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Sustainable textile industry until 2050: GFA calls on the industry and points out solutions

News
13.07.2022

Sustainable textile industry until 2050: GFA calls on the industry and points out solutions

Social and environmental sustainability are imperative - the Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) emphasises this in their recently published GFA Monitor, offering practical guidance, information, and solutions.

A more sustainable textile industry by 2050 and the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement are the vision of the GFA. Companies in the textile industry have a special responsibility in this regard. Currently, with the plethora of existing information on the topic of sustainability, it can be a great challenge for individual textile companies to find individually suitable measures.

That's where the GFA Monitor comes in and aims to provide guidance. It includes clear measures and goals, highlights best practices, and addresses data and solutions for greater sustainability. In addition, the GFA Monitor is intended to serve as an annual assessment of progress, thus promoting self-responsibility and self-reflection.

Five priorities for sustainability

The monitor builds on the 2018 Fashion CEO Agenda and is also guided by five "Sustainability Priorities."

  • Respectful and Secure Work Environments
  • Better Wage Systems
  • Resource Stewardship
  • Smart Materials Choices
  • Circular systems

GFA says it hopes the Monitor will "mobilise and inspire fashion leaders to make bold commitments and take decisive action on the five priorities to build a better future for their brands, their value chain partners, garment workers, and the planet."

Experts from more than 30 organisations worked together to develop the GFA Monitor. They include the Textile Partnership's cooperation partners Textile Exchange, ACT, Fair Wear Foundation and ZDHC, as well as Partnership member WWF, apparel impact institute, Ellen Macarthur Foundation, Social & Labour Convergence Program, BSR, Fair Labor and The Industry We Want.

The GFA Monitor is available on the Global Fashion Agenda website: https://globalfashionagenda.org/resource/the-gfa-monitor/

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The "perfect" solution for circular economy?

News
07.07.2022

The "perfect" solution for circular economy?

How do companies approach circular economy? What are the biggest challenges? In a workshop at the Textiles Partnership Working Meeting, around 30 members exchanged views on this topic.

The topic of circular economy is booming – also in the Textiles Partnership. Since 2020 an expert group is working on the topic and in March 2021 we started a project on circular product clones. In the workshop on 18 May, several Partnership companies reported that they have already become active in the field of circular economy. They have conducted training courses and built working groups within their companies.

In all of this,careful coordination and Koordination und vor allem eine abteilungsübergreifende Kommunikation within the company is important: "We need joint projects and a first step would be to take different players and teams into companies that otherwise do not communicate with each other in order to realize projects." Decision makers should be involved earlier and more closely in the processes. 

Multiple approaches to solutions: Recycling, re-use and take-back systems

Several participants reaffirmed that great importance was attached to the longevity and high quality of the materials in order to enable, for example, "textile to textile" recycling and circular business models.  

The workshop also showed that many companies are already experimenting with pilot projects, but that industry-wide solutions have so far been lacking. Nevertheless, the members agreed that one should not concentrate too much on the search for the perfect solution, but that one should approach various solutions step by step. Interim solutions could be to use more recycled materials, to lend or rent clothes to customers. It is also possible to have our own take-back system that creates incentives for customers to return worn clothes instead of throwing them away. 

The workshop was part of this year's Textiles PartnershipWorking Meetine on 17 and 18 May in Berlin. The unconferenceformat offered Partnership members the opportunity to propose their own topics and questions that they would like to work on together.  

Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices

News
10.01.2022

Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices

To achieve better purchasing practices, a group of different multi-stakeholder initiatives are developing a Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices. In addition to the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, Ethical Trading Initiative, Ethical Trade Norway and Fair Wear Foundation are also involved. The framework is intended to address brands and retailers as well as multi-stakeholder initiatives and serve as a guide to improving purchasing practices.

At its core, it is about defining responsible purchasing practices and enabling effective and cooperative partnership between purchasing companies and suppliers. Further objectives are:

  • improve working conditions in supply chains
  • pay living wages
  • strengthen resilience in the supply chain.

The document is structured based on five principles, which are backed up with concrete recommendations for action:

The framework draws on the recommendations of the most recent Whitepaper of the Sustainable Terms of Trade Initiative (STTI), which in turn is led by the STAR Network (Sustainable Textile of the Asian Region) and the International Apparel Federation (IAF) with the support of GIZ FABRIC. Additionally, ACT (Action Collaboration Transformation), Better Work, Better Buying Institute and amfori have been consulted.

Further information

In the first quarter of 2022, a "Learning and Implementation Community" was to pilot the framework. Experts, companies and producers accompanied the implementation and exchanged views on the 5 principles of the framework.

A session at the virtual OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment and Footwear Sector on 24 and 25 February discussed the Framework and its contribution to more balanced relationships between buying companies and suppliers, its practical applicability and the next steps for implementation.