Journal
An Evening for Collective Action
For one week every September, New York City is the center of the climate conversation, alight with bold ideas and big aspirations. Intentionally held during the same week as the United Nations General Assembly, Climate Week NYC brings together leaders across industries to share insights, build partnerships, and accelerate climate action.
At DÔEN, environmental resilience is one of the four pillars guiding our 2030 Impact Roadmap, making Climate Week an important moment for our Impact team to listen, learn, and connect with our peers across the apparel industry and beyond.
During the week, we wanted to create an opportunity for connection and candid conversation. Together with our friends at Vuori, we hosted an intimate dinner celebrating our joint investment in a renewable energy project in California. Friends and peers from across the fashion industry joined us to discuss the challenges and opportunities our organizations encounter in turning climate commitments into progress.
The DÔEN and Vuori Impact teams (from left): Becca Whitney, Mara Ley, Kristine Kim, Christina Castle
The evening opened with a warm welcome from the DÔEN and Vuori impact teams, who spoke to the story behind the partnership. As California-based brands both with climate strategies and goals, we were looking for ways to meaningfully contribute to the expansion of renewable energy in our home state. The California stars aligned when we realized we had similar visions and, supported by ever.green, found a solar project close to home that is directly connected to new renewable energy generation and designed to support responsible land use and local economic activity.
We also highlighted that this collaborative brand-led approach is still unique in the climate space and a model of what is possible when brands of different scales join together to combine purchasing power and expand the impact of climate projects.
Clockwise from top left: Kathleen Talbot, Reformation's Chief Sustainability Officer & VP of Operations, and Kristine Kim, DÔEN's VP of Impact and Responsible Sourcing; scenes from dinner
"Progress does not come from any one company acting alone. It requires partnership, creativity, and a willingness to learn from one another."
Christina Castle, Senior Manager of Impact & Product Sustainability
That same sentiment was woven through the lively conversations around the table. We spoke openly about climate challenges companies are facing, which approaches are working and which need to be reassessed, and where greater collaboration could help move the industry forward.
We left the evening hopeful by what might grow from the conversations we had. It was a reminder that Climate Week, at its heart, is about bringing together people with different perspectives and backgrounds to dream up and commit to building what comes next.
So, we raised a glass to collaboration, to the community gathered in the room, to collective action, and to the work still ahead.
Clockwise from top left: Sarmishta Mahendra, Ever.green's Head of Go to Market; Beba Greer, Reformation's Director of Sustainable Operations + Engagement; Tillie Newcomb, Theory's Sustainability Manager in conversation with Becca Whitney, Vuori's Sustainable Operations Associate
Written by Christina Castle, our Senior Manager of Impact & Product Sustainability
