Image credit: © Christian Ahuis
Our Mission Statement:
To act collectively for a healthy environment and social justice in textiles, by making this transformation happen.
The Partnership for Sustainable Textiles is committed to a social, ecological and corruption-free textile and clothing industry – an industry that respects the rights of all workers, protects the climate as well as the environment, and acts with integrity and within planetary boundaries.
As a multi-stakeholder initiative, the Textile Partnership brings together companies, associations, non-governmental organisations, standard settings organisations, trade unions and the German Federal Government. The Textile Partnership also cooperates with European and international initiatives in order to disseminate best practices, move forward in a joint effort and address shared offers and requirements to members and companies, thereby increasing the leverage for commitment.
What guides us?
The Textile Partnership aligns its work with international agreements and guidelines that define the principles of social, ecological and economic sustainability. It places particular emphasis on the implementation of corporate due diligence obligations in Germany, Europe and worldwide.
The Partnership’s social and human rights objectives are based on the ILO conventions, the UN Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The environmental and climate goals as well as the goals for sustainable natural fibre production are also based on international standards. In the implementation of the goals, the Partnership is strongly orientated towards the OECD recommendations on the implementation of corporate due diligence in the clothing and footwear industry:
How do we work?
The Partnership members are committed to improving social and environmental conditions along global textile supply chains. The key elements for this are the implementation of due diligence obligations, transparency about supply chains and effective work on the four focus topics. The Textile Partnership cooperates with the relevant Organisations and Initiatives in order to achieve greater impact and utilise synergies.
To achieve its goals, the Textile Partnership works in 4 focus topics:
Addressing focus topics effectively
In these four focus topics, the Textile Partnership sees key challenges facing the textile and clothing industry. The tackling of those challenges holds great leverage and potential for improvement.
There is a reference framework for all four focus topics, based on international standards and recommendations, which represent the goals pursued by the Partnership. There are also ‘Individual Commitments’ by member companies. Using standardised indicators, each member can measure progress in the focus topics individually and the Partnership as a whole. Progress is measured annually and presented to the public on the basis of focus targets.
In addition, the Partnership Initiatives should make a measurable contribution to the focus topics and contribute to the individual indicators and targets.
Joint commitment
Partnership members must participate in Partnership Initiatives or joint projects as part of the Joint Commitment from the third year in the Partnership at the latest. They can join ongoing projects and Partnership Initiatives or propose their own ideas for new projects. The prerequisite is that the project ideas contribute to the Textile Partnership’s focus topics.
The projects are implemented in the textile industry’s production countries. In addition to the Partnership members, local stakeholders and other co-operation partners are also involved.
Strategy circles
In order to shape the strategic direction of the four focus topics, so-called strategy circles were set up, consisting of experts from all stakeholder groups on relevant topics. The aim of the strategy circles is to provide strategic support and to further develop the focus topics. In addition, the strategy circles are involved in the development and support of the Partnership Initiatives and push forward partnerships with the relevant stakeholders.
Each strategy circle is made up of 1 to 2 representatives of the interested stakeholder groups.
Further key aspects of our work
It is becoming increasingly important for companies to implement human rights as well as social and environmental due diligence obligations. For many years now, the Textile Partnership has been consistently aligning itself with the due diligence approach specified and recommended by the UN, ILO and OECD. The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) and initiatives at European level such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) are also based on these guidelines and recommendations.
In the Textile Partnership, member companies must regularly provide public evidence of how they implement due diligence in their supply chains. This includes companies systematically analysing and prioritising the risks in their supply chains. On this basis, they set their own targets and derive measures to counter these risks and initiate improvements. To do so, companies can utilise the Review Process established by the Textile Partnership. However, the Textile Partnership also recognises the report to the Federal Office for Export Control (BAFA) for companies that fall under the LkSG and the report for the Green Button 2.0 as proof.
In order to enable long-term improvements for people and the environment in supply chains, good, interoperable supply chain data must be publicly accessible. This is the only way to identify opportunities for cooperation between companies, utilise synergies and increase impact. This benefits rights holders in particular. In addition, both the market and legislators now expect companies to disclose the origin and production conditions of their textiles. The Textile Partnership supports its partners in fulfilling this obligation.
The Partnership is working with the Open Supply Hub to promote greater transparency in the textile industry. This is because textile production is complex and involves many process stages, starting with the production of raw materials, yarn and fabric production, the finishing of the fabrics and the manufacturing process, where seamstresses/sewers finish the garments.
Since 2020, the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles has been publishing an aggregated list of production facilities and supplier data of Partnership members on the Open Supply Hub platform for this purpose. This is a publicly accessible, collaborative platform for collecting supply chain data. Since 2023, all Partnership companies have been required to submit their supplier data to the aggregated list. In this way, the Textile Partnership contributes to publicly accessible, reliable supply chain information and thus promotes transparency in the industry.