Amid rising textile waste crisis, environmental NGO Redress’ world-leading sustainable fashion competition winner proves that designing out waste is one of fashion’s biggest opportunities
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 4 September 2026 – Redress, the Hong Kong-based, Asia-focused environmental NGO accelerating circular fashion, announced the winner of the Redress Design Award 2026, the world's leading sustainable fashion design competition, at a star-studded runway finale at CENTRESTAGE, Asia's annual fashion showcase. The finalists' runway collections, designed using circular techniques including factory surplus, discarded garments, excess new stock, furnishings waste, tackled the global textile waste crisis and highlighted what most fashion consumers do not realise: an estimated 80% of a product's environmental impact is locked in at design stage[1], long before the clothes hit the shop floor.
Redress Design Award Winner Inspires Consumers To Demand More Sustainable Fashion Choices
"My generation of designers won't be judged just on aesthetics. We must understand circularity - durability, repairability and recyclability - from the drawing board to fill the racks with what more consumers hope to buy. Coming into this wasteful fashion industry is intimidating and we must respond with courage," said Jon Liesenfeld, from Germany, Redress Design Award 2026 First Prize Winner, who outdesigned seven other finalists from Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland, United Kingdom, Austria, and Israel.
As Lead Sponsor, the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA) has supported the Award as a cornerstone project for 14 consecutive years. "Creativity and sustainability have never been more closely intertwined than they are today," shared Drew Lai, Commissioner for Cultural and Creative Industries, CCIDA. "We take great pride in the legacy of the Award: over 350 alumni across more than 40 regions, many of whom have gone on to translate circular design principles into thriving, real-world practice — a clear testament to the Award's wide-reaching impact."
The fashion industry must reinvent itself - from the drawing board up
Textile waste is a global crisis, with an estimated 120 million tonnes generated annually, of which 80% ends up in landfills or being incinerated[2]. The global textile industry is only 0.3% circular[3].
"Whilst the fashion industry faces serious challenges - from geopolitical pressures, inflation, complex global supply chains to incoming legislation - it is catastrophically still on its wasteful, runaway trainwreck," said Dr. Christina Dean, Founder, Redress. "Circularity is flat-lining despite circular textile business models being estimated to generate US$700 billion in economic value by 2030[4] and whilst clothing waste sky rockets, which will be exacerbated by global dominance of ultra fast fashion brands. Redress' work to catalyse circular fashion is critical and our educational movement has reached millions of designers in almost 100 countries worldwide," she said.
All finalists join Redress' Alumni global network of 350+ designers who continue sparking solutions. Alumnus Kevin Germanier closed Paris Couture Week this spring with a collection made entirely from LVMH-owned brands' excess inventory across. Alumnus Angus Tsui and Eric Wong have transformed retired DHL courier uniforms into accessories.
Upcycling continues moving mainstream, with LVMH Group, Miu Miu, Coach, Uniqlo, Converse, Wrangler and Vivienne Westwood, developing various upcycled collections, selling its creativity and uniqueness rather than sustainability alone.
Incoming regulation, particularly the European Union's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), Extender Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the ban on destroying unsold clothing and footwear, have given brands more incentive to embrace upcycling than just a few years ago.
Redress Design Award 2026 Prizes expose winners to array of British businesses
Jon Liesenfeld wins an educational journey to British fashion businesses; from design-led apparel manufacturers, Simple Approach who produce 50 million apparel pieces annually for brands including Primark and Next; luxury womenswear brand Roksanda, worn by Her Royal Highness Catherine, Princess of Wales, Michelle Obama, Kate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway. This prize is supported by GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland Campaign.
The runner-up, Jasmine Cheuk from Hong Kong, wins a mentorship with distinguished British fashion activist and competition judge, Orsola de Castro, who has mentored Redress' competition winners every cycle for the last decade and has been a judge since the competition's inception. Jasmine also won the Hong Kong Best prize.
Redress empowers emerging designers to help close the educational skills gap
Redress recognises the urgent need to equip designers with the skills required to narrow the educational gap within the fashion industry. An integrative review of 81 papers found that mainstream fashion design courses still "scarcely incorporate sustainability within their curricula", underscoring the need to strengthen sustainability education through both theoretical understanding and practical application.[5] To date, Redress has directly educated 36,500+ fashion designers and educators and has generated 18 million views across its online educational resources.
