https___globalfashionagenda.org_wp-content_uploads_2022_06_GFA-Monitor-2.pdf

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This collection has been built by a community of passionate researchers, students and industry professionals, as part of <a href="https://worldcirculartextilesday.com/" target="_blank">World Circular Textiles Day</a> (WCTD). 


World Circular Textiles Day takes place every year on 8th October.  Our vision is to galvanise the collective ambitions and goals of people, organisations and businesses to reach a fully circular textiles world by 2050. Our mission is to provide a framework for circularity stakeholders to develop and deliver a collaborative, evolving roadmap and to chart circularity’s momentum annually on the 8th October, until 2050.

What does fully circular by 2050 mean?
- Shared textile resources, in the form of products and raw materials, are kept in **continual circulation**.
- Virgin resources are **replaced with circular materials**.
- Dignity, equity and equality, for the **people** involved in all parts of the circular value chain.

In order to chart how to get to 100% Circularity by 2050, we need to know where we stand today. What circular activity is currently happening in the textiles and apparel industry and where in the world it is happening? The WCTD Collection aims to answer this question, by building the world’s largest digital library of circular textiles cases studies. 

World Circular Textiles Day is proud to be supported by our 2022-23 Circular Hero Partners:
[Lenzing](https://www.lenzing.com/), [Texaid](https://retailsolutions.texaid.com/), [Bank & Vogue](https://www.bankvogue.com/), [Usha yarns limited](https://ushayarns.com/), [The Conduit](https://www.theconduit.com/), and [Asia Pacific Rayon](https://www.aprayon.com/en/)

WCTD

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Article / Report

Impact on the availability of resources as well as their effect on living organisms, ecosystems, and components of the environment.

Ecological Impact

Impacts on the social fabric of the community and well-being of the individuals and families.

Social Impact

Impact on increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

Producing textile and leather products and processing them into apparel and accessories

Fashion and Textiles

Providing goods on the Internet, through mail order, or television, or providing goods in stores, including apparel, electronics, furniture, food and drug, etc.

Retail

Work together throughout the supply chain, internally within organisations and with the public sector and communities to increase transparency and create joint value

Team up to create joint value

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models



Incorporate digital technology

Industry peers to industry peer collaboration to create joint value and identify synergies

Industry collaboration

Employ technologies to gather and analyse data to provide insights on resource use

Data and insights

Working together with stakeholders and parties in other unrelated industries to implement circular economy strategies and opportunities

Cross-industry projects, pilots

Working together with industry peers to engage in business activities or exploratory projects that advance the circular economy

Joint industry ventures, projects, pilots

Utilising data and models to to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Data analytics, modelling

 Develop research, structure knowledge, encourage innovation networks and disseminate findings with integrity


Strengthen and advance knowledge

VISION:
Raw materials are renewable, recyclable and safe, kept in continual circulation.

DETAIL:
Imagine a time when…the raw materials that are used to make things are sourced from existing products and regenerative agriculture, via carbon negative and climate neutral processes. Biodegradable raw materials are used for products with biodegradable end routes. Toxic chemicals have been washed out of the global materials pool, disposed of safely and replaced with beneficial alternatives. Virgin fibres made from fossil fuels have been banned, while secondary synthetic fibres, derived from what was already in the system, are kept in constant circulation as a resource. Circularity accounting methods, built on science-based metrics, help to manage a balanced system of resources, across all industries, and in line with the planet’s environmental limits.

Raw Materials and Planetary Boundaries

VISION:
Products and services are designed for multiple use and material value retention, with maximum positive impact.

DETAIL: 
Imagine a time when…products flow via optimal collection and distribution streams into reusable and repairable product platforms. Reuse and access models are dominant, and products are designed for multiple recirculation before biodegrading (if designed to do so), or being broken down into reusable raw materials for production. People only consume what they need. Production and consumption wastes have been fully eliminated and multifunctional, season-less and timeless fashions are the norm, yet still fulfil our human need for expression and creativity without constraint. All business models, organisations, governments and citizens play a role in maintaining a healthy, functioning circular ecosystem.

Products and Services

VISION:
People are valued and supported in an equitable, socially just and resilient society.

