“Neonyt on Air”: shaping the future of sustainable fashion together – the Neonyt community shows how it's done

The textile and fashion industry are regularly coming up with new, smart approaches and solutions related to sustainability – throughout the past year, the COVID-19 crisis has raised people’s awareness of this, but also revealed the gaps that still need to be closed: from transparent supply chains to business practices based on solidarity through to green investment and financing strategies. These are all topics that the Neonyt community is constantly developing or rethinking completely. “New concepts and progressive advancements need space for discussion and exchange, the right audience and a fresh, outside perspective,” says Thimo Schwenzfeier, Show Director of Neonyt. “This is something we always wish to provide – albeit digitally again in January. During our planning for “Neonyt on Air”, we realised once more how important knowledge sharing is for the future of the sustainable fashion scene and that we are responsible for working together to make it happen.” In addition to many other speakers, the Grüner Knopf, Hessnatur and Oeko-Tex, the “Presenting Partners” of “Neonyt on Air” in January, will be contributing their valuable insights in interviews, keynotes and panel talks.

“Neonyt is a strong platform and we are delighted that our partnership is still active during these digital times,” said Andrea Sibylle Ebinger, CEO of Hessnatur. Following a welcome from the Neonyt organisers, she will be appealing to the sustainability community in her keynote to kick off the digital week on Monday, 18 January 2021: “When it comes to our future, we don’t have any time to lose. Only together can we ensure that respecting nature and treating people with fairness are no longer the exception but the rule. With “Neonyt on Air”, we are keeping the dialogue going and driving forward our common objective for a better tomorrow.”

The keyword here is “together”: showing solidarity is taking on a huge significance in the sustainable fashion scene and the COVID crisis has shown us once again that deglobalisation is the wrong path to take. Following the first shockwave and a phase of reorientation, for many companies and initiatives the crisis became an opportunity to drive forward change, to re-evaluate previous approaches, business practices and ways of thinking, to invest in local and international partnerships and to intensify global relations.

“The longstanding partnership between Neonyt and Oeko-Tex is built on the foundations of a shared vision: to support the textile industry on its path towards a more sustainable future and to initiate positive discussions,” says Georg Dieners, Secretary General of Oeko-Tex. “In these difficult times especially, we want to put more of a spotlight on sustainability and social responsibility and make them the focus of the discussion. That’s why we are delighted to be a part of “Neonyt on Air” in January 2021 and to be continuing our longstanding collaboration.” In a panel talk presented by Oeko-Tex, Annika Sauerhöfer (Product Manager for “Made in Green” by Oeko-Tex), Mirjam Smend (Greenstyle) and Andreas Bothe (Head of CSR & Sustainable Management at Bay City) will be talking about transparency in textile supply chains and building a bridge to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.?

Transparency and accountability are also important topics in politics – like in the case of the Grüner Knopf, the textile standard of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). On the second day of “Neonyt on Air”, Anosha Wahidi, Head of Division at the BMZ, will be talking to Max Gilgenmann, Content Director at Neonyt, about the future and further development of the textile standard, as well as explaining why the ministry decided to develop and launch its own seal of approval for corporate social responsibility in 2019.?

The Neonyt community can also look forward to a keynote by the Kering Group, a live interview with Timberland and a panel talk by the Maleki Corporate Group on the topic of “Sustainable fashion – the long financial thread of sustainability” with Dr. Sabine Schlorke (Global Head Manufacturing at the IFC World Bank Group), Christian Heller (CEO of Value Balancing Alliance e.V.) und Hans-Jürgen Walter (Global Leader Sustainable Finance at Deloitte). Plus: insights on the topic clusters of certification, sourcing and digitalisation with speakers from Fairtrade and the Federal Environment Agency, as well as from Foursource, the biggest B2B sourcing platform and international IT corporation IBM.

“Neonyt on Air” will take place from 18 to 22 January 2021 on the social media channels of Neonyt. No registration is required to participate. The full line-up will be available on the http://www.neonyt.com website and Neonyt’s Instagram channel @neonyt.berlin very soon.