Spearheaded by The Fashion Pact, a not-for-profit organization, the European Accelerator brings together leading fashion groups and houses including CHANEL, Ermenegildo Zegna Group, Kering, Moncler Group and Prada Group to drive forward collective action aimed at lowering emissions, boosting resource efficiency and building long-term resilience in fashion supply chains.

The name ‘European Accelerator’ reflects the initiative’s initial focus on supply chains in Europe as it is the geographical base for the participating brands. Over time, the Accelerator will expand its scope to support supply chains across other regions.

The Accelerator currently includes leading fashion groups and houses including Burberry, CHANEL, Ermenegildo Zegna Group, Kering, Jimmy Choo, Moncler Group and Prada Group.

The Accelerator is open to any brand that is a member of The Fashion Pact and whose supply chain has a nexus to Italy.

To join the Accelerator, the brand needs to agree to active participation, meaning actively participating in group meetings and including the harmonised template of questions as a basis  in its reporting operations.

However, any brand can adopt the questionnaire, which is openly available.

Beginning in Italy, the Accelerator is structured around three interconnected workstreams that aim to accelerate supply chain decarbonisation.

Firstly, the Accelerator is working to engage the luxury fashion industry around an optional and non-exhaustive questionnaire for suppliers on relevant environmental data, aiming to strengthen the quality and consistency of environmental metrics while easing the administrative burden of reporting on suppliers.

The Accelerator will then aim to increase capacity-building efforts among suppliers, and to identify opportunities for efficiency improvements and renewable energy uptake.

Recognising that finance remains one of the most significant hurdles for suppliers to progress, the Accelerator will also work to open pathways for suppliers to access the investment needed to adopt cleaner technologies and drive long-term transformation.

The participating brands recognised that varying reporting requirements were creating unnecessary complexity for suppliers, and particularly for SMEs. By working on a template set of questions, they aim to promote clarity, reduce the administrative burden of reporting on suppliers, and enable more meaningful environmental progress across the fashion supply chain.

Through this work, the Accelerator hopes to make the process of environmental data collection more efficient, improve data quality, and potentially improve response rates from suppliers.

The questionnaire covers generic, objective and critical environmental aspects relevant to leather and textile supply chains, such as:

• Energy consumption;
• Waste management;
• Water consumption.

Each brand will deploy the questionnaire in their preferred format.

The questionnaire will be updated by a technical committee, to ensure it is up to date with the latest regulations and best practice. In alignment with its initial development, the update process will continue to ensure that the tool evolves collaboratively and remains relevant to the sector’s shared ambition.

Yes. Following feedback from participating brands and suppliers, the Accelerator has updated the questionnaire following supplier and brand feedback to strengthen understanding of supplier governance structures, environmental governance, greenhouse gas emissions calculation methodologies, and decarbonisation actions and investments. 

These questions help improve understanding of: 

• Supplier governance structures; 
• Greenhouse gas emissions calculation in place; 
• Existing decarbonisation initiatives. 

The objective is to build a clearer picture of suppliers’ decarbonisation journeys and support more relevant next steps to successfully implement decarbonisation measures. 

The Accelerator recognised that collecting environmental data is only the first step. 

Suppliers also need support in understanding what actions to take, where to prioritise resources and how to progress over time.The Framework is a voluntary self-assessment tool to help suppliers clearly understand where they stand in their decarbonisation journey and identify individually the most relevant next steps to progress while balancing environmental impact, technical feasibility, and economic impact. 

The Framework was developed collaboratively by the participating brands of the European Accelerator, with the technical support from Quantis and input from key industry stakeholders including Confindustria Moda, Istituto di Certificazione della Qualità per il Settore Conciario (ICEC), and Consorzio Physis. The Framework was developed from the questionnaire’s data and a pilot scheme engaging a diverse group of suppliers spanning textile manufacture, tanneries, metallic and plastic accessory manufacturers and finished product manufacturers. 

The objective of this Framework is to provide a voluntary self-assessment tool to help suppliers clearly understand where they stand in their decarbonisation journey and identify individually and confidentially the most relevant next steps to progress while balancing environmental impact, technical feasibility, and economic impact.

No. Each company remains responsible for its own supplier relationships and data management practices. The Accelerator does not create a shared supplier database.

Yes. The questionnaire and Decarbonisation Accelerator Framework will be made open-source and available to the wider fashion industry through the European Accelerator website.

No, the resources are free of charge.