UK-based non-profit organization, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, has partnered with Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) to introduce the circular economy to the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards. Starting with the Sustainable Fashion Awards, the alliance pushes circular design for fashion to the forefront of the Italian fashion industry's creative ambition.

In a joint statement, the two organizations said the awards give a unique platform to further showcase how fashion can be reinvented via circular design and urge creatives everywhere to consider how they might create a regenerative, circular economy.

The awards, which will be presented in twelve categories on September 25 at Teatro Escala in Milan, will honor those who establish ambitious goals and take meaningful steps toward change, with a particular focus on sustainable and circular innovation.

Dame Ellen will bring a circular economy lens to all award categories as head of the jury, and will deliver the dedicated Circular Economy Award, which recognizes exemplary instances of circular design. The winners are expected to take the Foundation's vision of a reimagined future for fashion on the global stage.

Dame Ellen MacArthur - founder and chair of trustees, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said that they’re happy to be partnering with CNMI at The Sustainable Fashion Awards. The extraordinary contributions and valiant efforts of creatives from all around the world will be celebrated at this thrilling, worldwide event. The unique 'Circular Economy Award' honors top examples of innovation and circular design that might help to reimagine the future of fashion by fostering an industry that eliminates waste and pollution, cycles goods and resources, and regenerates the environment.

Dame added that they’ve formed a relationship from which the Foundation can carry its vision of a circular fashion industry into the mainstream, with CNMI's network situated in the heart of luxury Italian fashion and their work aiming at the highest standards of industrial, environmental, and social sustainability. CNMI and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation will collaborate to honor and reward people who are bringing circular design to the forefront of an industry that may help address the core causes of global issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

Carlo Capasa, chairman of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, said that the partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an essential milestone for the CNMI and its Roadmap on Sustainability, which has distinguished the previous ten years of the Association's work. They’re ecstatic to work with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a global pioneer in the transition to the circular economy that they all desire. The CNMI fully supports the Foundation's goal of a circular economy for fashion, including it into its strategy and integrating all participants in the fashion industry's creative, productive, and distributive systems. Fashion must be fully involved in an inventive vision for a better future for the world and for people.