Helsinki Fashion Summit 2012, on the 24th of May is a fashion seminar focusing on growth and sustainability. Our inspiration is the fresh and pure new growth of the Nordic spring. On one spring day, the Bio Rex will become the beating fashion heart of the world’s design capital.

For those who missed the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, the talks and presentations are now available for you to watch and download. You can hear Crown Princess Mary's speech and enjoy Rick Ridgeway from Patagonia talk about the ground-breaking work that the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is doing.

The five Nordic countries have decided to collaborate on a 10-year plan for the fashion- and apparel industry. This is an ambitious plan with both short-term and long-term goals. The plan works within five areas that are critical for our planet, the people who live on it - but also make good economic sense. Doing the right thing is also good for profits. We hope this 10-year strategic plan of action will inspire, assist and motivate the fashion industry as well as related industries to integrate sustainability and social responsibility in their business processes and practices for the better of society.

We've called the project "Valuing Norwegian Wool". Starting in March 2010, this project will be launched under SIFO, in cooperation with NICE, among others. The goal is to look at the whole lifecycle of wool, finding new an innovative approaches to bringing wool to the forefront in textiles again. Wool has been the central textile fibre in Norwegian (and Nordic) history and is still economically important to Norwegian farming, textile manufacturing, retailing and the garment/fashion industry. There is reason to believe that most consumers are unaware of the negative environmental impact of cotton production, as well as unfamiliar with the environmental benefits of wool – which imply a great and unexploited potential.

From textile waste to material resources in a grave to cradle perspective: How can a multidisciplinary approach to waste reduction contribute to reduce the material flow and turning waste into material resources? This is a project that aims to reverse the classical LCA and start with what we generally see as the end result. But the project also aims to take a deep look at the consumers' role in the life cycle of textiles and clothing, including how we care for what we buy.