2019 Annual Report brings C&A Foundation chapter to a close

Today, Laudes Foundation celebrates the five-year history of the organisation that started it on its journey with the release of C&A Foundation’s final Annual Report. When it launched in 2014, C&A Foundation embarked on a path of learning, growth and change. It grew from a team of just four people into a global foundation of 60 passionate experts and an incredible network of partners, all driven by a shared purpose to transform the fashion industry into genuine force for good.

The 2019 Annual Report highlights some of what the team and its partners accomplished together during this time. In 2019 alone, C&A Foundation’s signature programmes impacted 85,923 beneficiaries, and its humanitarian support reached 760,784 vulnerable people around the world. Relationships were forged with 45 new partners working to improve gender rights, working conditions and sustainability across the fashion value chain.

Looking further back, the 2019 Annual Report reflects on some of C&A Foundation’s most impactful initiatives over the years. Foremost among these is Fashion for Good, its flagship initiative launched in 2017 to unite stakeholders behind the movement towards circular “good fashion”. It has developed into an industry leader in innovation and collaboration, growing to include 18 corporate partners and more than 80 innovators, and catalysing innovation initiatives worth over €119 million.

C&A Foundation also left an indelible mark on the sustainable cotton movement. The Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) was launched in 2014 at a time when less than one percent of the world’s cotton was organic. It introduced new incentives and models across the supply chain, improving the capacity of thousands of farmers to farm sustainably and bringing brands closer to the source of production. Today, OCA reaches over 11,000 farmers and accounts for 70 percent of global demand for organic cotton, representing 12 brands, retailers, supply chain partners and civil society.  

Perhaps most important has been C&A Foundation’s support for its global partner network. Leslie Johnston, Executive Director, said: “We have also learned a lot over these past five years; in this final annual report, it is a privilege to share some of the critical insights we have gained along the way. While we are proud of the changes that we and our partners have helped to usher in, we also know that they’re not enough.”

While the final Annual Report is an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the closing of this chapter, it does not mark the end of C&A Foundation’s important work. Laudes Foundation, launched earlier this year, is committed to advancing the industry-changing work of C&A Foundation – taking on much of its fashion industry programme and learning from its experiences – alongside a wider focus on finance and the built environment.

“Like C&A Foundation, Laudes Foundation starts from the same core belief that industry can be a force for good. We envision a global market that values all people and respects nature. And an economy in which industries uplift all who participate in them, and regenerate and restore nature as a fundamental part of what they do.

“And just as C&A Foundation did, Laudes Foundation will build strong partnerships and support brave and practical action that inspires industry to collaborate – as well as action that holds it to account and incentivises change,” said Johnston.

Read the 2019 C&A Foundation Annual Report