DETAIL:
Imagine a time when…people and communities are at the heart of any sustainable and circular system. The planet thrives, enabling us to survive with balance and abundance. People are no longer passive consumers, but proactive participants. The ‘makers’ who design, build, reprocess and recirculate products throughout the value chain are treated equally and are equitable partners in shaping and benefitting from the system. Textiles/garments can be produced and repurposed locally as well as centrally. A blend of craft methods alongside more automated production provides regionalised, multi-faceted perspectives and fulfilling livelihoods, be they high- or low-tech. Wealth gaps are minimised and dignity, equity, equality is a reality for all.

People and Society

Archetypes

CE Materials

Impacts

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Industries

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Materials

Nace Sectors

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

Topics

Urban Opportunities

Whilst no two countries are the same, there are still obvious similarities between some of them, with discernible development patterns and parallels in evidence. Common problems and shared solutions help place unique country identities and individual issues in context.

Whilst this classification is far from clear-cut and exhibits some overlap, it does underline how the discourse on transitioning to a circular economy needs to account for both differences and commonalities, if we are to arrive at a more strategic and instructive analysis. It also allows to highlight a set of key themes that are likely to be central to the countries that fall under the respective profiles. 

Country profiles (Build, Grow, Shift)

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A framework to distinguish between different country profiles and their circular transition needs.

Browse case studies by type of implementing stakeholder.

Implementing stakeholders

It is 2050.  Full systems change has taken place. This wouldn’t have been possible without the immediate action and radical steps taken from 2020 onwards. Many targets had to be identified in the early 2020s and achieved by 2030 to ensure that the 2050 goal happened in full. A sense of urgency, turbo stakeholder collaboration, supportive government regulation and clear, data driven targets enabled the mindsets and systems change needed to transform to a fully circular textiles ecosystem.

A circular economics model underpins what we have created. It reflects and supports a living organism made up of makers, users and restorers, interacting across vibrant and interconnected networks. Checks and balances, alongside transparency and accountability, ensure a healthy system. Financial, environmental, and social metrics have the purpose of serving communities and the planet. There is shared ownership of profit and loss – across all three metrics – throughout the value chain.

This is what we’ve achieved over the last 30 years:

WCTD Themes

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The Circular City Actions Framework provides urban changemakers with five complementary strategies they can use to start working towards a more circular system. 

The framework is action-based to provide users with concrete strategic directions and showcase the desired outcomes of each strategy. 
The framework consists of five complementary **strategies**, under which **sub-strategies** provide further detail. Finally, each sub-strategy consists of a diversity of tangible **solutions** which are framed in relation to key thematic areas. 

Note: solutions are currently focused on:
- 🍏 **Food systems**
- 🏢  **Built environment**
- 👕📱  **Consumer goods**
- ⚡ **Energy Systems**
- 🚌 **Mobility Systems**
- 💧 **Water Systems**

More thematic areas are coming soon...

'Click through each of the five strategy cards below to explore the framework and circular economy case studies in more depth!'



This framework was developed in collaboration with ICLEI, Metabolic and Ellen MacArthur Foundation with support from the MAVA Foundation. Read more about it [here]( https://circulars.iclei.org/action-framework/). 



Circular City Actions Framework

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An action-based framework for local governments working towards circular cities

City Stakeholders

Test Framework

Challenges

Based on the ongoing ISO standardisation process, a taxonomy has been defined under which to cluster indicators to measure circularity. 

ISO Taxonomy

If managed well, the transition to the circular economy will have multiple benefits for the labour market, including the opening up of job opportunities, raising job standards and reducing inequalities through a global redistribution of value. But a positive transition to circularity for work and workers must be underpinned by three pillars: upskilling the workforce, quality of work and inclusive job opportunities. Find out more and explore cases that illustrate these pillars below.

Circular Jobs Initiative Pillars

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A positive transition to circularity for work and workers must be underpinned by three core pillars.

This is a survey that dives into understanding the policy environment around specific circular solutions. 

The survey is divided into five sections, based on the five key elements of the Circular Cities Action Framework. 
Each section asks 2-3 questions to explore which policies may or may not be present within your city to support a transition towards a circular economy. 

You are not alone! Each question provides some practical examples from cities around the world that have adopted a certain policy to support their transition. This can help to compare with your city - is your city doing something similar?

The survey answers should be based on your current knowledge, and not illicit additional research - ! Please make use of the Not sure option as appropriate.


