What I have leaned from EDC 1

I shall write after each session a short reflection on the session of the Erasmus-Descartes Conference, the first one was held on November 20th. I am the moderator of the four sessions. I shall write my wrap up in English although the languages of the conference are French and Dutch. English is not the official language of both countries. As the UK is no longer member of the EU it is not evident that English keeps its position as lingua franca. French and German will take again this role. Done, encore un effort.

My take on the first conference is that France and the Netherlands have critical mass, that can be stronger by making smart combinations. I see three possible coalitions; In the first place France and the Netherlands have a strong position in textile and fashion education with IFM, ENSAIT, AMFI, ARTEZ, Saxion, Rietveld and WUR within close travelling range. There are synergies in education to attain, especially in the interaction of design, technology and marketing of sustainable textiles/fashion. The second area of critical mass is specifically on the development of new natural materials. The arc from Normandy to Groningen is still the core of world linnen production, a major hub in hemp and a concentration of biopolymer production. The third area is in policy development. France has already an extended producer responsibility system, Netherlands is developing it. Both countries have a first generation of policies in circular economy and should converge in their second generation programmes.

My second take is that we should gather more to learn to understand each others languages, I do not mean Dutch/French, but to understand values and value creation in the value chain. A flax farmer, a polyester spinner, a weaver, a knitter, a tailor, a designer, a retail buyer, a store manager each have their own context and perspectives and especially different moral and financial imperatives. We have to understand each other in order to discover the levers of change. A conference like EDC is a starting point, but needs to be consolidated.

My third take, and it is related to the first and second point is that we are shifting from a period of experiments and pilot towards demonstration and upscaling. But the industry is still motivated by marginal differentiation and afraid of upscaling risky novelties. There is market failure, because of fragmentation of the sector, undercapitalisation of all players and globalisation of value chains (without regie). Unfortunately policies (in both countries) do promote exploration and experiments and also start-up, but neither does it fund well more applied research (developing hemp is not rocket science) are scaling up (especially if there are substantial technological challenges in scaling up). If funds exist, the transaction costs of obtaining funding are simply too high and the path towards funding too long. 

I look forward to meet in one of the three EDC sessions, each starting Friday morning 10'o clock. And as a teaser the best sentence of the first morning: Mode, climat: même combat!

https://www.paysbasetvous.nl/votre-pays-et-les-pays-bas/france/conference-erasme-descartes-2020