In addition to education, Redress builds strategic industry partnerships to create real-world pathways for designers. During the Redress Design Award 2026, finalists remade discarded, unwearable post-consumer clothing waste into retail-ready collections for multi-brand fashion retailer, D-mop, in collaboration with TAL Apparel, leading global garment manufacturer. This work was delivered as part of the 'Remake to Retail' challenge; the resulting collection is scheduled to launch with D-mop later this year.
Redress Design Award turns consumer concern into sustainable demand
Engaging with consumers to drive the sustainable fashion movement is critical, given rampant overconsumption and clothing underutilisation, which results in the majority of clothing being landfilled or burned within one year of production.[6] Whilst the majority of consumers believe brands have a responsibility to make positive change in the world[7], an intention gap between what consumers think and what they do persists, whereby 71% of global consumers are concerned about sustainability in fashion, yet only 3% of them are willing to pay a premium for it.[8]
Through the Redress Design Award, finalists demonstrate that sustainable fashion can be desirable. By showcasing exceptional design and compelling storytelling, and by bringing remade clothing into mainstream spaces, these next-generation designers motivate consumers to actively choose more sustainable options, turning concern into demand.
Editor's Notes
- Data and Statistics Insights: Redress Design Award: Redress Design Award Additional Resources - The Issues
- Competition Criteria: The Redress Design Award 2026 was open to global applications from emerging designers and students with less than four years' professional experience focusing on womenswear and menswear original collection designs. Competition brief here.
- The People's Choice winner, voted by the public, was Tal Zohar from Israel.
- Judges are: Orsola de Castro, Author and Fashion Activist; Rachel Franklin, Director of ESG, Simple Approach; Cherry Mui, Editorial Director, Vogue Hong Kong; Rod Henderson, President, TAL Apparel Ltd; Angus Tsui, Creative Director, ANGUS TSUI and Alumnus, Redress Design Award; and Dr. Christina Dean, Founder and Board Chair, Redress.
- Sponsors Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA) as the Lead Sponsor. Other key partners include DHL and TAL Group.
- Redress Alumni Networkoffers designers ongoing support as they develop their careers in sustainable fashion.
Hashtag: #RedressDesignAward
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The Redress Design Award
The Redress Design Award (www.redressdesignaward.com) is the world's leading sustainable fashion design competition that educates and empowers emerging fashion designers about circular design techniques to reduce fashion's negative environmental impacts. Organised by Hong Kong-based, Asia-focused environmental NGO Redress since 2011, the competition partners with academic institutions globally and attracts designer applicants from over 50 countries and regions to win prizes that connect them with global-leading fashion businesses to accelerate the change to a circular fashion industry.
Redress (www.redress.com.hk) is a Hong Kong-based, Asia-focused environmental NGO founded in 2007 accelerating the change to a circular fashion industry by educating and empowering designers and consumers to reduce clothing's negative environmental impacts. Locally, Redress has collected 208 tonnes of clothing for recirculation and educated 21,000+ Hong Kong students and teachers. Globally, they have directly educated 36,500+ fashion designers and teachers, amassing 18 million online views of their sustainable design educational content and building a social media reach of 46 million users.
The Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA) (www.ccida.gov.hk), formerly known as Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) since 2009, was established in June 2024. CCIDA is a dedicated office under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR Government) to provide one-stop services and support to the cultural and creative sectors with a mission to foster a conducive environment in Hong Kong to facilitate development of the arts, culture and creative sectors as industries. CCIDA's strategic foci are nurturing talent and facilitating start-ups, exploring markets, promoting cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary collaboration, promoting industrialisation of the arts, culture and creative sectors under the industry-oriented principle, and fostering a creative atmosphere in the community, thereby reinforcing Hong Kong as Asia's creative capital and our positioning as the East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.
Disclaimer: The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to the project only, and does not otherwise take part in the project. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials/events (or by members of the project team) are those of the project organisers only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee.