Ganbatte Cities Policy Tracker [Food]

Ganbatte Cities - Policy tracker policy instruments

Policy Tracker - TEST

 At GFA, we are all for making it happen and for shaping the agendas of all stakeholders. In fact, the aspiration to shape the course of change in the fashion industry is the reason GFA and this report exist. Imagine a fashion industry that is not only exciting and bountiful, but sustainable and inclusive as well. Imagine fair pay and secure work environments for everybody who works in fashion. Imagine a substantial reduction of resource consumption and emissions. Imagine innovative new business models that decouple growth from production and allow for self-expression outside of garment ownership. In short, imagine a fashion industry that has a positive impact on everyone and everything it touches.
Just imagination? On the contrary, we believe that the imagination is only the beginning of a possible reality if we dare to make new pathways and bear the challenges along the way. The fashion industry has the power to inspire top talent, engage fashion lovers, attract potent investors, and win the support of communities worldwide. It is a net-positive fashion industry that will continue to prosper despite disruptive forces that range from digitisation and automation to the coronavirus pandemic and geopolitical tensions.
The fashion industry is already advancing towards a more sustainable, more inclusive, and more resilient future, but the current efforts will not suffice to align the industry with the target to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals laid out by the United Nations. But it’s not too late. It’s time for bold commitments, decisive actions, and rigorous follow-through.
As fashion leaders, you have the power to shape the course of change. You have the power to bring about a net-positive fashion industry that puts back more into society, the environment, and the global economy than it takes out. This report features the progress the industry has made so far. Many of the solutions and tools that fashion needs to improve already exist. It’s time to use them ambitiously. Now, as policies to promote a sustainable fashion industry emerge, it’s more essential than ever to take bold and urgent action. Think of this report as your companion on your journey. Dear fashion leaders, please join forces with your peers to create a meaningful change for a prosperous fashion industry. Indeed, if you do, everyone wins.
Federica Marchionni, CEO, Global Fashion Agenda 


To become a member of Vogue Business and receive the Sustainability Edit newsletter, Click here.
The fashion industry needs to be more ambitious or risk doubling its carbon emissions targets, the Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) warns in its latest report.
A report by GFA Monitor, published ahead of the industry’s premier sustainability event in Copenhagen this week, the Global Fashion Summit, warned that fashion must accelerate its response to climate change, with less than eight years left to align with a UN heading of 1.5°C. Top of mind to get there? Fair wages across the supply chain and more focus on cyclicality.
The report calls on the industry to accelerate action on all five priorities: it notes that progress has already been made in resource management, safe working environments and material selection, but actions related to payroll and circular systems are lagging behind.
“Solutions and tools that the fashion industry needs to improve already exist. The time has come to use them ambitiously,” GFA CEO Federica Marchionni said in a statement. “With so much information circulating around sustainability issues, it can be difficult for leaders to determine what actions will put them on the path to progress. With this report, we aim to create a one-stop resource for the industry.”
To deliver higher wages across the supply chain, 58% of brands say company buyers are trained on the cost of production models, according to the report. In terms of cycling, 92% of brands are taking steps to improve energy and fuel use; and two-thirds of brands engage multilateral organizations to accelerate the adoption and development of sustainable materials. However, just over a third of brands say they are already engaging with stakeholders on how to extend the life of products, and only 14% of brands say most products are made from materials that can be recycled where their products are sold.
Experts have long called for the standardization of fashion sustainability efforts, especially where it promotes collaboration between competitors. To achieve this, the GFA’s annual summit this week welcomes brand leaders, and in March it partnered with the UN Climate Change Secretariat, whose UN Fashion Industry Charter on Climate Change brought together more than 100 companies, including luxury rivals LVMH and Kering in ambitious climate goals.
The GFA Monitor itself counts the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the Textile Exchange and the Clothing Impact Institute as co-authors, with additional data from over 200 brands and retailers being used for exposure benchmarks developed by sustainability analysis platform Higg. It will be updated annually to bring the industry’s attention to sustainable development action.
Comments, questions or feedback? Write to us at [email protected].
More on this topic:
Circular fashion: interesting to say, difficult to implement
Abuse of garment workers in India worsens, report says
Myanmar clothing unions call for fashion support


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Apparel Impact Institute (Aii)

Global Fashion Agenda (GFA)

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation

The Textile Exchange

Higg

<p>Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) published in June 2022 The GFA Monitor, a report intended as a resource to guide fashion leaders towards a net positive fashion industry. The report highlights the imperative need for the industry to accelerate its response to climate change. With less than eight years left to align with a UN heading of 1.5°C, the fashion industry needs to adopt solutions for social and environmental sustainability. Among the top solutions identified there are fair wages across the supply chain and more focus on cyclicality.</p>

The GFA Monitor 2022 guides fashion leaders towards a net positive fashion industry

Business case

Impacts on the financial condition of a company, as well as the the economicconditions of its stakeholders and on economic systems at local, national, andglobal levels.

