C&A calls upon fashion industry to join the journey towards circular fashion

Dusseldorf, 4 May  2017 – C&A, one of Europe’s leading fashion retailers, calls for other fashion brands to join its journey towards a future where circular fashion becomes standard reality.

At the international media presentation of the company’s 2017 Autumn / Winter Collection in Antwerp, Belgium, Jeffrey Hogue, Global Sustainability Officer of C&A  said: “As an industry, we have an opportunity to move away from the current ‘take, make, waste model’ to a circular model. In practice, this means designing, developing and producing products with their next use in mind; extracting the maximum value from garments while in use, then recovering and regenerating products and materials at the end of use to give them another useful life.“

The call for action follows the company’s introduction of the world’s first Cradle to Cradle (C2C)¹ CertifiedTM GOLD garments, a real circular collection of women’s T-shirts, available in C&A stores across 19 European markets as of June 2017. Two additional styles, one women’s and one men’s style, will be launched in Brazil and Mexico in September. Cradle to Cradle Certified™ is an independent, third-party verified certification program that assesses products and materials for safety to human and environmental health, design for future use cycles, and sustainable manufacturing.

These recyclable T-shirts are made of 100% organic cotton, with safe materials and chemicals and produced in a socially and environmentally responsible way.

“The Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM collection is an important milestone for us – and the industry – as it demonstrates unequivocally that creating circular fashion is already possible. We've proved this is possible - and we want others to follow. That's why we are making the design blueprint available to any manufacturer that wants to use it. This breakthrough is too important to keep to ourselves. The industry will need much more collaboration on circular economy approaches like C2C certification, including more brands agreeing to develop products for their next use”, said Hogue.

To drive this co-operation, C&A Foundation recently announced the creation of Fashion for Good, a global initiative that aims to connect brands and supports the scaling of technologies, processes and business models that have the potential to transform the industry. C&A’s goal is to foster the adoption of these innovations in the company’s supply chain to make change happen. C&A collaborated with Fashion for Good to develop the first Cradle to Cradle Certified™ GOLD fashion garment and plans to further intensify the collaboration going forward.

William McDonough², architect, designer, thought leader and author, said at the event: “Fashion for Good with its founding partner C&A and other industry players will expedite adoption more broadly in the supply chain, helping to overcome some of the greatest hurdles in aligning sustainability practices in a complex system of international vendors. Meanwhile, the values of the organization will be able to infuse best practices deeply within the industry.”

“C&A wants to deliver stylish products that are at the same time more sustainable and ultimately meet the criteria of the Cradle to Cradle Certified TM Products Program throughout our ranges. We aim to continually increase the circular collections in our stores and online and we want to encourage others to join us on this journey,” concluded Hogue.


More information can be found here.



Notes to editors:

1) Cradle to Cradle Certified™ products are evaluated for material health, material reutilization, renewable energy use, water stewardship, and social fairness. Product certification is awarded at five levels (BASIC, BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD, and PLATINUM), with each higher level imposing a more rigorous set of requirements. The lowest score in any quality category establishes the product’s overall score. Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM is a certification mark licensed by the Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Institute.

2) Winner of the National Design Award, William McDonough, FAIA, Int. FRIBA, is an internationally recognized architect, designer, sustainable growth pioneer, and business strategist. He works at scales from the global to the molecular. Time magazine recognized him in 1999 as “Hero for the Planet,” noting that “his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that —in demonstrable and practical ways— is changing the design of the world.” For more than four decades, McDonough has defined the principles of the sustainability movement (through McDonough Innovation, William McDonough + Partners, and MBDC). He has created the movement’s seminal buildings, products, and writings. He was the inaugural chair of the World Economic Forum’s Meta-Council on the Circular Economy and in 2017 received The Fortune Award for Circular Economy Leadership given by the World Economic Forum. McDonough is co-creator of the Cradle to Cradle® Design Framework.

Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Certified™ is a trademark licensed by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute


About C&A

With nearly 2,000 stores in 21 countries worldwide and around 60,000 employees, C&A is a leading fashion retail business. C&A welcomes and provides millions of visitors each day with good quality fashion at affordable prices for their entire family. C&A is an enterprise of COFRA Holding AG with a presence in Europe, Brazil, Mexico and China.

For more information, see www.canda.com.


For further information or interviews, please contact

C&A Europe

Wanheimer Straße 70

40468 Düsseldorf

Thorsten Rolfes

Head of Corporate Communications C&A Europe

phone: +49 (0) 211 9872 2749

fax: +49 (0) 211 9872 4466

email: [email protected]