Deadline: 31-Mar-23

The Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) has announced the first call for applications for the Climate Solutions Portfolio (CSP), a data-backed tool to deploy grants from the catalytic Fashion Climate Fund.

The Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) Climate Solutions Portfolio (CSP) has been established to find, fund, monitor, and report on climate impact solutions. The CSP will identify proven programming and funding opportunities in the climate impact space, allowing fashion and apparel/ textile companies to connect to programs that deliver on their science-based targets, supplying verified data as validation towards GHG reductions and impact.

To identify, fund and scale proven solutions that lower carbon emissions across the supply chain of the textile, apparel and footwear sector, with a focus on the primary goal of reaching the 2030 target of 50% reduction.

Challenges

• The apparel/textile industry is facing three key challenges in achieving its necessary GHG reductions:
  • What solutions exist to reduce emissions? Stakeholders struggle to locate science-backed initiatives and programs with the potential to support their GHG reduction goals.
  • Which solutions are credible and verifiable? A limited amount of unstandardized data on the effectiveness of many of these solutions creates uncertainty and confusion about their efficacy.
  • Which solutions do they prioritize? Fragmented coordination across the industry around priorities and timelines slows down the scaling proven programs. Failure to “follow the tonnes of CO2e” opens the door to spending time and money where it is easiest to start rather than to where it delivers the largest results.

Funding Information

• A tool to deploy grants of $50-250k from their catalytic Fashion Climate Fund based on effectiveness, reach and scale.

What interventions will be included in the Fund?

• They are building the funding framework on the Roadmap to Net Zero report, Aii co-authored with WRI.  Programs and Projects will include all tiers of the supply chain from raw materials to yarn preparation to fabric preparation to cut & sew assembly.  The report identifies the six intervention areas (or levers) to reduce carbon emissions, such as:
  • Material efficiency
  • Better, Preferred Materials
  • Next Generation Materials
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Thermal Heat Innovations (dry processing and renewable thermal)
  • Clean Energy (renewable electricity)

What is the Climate Solutions Portfolio?

• A registry and prioritization framework for proven and promising projects across the textile value chain
• A public resource for industry stakeholders such as brands and manufacturers looking to accelerate GHG reduction efforts
• A funding engine for lenders and policy-makers seeking to invest in carbon reducing projects.
• What Aii will do for the apparel ecosystem to maximize its climate impact:
  • Build and manage the registry of proven solutions
  • Set the standard for what quality solutions look like
  • Create visibility across stakeholders
  • Aggregate blended capital to remove barriers to scale
  • Identify best in class partners by region, subject, type, innovation and more to elevate impact.

Criteria

• Aii encourages applicants to be as transparent with their responses as possible, particularly regarding a solution’s effectiveness and reach, so that they can be publicly accountable for their decision-making. At the same time, they recognize the need for business confidentiality in some cases.
• Applicants are requested to note specifically any data/responses that are confidential. All information marked as such will be kept strictly confidential and proprietary. Aii staff, CSPAC members, and subject matter experts (if utilized) will be privy to the confidential components of the application materials only while under NDA with Aii.

For more information, visit Climate Solutions Portfolio.