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Amsterdam International Fashion Week (AIFW) and the Dutch ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) have launched a competition in token of the international Year of Biodiversity; The Green Fashion Competition.

The Green Fashion Competition is a competition for entrepreneurs in the fashion industry, for individuals (and teams) with a vision of what the future of fashion should look like. The aim of the competition is to find the talented entrepreneurs in the industry who aim to create a fashion business while sustaining biodiversity.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is a term often foreign to those not interested in plants and agriculture. Yet biodiversity is ‘all around us' and plays a much more important role than most people think.

‘Bio' means life, and ‘diversity' means variation.

Biodiversity can therefore be described as the variation of all kinds of life, which together create a balance in nature. Biodiversity covers all of the world's ecosystems; from the smallest insect to the largest mammal and from microscopic plants to the tallest trees. It includes life on land, in she sky and in the sea. It is the totality of all life together which form ‘biodiversity'.

Biodiversity creates clean water, fertile grounds and a stable climate. It also produces food and building materials for residencies, clothing, fuel and medication.

Mankind's consumption of raw materials and modern production techniques are having an extremely destructive effect on the world's biodiversity. Examples of this are the unaccountable amounts of water wasted in many production techniques, the chemicals used in dyes and other treatments that pollute the environment, and the extent to which large scale agriculture (eg cotton fields) destroy habitats.

The Green Fashion Competition aims to create the foundation for a fashion industry that is produced in a manner wherein biodiversity is preserved. The only way in which this can be done is when entrepreneurs are able to find a balance between the economical, ecological and social impact of their ideas; a balance between People, Planet and Profit.

The Green Fashion Competition will provide the entrepreneurial talents within the Dutch fashion industry with coaching, support, an international platform and sizeable financial aid for launching their ideas.

The Green Fashion Competition: Sewing the seeds for the future of fashion