Economic Impact

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Scalability

Reduced use and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within other industries

Using open loop recycled materials

'Manage' influences the use and function of physical and material elements within the urban environment. 

Manage

Infrastructure

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

Build countries consume 13% of the global material footprint, while they account for almost 50% of the population. 

Examples include countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia such as: 
- Bangladesh
- Ethiopia
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- The Philippines
- Some small island states, ...

Minimal contribution to the overshoot of planetary boundaries: these countries contribute 20% of land use change, 30% of
freshwater use, 23% of phosphorus emissions to soil, and 11% of nitrogen emissions.

To find out what country profile your country belongs to, explore [this interactive story](https://circularity-gap.world) and search for your country on the final map.

Build

Consumables are a diverse and complex group of products - such as mobile phones, refrigerators, clothing, cleaning agents, personal care products and paints - that generally have short to medium lifetimes in society. Textiles including clothing also consume many different kinds of resources such as cotton, synthetic materials like polyester, dye pigments, and chemicals.




Consumables

- Recycle plastics
- Use recycled toilet paper
- Use recycled writing paper
- Increase recycled materials in furniture
- Start closed loop recycling of synthetic fibres

Saving: 0.31 Gt emissions and 0.45 Gt material use

👚📺 Circular consumables

A framework of policy instruments that enabled and encourage the transition to the circular economy

Policies

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A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

The framework consists of 21 complementary interventions, across six scenarios - one for each of the six societal needs we model. These interventions can mitigate climate impact by curbing GHG emissions

Note: interventions are currently focused on:
- 🏠 Housing 
- 🍎 Nutrition
- 🚗 Mobility
- 👚📺 Consumables
- 👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️ Healthcare
-  🔊 Communication

These 21 interventions are spread across six societal needs and wants, with a set of solutions. Within these solutions are strategies on ’how to get there'.  

The framework moves beyond incremental action and provides solutions that will require behavioral change (dietary shifts towards less meat consumption, for example) and the adoption of state-of-the-art technologies in the industry to mitigate emissions in hard-to-abate sectors (such as steel manufacturing). It illustrates how continued globalisation can benefit from the uptake of digital solutions. The combined interventions showcase the mitigation potential that begins where the current country pledges end; illustrating the additional impact our interventions can bring to the NDCs. In short, the interventions provide input for a more profound fundamental transformation than the more current pathways that make up the vast majority of NDCs. 

Together, the combined interventions can almost double the current global Circularity Metric of 8.6%, bringing it to 17%. 

This results in:
• Shrinking global material use and extraction by 28%. 
• Cutting global GHG emissions by 39%—fully closing the Emissions Gap as defined in our report and taking into account the updated NDCs.
• Allowing the world to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping at 1.5-degrees of warming by 2032.

*This framework was developed in the Circularity Gap Report 2021. Read more about it [here](https://www.circle-economy.com/resources/circularity-gap-report-2021)*






Global Circularity Gap Report

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An intervention-based framework for nations and stakeholders working towards circular countries

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   Plastics and the EnvironmentThe industry emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping combined. Image: Unsplash/Waldemar BrandtLandfill sights all across the world are filled with clothes. Image: REUTERS/Mohamed AzakirThe Sydney Harbour could be filled twice annually with the textiles sent to landfill waste. Image: REUTERS/David Gray35% of all microplastics come from the laundering of synthetic textiles like polyester. Image: Cheryl Ravelo/ReutersMicroplastic pollution accounts for nearly a third of all ocean plastics. Image: ReutersThe fashion industry is responsible for 1/10 of carbon emissions. Image: Stringer / ReutersThe fashion industry uses vast quantities of water. Image: REUTERS/P. Ravikumar/File PhotoCotton is highly water intensive. Image: REUTERS/Luc GnagoCotton farming used up so much water from the Aral Sea that it dried up after about 50 years Image: NASADying textiles causes lots of water pollution. Image: REUTERS/Jayanta DeyThe dying process. Image: REUTERS/Rafiquar RahmanA fifth of water pollution comes from the fashion industry. Image: REUTERS/Andrew Biraj (Bangladesh Environment Society)Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.License and RepublishingWorld Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.Plastics and the EnvironmentClimate ChangeFuture of the EnvironmentGlobal AgendaA weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agendaJane WakelyJanuary 17, 2023Kristin Hughes and Ellen MartinJanuary 12, 2023Ewan ThomsonDecember 14, 2022   

