How Andrea Rosso combines sustainability with action

​At the 2025 Spring/Summer Milan Fashion Week, Diesel made headlines with an innovative and immersive show featuring 14,800 kilograms of denim waste, emphasizing its theme ‘Diesel is Denim’ and reinforcing the Italian brand’s commitment to sustainable fashion.

The following day, at the 2024 CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards held at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Diesel received the prestigious Ellen MacArthur Foundation Circular Economy Award. This accolade recognized the brand’s efforts in projects like Diesel Rehab Denim, Diesel Second Hand, and their collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

What did DIESEL do right to win the Circular Economy Award under the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s strict requirements for the circular economy? And how does Andrea Rosso lead the sustainability of the Diesel brand? With these questions in mind, FashionNetwork.com interviewed Rosso, and from his reply, we saw a sustainable fashion practitioner who takes “the unity of knowledge and action” as the code of action.

According to the OTB Group’s 2023 sustainability report, approximately 17% of the raw materials purchased by the group in the previous year met environmental and animal welfare certifications, with an aim to increase this figure to 25% by the end of 2025. In 2023, OTB Group also achieved a 19.2% reduction in direct emissions compared to 2019, with 56% of energy used in global operations sourced from renewable resources, rising to 99% in Europe.

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To embed sustainability throughout its supply chain, OTB Group announced the C.A.S.H (Credito Agevolato – Suppliers’ Help) program, designed to assist supply chain partners in overcoming financing challenges and upgrading their equipment and technology sustainably. This initiative also strengthens oversight of the supply chain to better understand the environmental impact of each production stage.

“One of the big challenges is convincing our partners and suppliers to upgrade in the direction of sustainability and ask them to achieve the standards we want to achieve together – it’s like going to someone’s house and asking them to replace their refrigerator. However, our suppliers are now more open and conscious, and they are willing to work with us to find solutions, and our initiatives have already yielded several results,” Rosso, Diesel’s sustainability ambassador, revealed during the interview.

According to the 2023 Sustainability Report, the C.A.S.H program has benefited 65 suppliers in the 11 years since its inception, with a total payment of more than 550 million euros in 2023.

OTB Group brands, including Maison Margiela and Marni, are all contributing to the group’s sustainability goals through various innovations. As the flagship brand, Diesel has set a new benchmark for sustainable practices within the denim industry.

Key initiatives include the Diesel Library, launched in 2021, which features a lower-impact collection of timeless denim essentials designed to be worn season after season. Each piece is created with sustainability in mind, incorporating 50%-90% preferred fibres (such as recycled or organic materials) and lower-impact trims. Diesel Second Hand, initiated in 2021, promotes sustainable fashion by refurbishing and re-selling used clothing.  Diesel’s collaboration with UNIDO aims to establish a closed-loop recycling system for fabric waste, reflecting the brand’s commitment to circularity.

“Of course, there is a lot we can do from a pilot project, but it takes more time and challenges to scale it out, and the scalability of product innovation is one of the biggest challenges. So far, we started with the collaboration with UNIDO as a pilot project and by 2024 we will produce 88,000 pairs of denim jeans containing at least 20% of recycled cotton” Rosso explained. “As for our denim collection, over the last few years, we have been able to shift it from 3% to 50% lower impact products, which means that we use recycled, organic, and regenerative cotton as well as innovative treatments.”

Rosso’s sustainable journey began at 16 when he explored vintage stores with Diesel’s former chief designer. His past endeavours, including founding the streetwear brand 55DSL and creating MYAR, which focuses on recycling military uniforms, have deeply influenced Diesel’s commitment to denim recycling.

“We are in the ‘Waste Era’, and the decade from 2020 to 2030 will be a critical period to address the waste we create and reintegrate waste into everyday products, which is why the circular economy is increasingly at the heart of our sustainability practices. When product recyclability is critical, our goal now is to make products that have been treated or coated by not compromising their recyclability.”

During Shanghai Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2025, Rosso explored new recycling technologies with Chinese suppliers, enhancing Diesel’s supply chain strategy. He envisions a future where 100% of products are made from recycled materials, achieved through collaboration with suppliers.

“These days I’ve visited,” he noted. “It is believed that thanks to technological progress, Diesel’s vision of 100% recycled products could be realized in the future, not only in the recycling of fabrics with different compositions and different finishing methods, but also in the durability upgrade of recycled fibre fabrics and the superposition of other functions. Of course, this is all about collaboration and co-creation with our supplier partners.”

Diesel has also launched a series of documentaries called ‘Behind the Denim’ to show consumers, in-house staff, and store staff the full life cycle of denim from farm to consumer, so that they can really see how the farm works and understand the meaning of sustainability. And the newest episode will be released this coming December.

“In fact, when we talk about green, we prefer to say ‘responsibility’. How much water, electricity, energy, and chemicals does cotton need to move from the field to the process? From design, production to logistics, e-commerce, marketing, and other links, how many carbon emissions will be generated? We need to take the initiative to think and take responsibility accordingly, and every brand should have this mandatory environmental mindset to promote the practice of responsible strategy with a green mindset,” Rosso emphasized.

He is also actively involved in various sustainability-themed activities around the world, such as participating in the ‘Discussion for Good: Exploring the Frontiers’ sustainability forum in Shanghai to convey his sustainable fashion values. He also does this by reducing water consumption when washing, minimizing the use of cars, and reducing travel during his travels.

“I’ve been thinking about how to make emissions less and less, in addition to self- restraint, and also educating my child, who is only three years old but already knows how to separate plastic and paper. The earlier you start educating your child, the easier it will be for them to practice sustainability in their lives,” he concluded.