Danish Fashion Going Global - Spandet And Partners

DANISH FASHION GOING GLOBAL 79
Key Players and Associations in Danish Fashion
NICE—Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical
Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical (NICE) is a joint Nordic project with the main
purpose of motivating and assisting companies in integrating sustainability and social
responsibility in their business processes and practices for the better of society. NICE
is an educational project and process created for and in collaboration with the Nordic
fashion industry.
NICE is a new and ambitious Nordic partnership initiative with the overall objective to
lead the Nordic fashion industry toward a stronger focus on responsible, ethical, and
sustainable production. NICE includes a number of projects and partners across the
Nordic countries—the Nordic fashion industry being the focal point of the initiative.
NICE was kicked off at the Fashion Summit, December 2009, held in Copenhagen
during UN Climate Change Conference in December 2009.
The background is the structure of Danish fashion where brands may have ethical
charters and codes of conduct, but many are still too small scale to follow up on the
ideology and make sure that agreements are kept and constantly improved.
CSR advisory services are from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and the Trade Council.
In 2009, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched its own consultancy for CSR to
complement its other business services to Danish companies involved in outsourcing
and other internationalization activities.
Initially, the consultancy will focus on India and China, but it is expected gradually to
be rolled out to other emerging markets. From the very beginning, fashion is one of
the priority areas.
For fashion companies involved in the poorer developing countries, in particular in
Africa, Danida has a program for assistance to innovative CSR projects, called
Innovative Partnerships for Development (formerly the Public Private Partnership
Program). Companies can receive up to DKK 5 Mio. and up to 90% of the total
budget—in support for projects of this nature.