By Naimul KarimDHAKA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Major fashion brands, including H&M, M&S and C&A, are getting behind an initiative in Bangladesh that aims to use more recycled materials in clothing production and significantly cut planet-heating emissions from manufacturing by 2030.The Circular Fashion Partnership, announced this week, brings together more than 30 international brands, Bangladeshi recycling firms and garment manufacturers in a push to reuse textile waste from clothing factories to create new products.If successful, the initiative could be replicated in other countries, such as Indonesia and Vietnam, and help cut the broader fashion industry’s emissions, said the Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), a nonprofit body that is leading the new scheme.In 2018, the sector’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were just over 2 billion tonnes, a figure that needs to be halved by 2030, to be in line with global climate goals, said the GFA.“Reducing environmental impacts such as GHG emissions and circularity go hand in hand,” said GFA spokeswoman Alice Roberta Taylor in e-mailed comments.The partnership would cut carbon emissions from clothing production and demand for raw materials, which include fossil fuels, by slimming down the amount of waste and increasing the use of recycled materials over virgin materials, she noted.Under the 2015 Paris climate accord, nearly 200 countries agreed to slash greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by mid-century and limit global average temperature rise to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times.According to 2020 research by the GFA and McKinsey & Company, the fashion industry produces 4% of global climate-warming emissions - equal to the combined annual emissions of France, Germany and Britain - and needs to intensify its efforts to align with the Paris Agreement goals to curb climate change.The U.N. Environment Programme in 2019 put the fashion industry’s share of global carbon emissions at 10% - more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined - and said it was the second-biggest consumer of water.Bangladesh - a low-lying nation considered highly vulnerable to climate change impacts such as intensifying floods, storms and sea level rise - is the world’s second-largest producer of clothes and its economy depends heavily on the garment industry.But most waste from the industry is either exported or down-cycled for less valuable uses, said the GFA, adding the circular plan aims to change that by increasing the value of the waste.Miran Ali, a director at the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said it was time for the fashion industry to move away from a linear business model of “take-make-dispose” and towards a circular approach.As Bangladeshi factories produce items in large volumes, their waste is standardised, making it relatively easy to deal with, he noted. “Therefore, Bangladesh can be a global leader in the area of circular economy,” he said in a statement.The Green Climate Fund, set up to help developing nations adopt clean energy and adapt to climate change, approved a separate project last year to help cut emissions in Bangladesh’s garment sector by enabling more efficient energy use.H&M, one of the Bangladesh industry’s biggest clients, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation it is working on transforming its whole business to become “fully circular and climate positive.”To get there, the Swedish fashion chain’s targets include making its supply chain “climate neutral” - meaning it does not contribute to global warming - and only using recycled or other sustainably sourced materials, both by 2030.“As we move towards a business model based on a circular economy, our climate agenda is pushed. And we want to use our size and scale to make a difference,” Cecilia Strömblad Brännsten, H&M Group’s environmental sustainability manager, said by email.The Thomson Reuters Foundation is in a partnership with the Laudes Foundation, which is affiliated with the retailer C&A.Reporting by Naimul Karim @Naimonthefield; editing by Megan Rowling. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit news.trust.orgOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.



 




Fashion revolves around the latest trends but is the industry behind the curve on the only trend that ultimately matters - the need to radically alter our patterns of consumption to ensure the survival of the planet.
The fashion industry produces between 2 to 8 per cent of global carbon emissions. Textile dyeing is also the second largest polluter of water globally and it takes around 2,000 gallons of water to make a typical pair of jeans.
Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned. If nothing changes, by 2050 the fashion industry will use up a quarter of the world’s carbon budget. Textiles are also estimated to account for approximately 9% of annual microplastic losses to the ocean.
Then there is the human cost: textile workers are often paid derisory wages and forced to work long hours in appalling conditions. But with consumers increasingly demanding change, the fashion world is finally responding with A-listers, like Duchess Meghan Markle, leading the way with their clothing choices and designers looking to break the take-make-waste model.
“Most fashion retailers now are doing something about sustainability and have some initiatives focused on reducing fashion’s negative impact on the environment,” says Patsy Perry, senior lecturer in fashion marketing at the University of Manchester. For example, last year, Britain’s Stella McCartney teamed up with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to launch a report on redesigning fashion’s future.
“However, there is still a fundamental problem with the fast fashion business model where revenues are based on selling more products, and therefore retailers must constantly offer new collections. It would be unrealistic to expect consumers to stop shopping on a large scale, so going forward, I would expect to see more development and wider adoption of more sustainable production methods such as waterless dyeing, using waste as a raw material, and development of innovative solutions to the textile waste problem,” she says.



