LONDON — Fashion executives, policymakers, scientists, pension fund and asset managers, and Indigenous leaders who traveled all the way from New Zealand joined King Charles III at St. James’s Palace for the official launch of the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance, an initiative the monarch established in 2020.
The Circular Bioeconomy Alliance, CBA, is a registered charity that aims to foster change by creating sustainable value chains that revolutionize land use, food production, health, and industrial systems.
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is a founding member of the alliance alongside Lombard Odier, AstraZeneca, and Eranda Rothschild Foundation. The organization now has more than 60 members.
In a speech, the alliance’s chief executive officer Marc Palahí called for a transition from an “extractive” economy to a “nature-first” one, while experts from various fields shared their perspectives on the circular bioeconomy and the latest results of their regenerative innovation projects under the CBA’s Living Labs initiative.
Those programs are aimed at empowering nature and people by melding traditional knowledge with new research and innovation.
Palahí revealed a fellowship in reimagining nature finance and inclusive capitalism in partnership with the Eranda Rothschild Foundation.
The fellowship, he said, aims to help the finance industry explore new approaches and move toward an economy that sees nature as the engine of long-term prosperity.
Some preached the benefits of more natural coffee bean cultivation in Africa — where the beans can grow alongside other plants and wildlife — while others advocated for the protection of whales, as the animal plays a vital role in ocean biodiversity.
There was also an insightful panel discussion on the challenges and opportunities nature-focused initiatives are facing in terms of finance.
Federico Marchetti, King Charles and Giuseppe Marsocci.
Getty Images
Fashion was a key part of the conversation.
Brunello Cucinelli chief executive officer Riccardo Stefanelli, and Giuseppe Marsocci, deputy general manager and chief commercial officer of Giorgio Armani Corp., shared updates on their respective work in the circular bioeconomy space. They took part in a panel hosted by Federico Marchetti, founder of Yoox Net-a-Porter Group.
Later, during a meet-and-greet with King Charles, the luxury brands presented some of the fruits of their CBA projects over the past 18 months.
Stefanelli showed off two Cucinelli cashmere scarves made from wool that had been sourced in the Himalayas, while Marsocci brought Armani T-shirts made with cotton grown in Apulia, Italy.
The king expressed great interest in the products, and asked Stefanelli and Marsocci to pass his best wishes to Brunello Cucinelli and Giorgio Armani for their support of the CBA.
King Charles III and Federico Marchetti
Courtesy of YNAP
Marchetti and the king have long supported one another’s initiatives in the space.
In 2018, the-then Prince of Wales inaugurated the Yoox Net-a-porter tech hub in West London. In 2021, Yoox Net-a-Porter Group pledged to commit to the king’s Terra Carta, a mandate that puts sustainability at the heart of the private sector. Under Marchetti, YNAP also joined the Sustainable Markets Initiative.
Terra Carta derives its name from the historic Magna Carta which laid out the fundamental rights and liberties of the English people more than 800 years ago.
Terra Carta is meant to provide “a roadmap to 2030 for businesses to move towards an ambitious and sustainable future, one that will harness the power of Nature combined with the transformative power, innovation and resources of the private sector,” the group said at the time.
The Sustainable Markets Initiative was launched in 2020 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It aims to encourage economies to operate “in favor of people and planet.” Marchetti was appointed chair of the SMI Fashion Task Force and drafted a Regenerative Fashion Manifesto, which was developed in partnership with the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance.
Through the Sustainable Markets Initiative, Brunello Cucinelli funds the Himalayan Regenerative Fashion Living Lab. It has been investing 1 million euros since 2022 to restore degraded landscapes and recover traditional craft and textile skills to improve local economies while addressing global challenges related to climate change and loss of biodiversity.
Armani Group started to collaborate with the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Fashion Task Force and the CBA in May 2023 by supporting a project focused on the development of agroforestry-based cotton production in Italy’s Apulia region.
Through Marchetti’s industry influence, major fashion and beauty players including Stella McCartney, Burberry, Zalando, Selfridges Group, Prada Group, and Puig have joined forces with the SMI Fashion Task Force to mitigate or reverse the impact of overfarming, overgrazing, dwindling water supplies, and the long-term use of damaging pesticides in various regions.
King Charles is Britain’s first Green King, having spent decades lobbying for the environment, sustainability, mental health, and well-being.
In 1990, Charles founded Duchy Organics to sell organic food products from his estate in Cornwall. Since then it has become a leading organic and natural food brand, which is now operated in partnership with the British supermarket chain Waitrose.
As fashion’s use of oil-based, synthetic fabrics gained momentum, Charles also founded the global Campaign for Wool in 2010, raising awareness among consumers about the renewable and biodegradable benefits of fiber.