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- New and expanded facilities include DHL Supply Chain's upcoming Pharma Hub 2, DHL Global Forwarding's Singapore Coldchain Hub, and a dedicated GDP-compliant (Good Distribution Practice-compliant) healthcare space at DHL Express' South Asia Hub
- The investments position Singapore as a regional hub for temperature-sensitive and high-value healthcare supply chain
SINGAPORE - Media OutReach Newswire - 4 September 2026 - Following the opening of its Pharma Hub last year, DHL Group is further strengthening its Life Sciences and Healthcare (LSHC) capabilities in Singapore through a series of investments that enhance its DHL Health Logistics network and expand its capacity to transport, store and distribute pharmaceuticals, medical devices, clinical trial materials and other healthcare products across Asia Pacific. The investments focus on three pillars: infrastructure, specialist expertise, and strategic partnerships. Together, they help maintain product integrity throughout the healthcare supply chain.
Cool green cell packaging at Pharma Hub
Asia Pacific's pharmaceutical logistics market is projected to grow from US$163 billion in 2025 to nearly US$239 billion by 2031, driven by rising demand for biologics, vaccines and other temperature-sensitive products that require specialized storage and transportation. As healthcare supply chains become increasingly complex, manufacturers are looking for logistics partners, who can protect product integrity and meet stringent regulatory requirements.
To accede to that demand, DHL is putting new infrastructure across its Express, Global Forwarding and Supply Chain businesses, while continuing to grow its healthcare expertise and build closer ties across the broader logistics ecosystem.
The investments also build on DHL Group's broader commitment to LSHC and the continued expansion of DHL Health Logistics including the €500 million earmarked for Asia Pacific as part of €2 billion global investment in the sector announced in 2025. The program covers infrastructure and technology across storage, order fulfilment, distribution, global transportation and last-mile delivery.
Infrastructure: Singapore Coldchain Hub, Pharma Hub 2, and dedicated GDP-compliant space at South Asia Hub
DHL Global Forwarding is strengthening Singapore's role in regional healthcare trade through the DHL Singapore Coldchain Hub, a dedicated healthcare logistics facility that will form part of DHL's broader Health Logistics Air Freight Network connecting key pharmaceutical and life sciences markets worldwide. By combining global air connectivity with specialized healthcare handling capabilities, the network helps customers move sensitive pharmaceutical and life sciences shipments with greater reliability, visibility and temperature integrity across critical healthcare trade lanes. Together with a pharmaceutical corridor initiative being developed with ecosystem partners, the investment will help create more seamless, compliant and resilient healthcare supply chains across Asia Pacific and key healthcare trade lanes.
Located within Changi's 24/7 Free Trade Zone at Changi Nexus One, the S$22 million (€15 million) facility will provide 3,047 sqm of GDP-aligned temperature-controlled infrastructure for high-value, time- and temperature-sensitive healthcare cargo, including pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and biologics. With dedicated 2°C to 8°C and 15°C to 25°C handling environments, the facility is designed to support an unbroken cold chain from aircraft to a DHL facility and onward to customers' warehouses, minimizing temperature excursions and reducing the need for supplementary temperature-control measures and packaging while preserving product integrity throughout transit. The facility is slated for launch in late 2027.
"In healthcare logistics, precision is non-negotiable. A temperature excursion of just a few degrees can compromise the integrity of high-value medicines, biologics and other critical healthcare products. That is why building an end-to-end, unbroken cold chain is essential. Beyond protecting products, it gives healthcare companies the confidence that life-saving therapies can move safely, compliantly, and reliably across increasingly complex global supply chains. By combining specialized infrastructure, direct airside connectivity and dedicated temperature-controlled handling solutions, our new Singapore Coldchain Hub will help minimize product exposure throughout the shipment journey and give customers greater assurance that their products will arrive in the right condition, at the right time, to the patients who depend on them," added Praveen Gregory, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
DHL Supply Chain is building on the success of the Pharma Hub first launched in Singapore last year with a second pharma hub to further expand its healthcare logistics footprint in the country. The new $S7 million (€5 million) facility will provide additional controlled ambient storage capacity for pharmaceutical and medical device customers, supporting services such as warehousing, distribution, kitting and value-added healthcare logistics operations.
Spanning over 8,000 sqm, the facility is designed as a 100 percent temperature-controlled ambient facility operating at temperatures between 15°C and 25°C with humidity control below 60 percent. The facility will accommodate approximately 7,680 pallet positions and incorporate GDP-compliant and GMP-aligned (Good Manufacturing Practice-aligned) infrastructure, including dedicated redressing rooms to support specialized healthcare logistics requirements. With both pharma hubs, DHL Supply Chain's total pharmaceutical logistics footprint in Singapore will amount to approximately 16,000 sqm and accommodate around 12,000 pallet positions. It is expected to begin operations by the first half of 2027.