 


Pioneering solutions to address environmental challenges will be at the heart of the fourth UN Environment Assembly next March. The meeting’s motto is to think beyond prevailing patterns and live within sustainable limits—a message that will resonate with fashion designers and retailers seeking to reform their industry.
Photo by ReutersAt the March meeting, UN Environment will formally launch the UN Alliance on Sustainable Fashion to encourage the private sector, governments and non-governmental organizations to create an industry-wide push for action to reduce fashion’s negative social, economic and environmental impact and turn it into a driver for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Across the United Nations, agencies are working to make fashion more sustainable, from the Food and Agricultural Organization protecting arable land, to the Ethical Fashion Initiative set up by the International Trade Centre to the work of UN Environment in fostering sustainable manufacturing practices.
And some entrepreneurs are already designing the fashion of the future:
Spain’s Ecoalf creates shoes from algae and recycled plastic as part of its Upcycling the Oceans collection. Founded by Javier Goyeneche in 2012, Ecoalf collects ocean plastics from 33 ports and turns the trash into shoes, clothing and bags.
In Amsterdam, GumDrop collects gum and turns it into a new kind of rubber, Gum-tec, which is then used to make shoes in collaboration with marketing group I Amsterdam and fashion company Explicit. GumDrop says around 3.3 million pounds of gum end up on Amsterdam’s paths every year, costing millions of dollars to clean. It takes around 2.2 pounds of gum to make four pairs of sneakers.
Outdoor gear retailer Patagonia, based in California, has been producing fleece jackets using polyester from recycled bottles since 1993, working with Polartec, a Massachusetts-based textile designer. Patagonia also encourages shoppers to buy only what they need, and mends and recycles older items.
Gothenburg-based Nudie Jeans uses organic cotton for its jeans and offers free repairs for life. Customers also get a discount if they hand in their old jeans.
Cambodia-based Tonlé uses surplus fabric from mass clothing manufacturers to create zero-waste fashion collections. It uses more than 97 per cent of the material it receives and turns the rest into paper.  
In the Netherlands, Wintervacht turns blankets and curtains into coats and jackets. Designers Yoni van Oorsouw and Manon van Hoeckel find their raw materials in secondhand shops and sorting facilities where donations are processed. San Francisco- and Bali-based Indosole turns discarded tyres in Indonesia into shoes, sandals and flip-flops, while Swiss firm Freitag upcycles tarpaulins, seat belts and bicycle inner tubes to make their bags and backpacks.
In New York, Queen of Raw connects designers, architects and textile firms with dead stock of sustainable fabrics from factories, brands and retailers. Queen of Raw says more than US$120 billion worth of unused fabric sits in warehouses, waiting to be burned or buried.
Novel Supply, based in Canada, makes clothes from natural and organic fabrics and is developing a take-back programme to find alternative ways to use garments at the end of their life. For founder Kaya Dorey, winner of UN Environment’s Young Champion of the Earth award in 2017, the aim is to create a zero-waste, closed-loop fashion model.
Retailer H&M has a successful garment collection scheme and in October, lifestyle brand and jeans manufacturer Guess said it was teaming up with i:Collect, which collects, sorts and recycles clothes and footwear worldwide, to launch a wardrobe recycling programme in the US. Customers who bring in five or more items of clothing or shoes, will receive discounts. Wearable items will be recycled as secondhand goods, while unwearable items will be turned into new products like cleaning cloths or made into fibres for products like insulation.
Kaya Dorey Photo by UN EnvironmentSome argue that recycling is itself energy intensive and does not address our throwaway culture—the number of times a garment is worn has declined by 36 per cent in 15 years. An alternative might be found in a viable rental market for clothes. Pioneers in this field include Dutch firm Mud Jeans, which leases organic jeans that can be kept, swapped or returned, Rent the Runway, Girl Meets Dress and YCloset in China.
“The rental model is clearly a winner for the higher end of the market where consumers may have no intention of wearing an occasion dress more than once… but at the lower end, it’s all too easy to go online and be able to buy outright any trend or item,” says Perry. “For rental to be a success at this market level, companies need to offer sufficient choice of brands and styles that would engage consumers and tempt them away from outright purchase, and the rental service needs to be smooth and faultless.”
Her best fashion advice? Less is always more.
“Keep your clothing in use for longer to reduce its environmental footprint, as well as reducing the amount of new stuff you need to buy and the consequent use of resources. This also reduces the impact of the disposal of perfectly good but unwanted clothes.” Ahead of the United Nations Environment Assembly next March, UN Environment is urging people to Think Beyond and Live Within. Join the debate on social media using #SolveDifferent to share your stories and see what others are doing to ensure a sustainable future for our planet.
The story was updated on 28 June 2021 to take into account new research.











