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Fashion weeks around the world are dominated by four main shows: New York, Paris, Milan, and London. But in 2020, Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) made a bold move that helped it garner attention. It launched a framework with nearly 20 sustainability standards that fashion brands must meet to participate. The choice came at a time when fashions sustainability practices were under increased scrutiny. Every year the industry contributes up to 10% of global carbon emissions, pollutes billions of cubic meters of clean water, and produces metric tons of textile waste. [Photo: James Cochrane/OperaSport] Copenhagens fashion week was applauded for its forward-thinking approach. However, over the next few years, that facade started to crack. Brands that had helped establish Copenhagen as an up-and-coming fashion mecca departed for bigger fashion weeks (see Ganni and Cecilie Bahnsen). And its sustainability claims came under fire. This year marks the 20th year of CPHFW, and with the anniversary, the city and its fashion scene are ready to double down on the idea that Copenhagen is one of the best cities for sustainable, emerging fashion. The sustainability debacle Danish anti-greenwashing specialist Tanja Gotthardsen and the Danish Consumer Council (Forbrugerrdet Tnk), as well as consultancy firm Continual, brought a complaint to Danish Consumer Ombudsman (that overlooks marketing and consumer protection laws) against CPHFW and some of its participants for greenwashing. It alleged the days-long Danish fashion event made misleading claims about its sustainability requirements, and the brand Baum und Pferdgarten admitted to failing to meet its pledge against polyester. While there could have been severe ramifications from the complaint, the Ombudsman ultimately dismissed it since CPHFW is not directly consumer facing and instead gave something of a warning to strengthen its oversight. [Photo: James Cochrane/OperaSport] The dialogue with the Ombudsman was constructive and valuable, and it has allowed us to stay focused on further developing the Sustainability Requirements as a strong screening and development tool for the fashion industry, Cecilie Thorsmark, Copenhagen Fashion Week’s CEO, tells Fast Company. As a result, the Fall/Winter 2026 season saw two new minimum standards focusing on circular design principles and responsible purchasing practices, and overall, the bar has been raised across the existing Minimum Standards taking many of them from a commitment level to an actual implementation level. It maintained its green reputation within the industry, too. Its important to acknowledge that the most sustainable choice would be to not make new clothes, but thats not realistic. CPHFWs framework aims to tame the beast, encouraging upcycled materials, decreasing virgin plastic-based fiber use, and having transparent supply chains that arent fueled by exploited labor. For many designers gunning to show at CPHFW, this culture determines how they design, and they often work to incorporate framework tenets into their brand from day one. [Photo: James Cochrane/OperaSport] It was very important for us that we had a thoughtful production from the beginning, OpéraSport co-founder Awa Malina Stelter says. The contemporary womenswear brand, which she created in 2019 with Stephanie Gundelach, met the framework and survived the screening by CPHFW partner Rambll on the first try. The impact of the sustainability-aware culture is also evident for Forza Collectives Kristoffer Kongshaug. Four years ago when he started the brand, the founder and creative director says, It was a given that if you were to start a brand, it had to be sustainable. You’re not doing it right if you leave that out of the conversation. Secondly, I wanted to be a part of the [CPHFW] calendar. Exits and homecoming This go-round, some homegrown talent made a return. For the Fall/Winter 2026 show season, CPHFW debuted a homecoming slot, specifically targeting Nordic talents thatleft CPHFW to calendars in other cities. Brands returning to the event act as proofpoints that CPHFW can indeed help launch an emerging brand, and it remains a valuable place to keep growing. Oslo-born ready-to-wear label Holzweiler led in the inaugural spot, after a few years hiatus away from Copenhagen while showing at London Fashion Week. Andreas Holzweiler, co-founder of the label, says the team worked closely with Thorsmark for the return. There was a shared understanding that returning should feel meaningful, not symbolic, he says. [Photo: James Cochrane/Holzweiler] Leaving Copenhagen wasnt about stepping away from the platform itself, but about following a natural progression at the time. London offered a different scale and challenged us in new ways, Holzweiler tells Fast Company. What brought us back was clarity. After taking time to strengthen the brand internally, Copenhagen feels aligned again with where we are today. Its scale, he adds, feels best right now for the brand to cut through. Thorsmark doesnt take brands leaving the schedule as an insult. [It] underlines that we have built a platform that allows these brands to grow and thrive, which we are incredibly proud of, as well as being proud of these brilliant brands themselves, she says. For other brands that have left the schedule and not returned to it, some have found ways to still have a CPHFW presence. Ganni, for example, put on an event with Disney. Leaving the schedule is often a business question and more about getting in front of the right people to sell the pieces and create culture. Staying or returning to CPHFW signals the right people are more consistently showing up in the Scandi city. More than a launchpad CPHFW is becoming a platform for emerging brands to startand stay. Its always been where you can go and see the cool kids, Forza Commercial Strategy Head Ariana Milton says. This is aided by the fact that the org is dedicated to emerging talent through programs like its Newtalent directive, which launched in 2022 and provides three seasons of support, including money, mentorship, and more. [Photo: James Cochrane/Forza Collective] Its “One to Watch” label also helps the industry know