International fashion companies BESTSELLER and H&M Group are to invest in Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ (CIP) first offshore wind project in Bangladesh.
The 500MW offshore wind project is currently in early-stage development by CIP in collaboration with a local partner Summit Power.
If development is successful, operations are expected to commence in 2028.
The project is expected to contribute to substantial job creation, stabilise energy supply, and reduce emissions by approximately 725,000 tonnes annually.
More than 70% of the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions come from upstream activities and current operations predominantly rely on non-renewable energy sources, such as petroleum, gas, oil, and coal.
To ensure and accelerate decarbonisation, non-profit organisation Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) is advocating collective investments by fashion brands in new renewable energy generation.
GFA has advocated the need for collective investments of fashion brands to secure large-scale, cost-effective supply of renewable energy in manufacturing countries, and GFA now calls for other fashion brands to co-invest in the wind plant and potentially future energy projects.
The wind project has been identified as the first renewable energy project on such a large scale in the important fashion manufacturing region.
Therefore, GFA is calling for stakeholders in the fashion industry and beyond to come together and engage in facilitating renewable energy solutions.