In the run to save the world during the ongoing pandemic, causing the biggest paradigm shift, humans have come to realise how they have taken the blessings of the Earth for granted. The needed change greatly starts from policy-making of the larger states to avoid large-scale environmental damage. Hence a cleaner, greener and circular process of industrialisation back the game, namely the new model of a circular economy. It targets a model of production consisting of resource conservation, eliminating waste and enhancing efficiency within the production chain, improving the sustainability of the system. Bangladesh is one of the leading garments manufacturers in the world. Ranked as the 2nd largest global RMG exporter, the industry accounts for more than 10% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) earnings. The application of a circular economy within the Bangladeshi manufacturing industry is in a progressive stage. A circular economy ensures the optimization of resources, reduce the consumption of raw materials, and recover waste by recycling or giving it a second life as a new product. To draw a balance between progress and sustainability, where waste becomes a new resource, circular economy bases its application on 3 basic principles: design out waste and pollution; keep products and materials in use; regenerate natural systems, the main aim being decoupling economic growth from an increase in resource use and reduction of environmental impacts. Additionally, there are some other crucial add-ons – repair, renovate, recycle and recover. All of these are executed with the intention of promoting the best practice in waste management. To date, the world has lived on a conventional paradigm of linear production models: production, consumption and discarding - where the raw material is turned into a product, which is then discarded at the end of its useful life. A unanimous consensus expresses fear of this method causing the world production chain to lose its ability to sustain itself. The next best model being resorted to is circularity in the production process, as the name suggests keeping the scarce raw material for a long term and repeated usage in the production process, thereby generating much less waste, for all industries.As industrialization is becoming the norm, manufacturers naturally tend to consume large volumes of resources through raw materials, which in turn shall cost the Earth. Hence circularity shall intend for such manufacturers to not simply just create reusable products, but also responsibly procure and use raw materials for longer periods in the production chain. However, the implementation of such a model depends heavily on the prevalence of collaborative efforts from entrepreneurs, researchers, industry users, government, civil society, and legislators, but most importantly, it will require technological and creative innovation. Together with younger generations of learners and equipped with beyond-human-centred values towards awareness of the material and natural world, novel circular futures can be imagined.The Bangladeshi government is working along with the industry to make as much use of reusable materials as possible. In this circular economy, there will be no more waste, as resources will be reused again and again. A circular economy is needed to ensure the world has enough raw materials for all forms of necessary production; to decrease dependence on other countries for raw material sourcing; to try and reuse products that used to be discarded and incinerated, as a source of raw materials in the future, to reduce a negative impact on the environment. It further benefits the local economy by encouraging production models based on the reuse of nearby waste as raw material. It further drives employment growth by stimulating the development of a new, more innovative and competitive industrial model, higher economic growth, and more employment.Bangladesh is on the verge of graduating as an LDC by 2027 following a decade of progressive economic growth. This achievement will require the government to make concessions on its current duty-free and quota-free market access to selected markets. Without a doubt, exports’ future will be difficult if the country is not well prepared to deal with this shift; additionally, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic adds another layer of complexity. With these changes to adapt to, the shift to a circular economy is the only best possible option available that can be applied to close resource gaps and boost Bangladesh’s pursuit of achieving its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Circular models of production shall concentrate on the production leftovers, which at the moment, an average Bangladeshi RMG factory generates between 250 and 300 kilograms of waste fabric every day. The pricing varies upon the quality and size of the waste fabric, starting at Tk10 and rising to Tk300 per kilogram. The catch lies in the fact that any scrap of cloth can be recycled. In fact, large scraps of the wasted cloth are sold to local vendors for making items that are mostly marketed within Bangladesh, some are shipped to India. Additionally, Dhaka’s bedding sector is reliant on these scraps for items like mattresses, pillows, cushions, seat filling and cushioning in automobiles, public buses, and rickshaws.Interestingly, the nation houses a very high demand for t-shirt waste, namely the rejected t-shirts. A number of clusters have developed around the nation with Pabna identified as a prominent one, with numerous local entrepreneurs in villages who have created jobs for between 25,000 and 30,000 people and annually make 18–20 crore units of apparel, predominantly t-shirts, valued between Tk1,200 crore and Tk1,500 crore.  