Fashion brands push nature investment as climate risks hit cotton and supply chains, Vogue Business reports

Vogue Business on Thursday, 15 October, published a feature on how fashion companies are building a financial case to invest in nature as climate shocks disrupt fiber supply.

Why brands say nature is a business issue

• H&M Group biodiversity lead Jennie Granström recalled that the 2022 Pakistan floods wiped out as much as 40% of that year’s cotton yield and hit the retailer’s ability to secure cotton on time and price; the group is scaling regenerative cotton “primarily for resilience.”
• Kering’s Rachel Kolbe Semhoun said nature risks have “really come home” this year and that older approaches “aren’t going to fit the bill.” Kering pioneered an Environmental Profit and Loss framework in 2016 and a biodiversity strategy in 2020.
• At the Textile Exchange conference on Tuesday, Bestseller’s Danique Lodewijks said the company is heavily invested in regenerative cotton and noted a $3 million donation to the Regenerative Fund for Nature, co-founded by Kering and Conservation International.
• VF Corp’s Sean Cady described scenario planning that includes extreme nature outcomes (for example, ski seasons ending and demand for The North Face puffers collapsing) as a way to build decision-making “muscle.”

Investor and industry pressure

• TNFD CEO Tony Goldner cited a recent investor report: 96% of investors surveyed see nature as a potential risk to portfolio returns, and about 60% list nature among their top three concerns.
• An Inditex spokesperson told Vogue Business nature is foundational to its sustainability strategy, citing recycled cotton, work with Canopy on deforestation, and investment in the Regenerative Fund for Nature.

The article frames these moves as risk management rather than charity: switching supply chains under sudden climate pressure is “incredibly expensive,” Goldner said.