTSELLER's head of sustainability Dorte Rye Olsen; Kering's sustainable finance director Laurence Barrère; and Boston Consulting Group's managing director Catharina Martinez-Pardo. It accompanied GFA's "Fashion CFO Agenda 2026: Building Financial Resilience Through Sustainability" report produced with BCG. This report was one of many GFA-authored reports released during the week, others with impact measurement or policy in mind.
Both Cascale members, BESTSELLER's Olsen emphasized the importance of deeper finance team involvement in sustainability efforts and integrating sustainability beyond dedicated ESG functions. H&M Group's Leverenz framed sustainability as enterprise risk management.
In a separate conversation between Marchionni and Chalhoub Group's executive chairman Patrick Chalhoub centered an honest look at retail normalcy amid geopolitical strife. "The human being has this level of resilience and reinventing itself," Chalhoub said. Cost-cutting, sourcing shifts, and supply chain efficiency are among the ongoing lessons in an evolving business landscape.
In "Redefining the Diamond," Pandora's marketing chief Jennier Farmer and celebrity ambassador Pamela Anderson sat down for a look at what it means to be a "romantic activist," in Anderson's words. Consumers, as she sees it, are not far off. "I think they're more aware. Young people know what carbon footprinting is." Meanwhile, Farmer spoke to the growth in lab-grown diamonds and their cited lower carbon footprint.
Throughout the conference, speakers called for brands to integrate labor and climate indicators into supply chain and enterprise risk management strategies. This included a session featuring Janet Mensik, CEO Social & Labor Convergence Program (SLCP). In it, Mensik mentioned the importance of SLCP's Converged Assessment Framework (CAF), noting that approximately 15,000 facilities are currently using the framework globally. She also highlighted the collaborative work of SLCP and GFA in examining pay equity in fashion supply chains, including research focused on Turkey.
Another highlight was the "Fashion, Climate & Women's Health" side session which convened Dr. Harshita Umesh, founder of Vaada Hope Foundation; Rawnak Jahan, director of women and youth programming at CARE Bangladesh; Farhana Islam, quality inspector at Tusuka Trousers Ltd.; and Tiffany Rogers, vice president of research and development at Fair Labor Association. Dr. Hakan Karaosman moderated the session which was a presentation-style format.
Umesh set the tone with gripping stories from the emergency room where garment workers were plagued by finger infections, respiratory illness, tuberculosis, and other gender-based issues exacerbated from time spent in hostile, inadequate working conditions.
Her quote rang soundly throughout the room: "I'm treating the consequences of a system of an industry that has refused to address these injustices."
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View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/global-fashion-summit-2026-sets-priority-on-resilience-1171180