"Capacity on its own isn't the goal. It's what that capacity allows our customers to do," said Eunis Hew, Managing Director, DHL Supply Chain Singapore. "Pharma Hub 2 builds on the strong foundation we have established with Pharma Hub, giving our customers additional room to grow while maintaining the quality and compliance standards their products require. As healthcare supply chains become more sophisticated, purpose-built infrastructure becomes increasingly important."
DHL Express has installed a GDP-compliant handling and storage space of around 20 sqm at its South Asia Hub at Changi Airport. The controlled ambient room with a temperature range of 15°C to 25 °C allows temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical shipments to move securely through one of the region's most important air logistics gateways. This also marks the first GDP-compliant healthcare logistics space within a DHL Express facility globally.
GDP-compliant processes help ensure that medicines are handled under appropriate conditions, remain traceable and maintain their quality throughout the distribution journey.
"When it comes to healthcare shipments, every handoff matters," said Christopher Ong, Managing Director, DHL Express Singapore. "By expanding GDP-compliant handling and storage capabilities within our South Asia Hub, we're helping customers reduce risk during transit and maintain the integrity of temperature-sensitive products throughout their journey. That reliability is critical especially when those shipments support clinical trials, hospital treatments and patient care."
People: Building expertise in teams
Infrastructure is only one part of healthcare logistics. DHL is also investing in specialized healthcare logistics expertise across its operations to help ensure temperature-sensitive and regulated products are handled consistently at every stage of the journey. Teams across Express, Global Forwarding and Supply Chain receive ongoing training in areas such as temperature-controlled handling, GDP requirements, quality management and regulatory compliance, supported by DHL's Certified Life Sciences Specialist program. These programs keep employees up to date with evolving industry standards and equip them with the knowledge needed to support increasingly complex healthcare supply chains.
The company is also growing its pool of healthcare logistics specialists, such as pharmacists, combining operational expertise and industry knowledge to support increasingly stringent supply chain requirements.
Ecosystem and partners: Building stronger healthcare supply chains
DHL is working closely with airlines, airport partners, healthcare manufacturers and logistics providers to strengthen the broader healthcare logistics ecosystem.
One example is DHL Express' latest partnership with Life Science Incubator (LSI), a life sciences innovation ecosystem partner. Through the collaboration, DHL will give start-ups, SMEs, researchers and healthcare innovators access to specialized logistics capabilities at LSI's incubator and conduct workshops and training programs covering international trade, supply chain management and cross-border regulatory requirements. By bringing logistics expertise closer to where innovation takes place, DHL aims to help emerging healthcare businesses scale more effectively and navigate global supply chains.
Together with Changi Airport Group (CAG), DHL Global Forwarding is enhancing healthcare trade lanes across Asia Pacific to support the safe and reliable movement of pharmaceuticals, vaccines and other temperature-sensitive products through Singapore. By combining Changi Airport's extensive global connectivity and airside access with DHL's global healthcare logistics expertise, dedicated cold-chain capabilities, and expanding Health Logistics network, the Singapore Coldchain Hub collaboration aims to give customers greater consistency, visibility, and confidence across their supply chains.
Collectively, these investments position Singapore as an increasingly important gateway for healthcare and life sciences supply chains in Asia Pacific. Leveraging its specialized infrastructure, skilled teams and strong industry partnerships, DHL is helping customers navigate growing supply chain complexity while maintaining the integrity of critical healthcare products.
Hashtag: #DHLGroup
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
DHL – The logistics company for the world
DHL is the leading global brand in the logistics industry. Our DHL divisions offer an unrivaled portfolio of logistics services ranging from national and international parcel delivery, e-commerce shipping and fulfillment solutions, international express, road, air and ocean transport to industrial supply chain management. With approximately 389,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide, DHL connects people and businesses securely and reliably, enabling global sustainable trade flows. With specialized solutions for growth markets and industries including technology, life sciences and healthcare, engineering, manufacturing & energy, auto-mobility and retail, DHL is decisively positioned as "The logistics company for the world".
DHL is part of DHL Group. The Group generated revenues of approximately 82.9 billion euros in 2025. With sustainable business practices and a commitment to society and the environment, the Group makes a positive contribution to the world. DHL Group aims to achieve net-zero emissions logistics by 2050.
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