This surely states how such apparel can simply not be just counted as a waste but also be used in upcycling in adapting the new order of a circular economy within this industry.Whilst the execution of a circular economy depends greatly on government policies, research and industrial practices, the main initiative is on the part of the consumer and conscious consumption. This model is based on the philosophy of prevention as opposed to cure and consists of actions that are to be performed prior to recycling – namely the precycling habit. With the ever-changing trend in global manufacturing models, the previously applied linear method manufacturing while displaying its inherent deficiencies was proposed to be replaced by a new circular vision of an economy in the textile industry, which shall minimise waste and pollution by reusing items. The next generation businessman involved in running the heritage of the RMG industry of Bangladesh has gladly welcomed the change, while addressing the environmental concerns which it entertains, alongside a progressively altered consumer behaviour alongside an added incentive of the customers who are prepared to support the sustainable items as well. The nation’s apparel sector has readily passed the message around the globe that the sector is ready to embrace the change. The Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), Reverse Resources, P4G, and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) have formed the Circular Fashion Partnership (CFP) to combat waste and resource depletion caused by textile manufacturing by fostering the growth of Bangladesh’s recycling industry. The GFA has identified two workstreams for the initiative: The first workstream involves the production of new garments from recycled waste, while the second involves the establishment of a circular fashion stock marketplace for overstock garments that have accumulated as a result of cancelled orders over time. The partnership aims to draw a dialogue between major fashion brands, textile and garment producers, and recyclers, to capture and repurpose post-production waste. Additionally, in the post-Covid-19 period, it aims to address the dead-stock piled up from the cancelled orders, besides addressing other economic hurdles and prospects. A textile waste tracking and trade network promoting the circular economy concept is conceivable to replace 40% of waste materials from garment manufacturing with recycled fibres by 2030. Waste management is inefficient due to the mixing of garbage with industrial waste that lowers the value of the trash. Additionally, waste is physically sorted and sold by a network of intermediaries, requiring recyclers to pay about 30% more than the market rate. For a nation like Bangladesh, the choice had not been an easy one to shift from linear to a circular model of production, and this ambitious transition comes with its own set of challenges, where the nation needs to be supported to adhere to the continuous development of a circular economy.Bangladesh has the asset of a competitive wage labour group, and hence the circular economy model’s labour market implications need to be analyzed beforehand. The shift to a more circular economy is contingent upon repositioning clothes as a durable rather than a throwaway commodity and so, instead of launching numerous lines and collections each year, fashion businesses will now have to redirect their focus on designing and producing higher-quality garments in a circular economy. All this while, Bangladesh has been the hub for fast fashion and with reduced output in production, the new shift in paradigm may mean subsequently reduced working hours and/or job losses. Additionally, the adaptation of new circularity policies may involve the successful implementation of digitalization and technical advancements in the apparel sector, which may overall complicate the nation’s labour market. Hence the nation can be seen transitioning from its comparative strength – competitive cost labour to high value-added production. As much as the new transition shall add value to the brand image of “Made in Bangladesh” products, the country might lose on its competitive price advantages. There shall be a new cost of research and development as none in the apparel and textile sector reserves the knowledge and/or expertise to make the shift seamlessly without expert opinion, hence the cost of hiring specialists will possibly increase the short term costs thus affecting the competitive advantage of the nation.In a nutshell, the overall state of the economies, the shift in practices of the world market, the post-Covid-19 anticipated state and the graduation from LDC, requires the shift to a circular economy from the linear model of production. The shift shall not be a smooth one but the challenges must be faced with the most progressive attitude. Barrister Shehrin Salam Oishee is a Director of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Director of Envoy Group and an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.Powered by Froala Editor


Bangladesh

Circular Fashion Partnership (CFP)

Reverse Resources (RR)

Partnerships for Green Growth (P4G)

<p>This cross-sectoral project aims to develop the textiles recycling industry in Bangladesh.</p>