This year is the 25th anniversary of World Water Week and the Stockholm Water Prize. Sweden Textile Water Initiative will be among the 3000 World Water Week participants, sharing, connecting and creating partnerships for a Water Wise World.
Here is an outline of all the activities STWI will be officially involved with at the 2015 World Water Week.
New to World Water Week this year is the SIWI Sofa. A cross between a speakers’ corner and an outdoor interview studio, journalists will conduct interviews and facilitate discussions between experts on a variety of water-related issues, in the exhibition area. STWI will record a 30 minute podcast discussing the challenges and successes of our journey with the SWAR project, and the resulting scale-up across several countries. The podcast will be made available on the SIWI Media Hub.
Summary: Too few fashion brands appreciate the value of actively working to address water risks, let alone, see the lost opportunities by failing to do so. Even for the most progressive corporates, water-related risks are exacerbated by weak compliance, arbitrary enforcement of national laws in production countries and corruption in the public sector. Dedicated to enabling a world with clean water and sustainable textile and leather industries, the Swedish Textile Water Initiative (STWI) has a solution. By measuring the Value-Added Water in the production process and producing reliable, comparable data, a better understanding of the impact on water quality and quantity can be seen and acted upon.
The Association of Swedish Fashion Brands – ASFB are organizing a series of talks during Stockholm Fashion Week. The aim with the seminars is to raise relevant subjects for the fashion industry and focus on sustainability questions. This time the ASFB have decided to shine a light on water initiatives in the textile and clothing industry in connection with World Water Week and GLASA. An audience of approximately 100 journalists and fashion interested parties will be in attendance.
• Can you crystallize the challenge of water scarcity and sustainability, including both the human, environmental and geopolitical aspects?
• Why is water critical to sustainability? Tell us how we can better improve the use of water overall, and specifically in the Fashion and Retail industry.
• Tell us about SWAR, and lessons learned throughout this intiative.
Press conferences at World Water Week lasts for 30 minutes. A maximum of 20 minutes for the presentation itself with 10 minutes for questions. Members of the press can register online for free accreditation. The briefing will be recorded and promoted on the SIWI Media Hub.
Title: How do leading textile and leather companies cooperate with governments and NGOs to create a water wise world?
Summary: The briefing will be curated to follow the red thread of the SIWI Sofa podcast, but will also draw attention to the activities that STWI will be involved in during the day. This includes Fashion Forward Talks, GLASA Awards and the World Water Week Seminar ‘STWI: New paradigm: incentivizing improvements in low and middle income countries?
Scientific workshops from the backbone of World Water Week. STWI will be presenting specific examples of our work related to water risks and global production demands. Full workshop information will be published on the STWI Workshop page in the Weeks’ online programme as it becomes available.
Title: STWI: New paradigm: incentivizing improvements in low and middle income countries?
Summary: The session will provide an overview of water risks related to production demands globally, extraction as well as pollution, crossfitting this with the development agenda in selected geographies, concluding with textile specific examples.
The Global Leadership Award in Sustainable Apparel (GLASA) aims to inspire bold and courageous leadership in the apparel sector and to mobilize key stakeholders around promising ideas and practic-es that can dramatically improve the sector’s sustainability performance. The focus for the 2015 GLASA Award is the emerging water crisis, and what the sector can and must do to address it.