MILAN — After a year’s hiatus due to the pandemic and a digital-only event in 2020, the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana Sustainable Fashion Awards are returning IRL on Sept. 25 at the tail end of Milan Fashion Week with their fifth edition, to be held at La Scala theater.

Italy’s fashion organizing body’s president Carlo Capasa underscored that the revamped edition ⁠— boasting partnerships with the U.N.’s Ethical Fashion Initiative and the Ellen McArthur Foundation and a new ESG-oriented approach to naming winners ⁠— reflects the country’s fashion industry’s path toward sustainability and its ambition to tackle pressing issues.

“A sustainable future cannot leave fashion out of consideration. Fashion has always anticipated trends, means and procedures, and sustainability makes no exception,” Capasa said. “These awards are very ambitious, this is the time to aim higher…they set the foundation for Camera della Moda to be a permanent incubator leveraging the awards to advance the conversation and progress when it comes to sustainability.”

Camera della Moda has furthered its link with the Ethical Fashion Initiative, with which it kicked off a partnership last year to introduce the first “ESG Due Diligence and Reporting Framework” for the fashion industry, giving stakeholders access to a sustainability system to spot, eliminate and mitigate ESG-related risks.

An entity that is part of the U.N. Alliance for Sustainable Fashion pressuring the eco-minded transformation of the sector, as well as promoting advancement in underdeveloped countries by implementing local supply chains, the EFI is now providing, in tandem with Quantis, the framework and criteria to assess award recipients, too.

A jury presided over by Dame Ellen McArthur…