who to keep an eye on. This all helps brands find their footing, and then what? Historically, they leave. Five to ten years back in Copenhagen, it had always been like that the brands that grew big enough to leave would eventually do it, Kongshaug explains. [But] if we keep up the pace and the level of fashion that comes out of the city right now, there would probably not be any reason to leave because the right people are here. The exposure is here. Today, honestly, the platform is here. [Photo: James Cochrane/Forza Collective] For young brands like Nicklas Skovgaards eponymous line, founded in 2020, Copenhagen is home. Its where he feels most creative and where he wants to stay. Plus, it seems to be working for the balance sheet. His womenswear label is already in several stockists across Europe, Asia, and the U.S. Another way it’s supporting its designers and new talents is by working more closely with the Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF), which takes place at the same time bi-annually and has expanded over recent years. [Photo: CIFF] To CIFF Director Sofie Dolva, the two groups fates are intertwined. For both to succeed, and help boost Nordic fashion brands, its important they keep working together. The key is to be close and to coordinate also with the schedule across so you get the right mix, according to Dolva, whos been at her post since 2022. Both for us and Copenhagen Fashion Week, it is really important to support the new talents. Without the new talents and new brands showing some innovativeness, it gets boring. Our industry needs excitement and newness. The Fall/Winter 2026 season was an example of how that can be done. Not only did the two orgs host events together and sync on timing so that buyers and press ere in town for both, but many CPHFW designers, including those in the Newtalent program, had booths at CIFF. Two on-calendar labels, Forza Collective and Fine Chaos, even had their runway shows at the fairs massive location just outside Copenhagens center. CIFF also plans to increase its partnerships with retailers, which could have a positive ripple effect on designers looking for wholesale partners. This season, it debuted a partnership with Milans 10 Corso Como, hosting a mini version of the conceptual store at the trade fair. Dolva says she wants to go from a transactional relationship to a more partnership level [with retailers] because if we don’t work together, we will not win together. [Photo: James Cochrane/Holzweiler] For a homecoming Holzweiler, its about what you can get in the Danish city that the others, like Paris and London, cant offer. Copenhagen operates at a different scale, he says. It allows for more focus and continuity around the collections, which can be valuable depending on where you are as a brand. Both [larger and more intimate] contexts matterthey just create different conditions.
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E-Commerce
When Obvious Ventures launched 12 years ago with a focus on world positive companies, the idea was a contrarian bet: that startups tackling climate, health, and economic resilience could deliver big returns, not just feel-good impact. Founded by Twitter cofounder Ev Williams and others, the firm backed companies like Beyond Meat, the AI drug discovery company Recursion Pharmaceuticals, and Diamond Foundry, which makes sustainable lab-grown diamonds. By 2020, other VC firms had gotten into the climate investing space, and overall investment in climate tech surged. Now, as the Trump administration rolls out anti-climate policy and some investors retreat, Obvious is leaning in. Fresh off closing its fifth fundat the precise figure of $360,360,360the firm remains bullish. We talked to managing director Andrew Beebe about how Obvious has grownand the current state of climate investing in the age of Trump. World positive investing went mainstream In the beginning, Obviouss approach was unusual. We started with this basic idea that the biggest companies of our time are going to be those that solve the worlds biggest problems, Beebe says. Some people misunderstood it as impact investing that would only have concessionary returns. But Obvious was thinking differently: the thesis was that solving global challenges could drive financial success. Over time, as Obvious Ventures had early successes with companies like Beyond Meat, a growing number of investors moved in the same direction. (Beyond Meat has since struggled, but had the best-performing IPO in the U.S. in 2019.) Twelve years forward, weve had many venture firms copy, or lets say lift, some of our language, Beebe says. But we appreciate that. We definitely consider imitation a sincere form of flattery. And because of that, but also because of the successes of these early companies, its been easier to explain what world positive means. Thats important with limited partners. But its also really important with founders, so that we are not just getting, you know, sort of a yoga mat cleaning service or something, but instead getting these extraordinary ideas like radically reducing the cost of geothermal energy or AI for drug discovery. The big change is that I think more people can more easily digest what we do and why we do it. And the movement of world positive companies is stronger than ever. Smart climate investors arent pulling back As the federal government pivoted on climate policypulling back billions of dollars in funding for clean energy projects, tax credits for EVs and other incentives, and pouring more support into the fossil fuel industryclimate investing dropped. But the fundamentals havent changed, and Beebe says that climate investing still makes sense. Venture firms outlast presidential cycles by definition, he says. And in this case, easily, because we only have two more years. But more importantly, with regard to climate, I love climate investing because its the macro of all macros. Unfortunately, we can very predictably see where things are going. And thats just not always true. In health care, its hard to predict where things are going. But climate, the problem literally gets worse by the day, even if the government chooses to ignore itoftentimes, because they choose to ignore it. And yet there are a lot of investors in the US who say, Well, the government supports gone. And look, people arent buying EVs anymore. So, lets move on. And I love that. Those tourists should go home. And, I guess, go back to enterprise SaaS or whatever. Meanwhile, both on the founder side and on the investor side, the people who really understand the science and really understand the macro are not going anywhere. As climate investing grew over the past several years, Obvious Ventures had focused more of its last fund in other areas like health and robotics. Climate got really frothy and overpriced, he says. But its a better investment now. Its only over the last year, and this year, where Im much more comfortable going really hard into climate. The One Big Beautiful Big Act slashed support for a wide swath of climate startups. Still, Beebe argues that some of what was in the original Inflation Reduction Act wasnt necessary. I was very supportive of the climate bill as an American, as an Earthling, he says. But from an investment standpoint, there was too much hype because of it, and it threw a lot of money at things that I did not think were going to work. We sort of stepped back and we only had one company out of maybe 25 that was really impacted by all of that being yanked. Now, because of that, a lot of those things that I didnt think deserved investment are not going to get more investment. I would say an example of that is direct air capturea lot of people are really into it as an investment category, I just dont believe it. So, I think a lot of those things are going to die on the vine. He believes that other technology, from tech to help the electric grid to electric aviation, can grow now. All of these things are not getting as much attention and are better priced, but are awesome, better solutions than whats out there today, he says. Its hard to say were doubling down on climate because weve always been in it, but, for sure, I am more bullish on the investment landscape and climate that Ive been in probably five years. Theres still room for optimism on climate In its latest annual report, Obvious includes some predictions from Beebe on what could come in the next decadelike the idea that well have energy thats too cheap to meter, and well stop selling gas-powered cars. Despite the headwinds, Beebe is optimistic. I love that Gates quote that we overestimate what we can do in two years and underestimate what we can do in 10, he says. Decade-long predictions I find pretty easy, but the near term is a different bucket. You know, Im a professional optimist, Im a venture capitalist, we have to do that. But I do think that graded on a curve, Im much more optimistic than a lot of folks out there. Even with the unfortunate rhetoric from the federal government, he says, states, utility companies, and startups are still moving forward with solutions. American car companies risk falling behind on EVs, but globally, theyre still booming. The rest of the world has also figured out that solar plus storage, wind plus storage, is much cheaper than natural gas, he says. Most U.S. utilities have figured that out, too. Unfortunately, there are some people in the administration who I actually think know that as well, but have decided to just take a very head in the sand approach. That wont last. This is going to be our biggest solar year of installations yet, and I think well probably see something of the same size next year. Itll dip without changes after that. But I think well see some changes. Im pretty optimistic.
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E-Commerce
MacKenzie Scott helped build one of the most recognizable companies in modern historyall while writing her first novel. As Amazon scaled from a fledging startup to a global force, Scott was simultaneously cultivating a literary life. Long before Amazon, Scott launched her literary career. While studying creative writing at Princeton University, Scott landed herself a highly coveted spot as one of Toni Morrisons advisees, a relationship that would shape her literary pursuits. This writer that I admired so much also turned out to be such a gifted and devoted teacher, Scott said at the dedication for Princetons Morrison Hall. She has given me a real example of a life of passionate devotion to more than one calling. For some time, those callings competed. In Amazons early years, Scotts writing necessarily receded as she supported the companys founding and expansion. But by 1996, she stepped into a less involved role, carving out space for her literary ambitions and for her family. She consequently forged a slow, deliberate writing life. And after a decade of workbalanced alongside raising her children and supporting Amazons growthScott published her debut novel, The Testing of Luther Albright. Morrison continued to mentor her through the process, offering advice and encouragement. Your hand is sure, your technical ability sophisticated, Morrison said, according to Howard University. Dont worry about overdoing it at this point. It is so much easier to cut back than to write up. Morrisons mentorship proved pivotal, as Scott went on to win the American Book Award for her novel, cementing her literary career. Morrison, however, was not the only writer to leave a lasting imprint. In her Giving Pledge letter years later, Scott returned to The Writing Life by Annie Dillard, a slim meditation on the discipline and solitude of writing with no promise of success. Scott rediscovered the book on a shelf of college-era favorites, its pages underlined and started. One passage, in particular, stuck with her. For Scott, the advice was no longer just about writing. It became a framework for philanthropy. I have no doubt that tremendous value comes when people act quickly on the impulse to give, she wrote in her pledge letter. The same philosophy that propelled Scotts literary success also undergirds her philanthropic pursuits, treating wealth not as something to preserve, but as something meant to be spent with intention. By Leila Sheridan This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister site, Inc.com. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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