How to make textile and garment production more sustainable

Producing and consuming garments more sustainably could boost the global economy by almost $200 billion by 2030. However, this requires collective action by industry leaders, manufacturers and consumers.

Textile and garment production and trade have expanded rapidly in the past two decades, driven by falling production costs and rising consumption.

Technological innovations have made it possible to produce clothes with shorter lead times, enabling the rapid turnover of new clothing lines and facilitating the emergence of fast fashion. This has contributed to significant over-production and means clothes are often worn only a few times before being discarded. Globally, the average number of times a garment is worn has declined by 36% since the early 2000s.

These trends have amplified long-standing social and environmental sustainability concerns relating to textile and garment production.

Addressing these concerns is of paramount importance given their connection to the Sustainable Development Goals. Doing so is critical to global efforts to decarbonize supply chains and curb greenhouse gas emissions in pursuit of a net-zero future.

The textile and garment industry has a long history of sustainability issues. Stringent competition has placed downward pressure on textile and garment workers’ wages, often leading to low pay, significant gender wage gaps and limited benefits.

Abusive labour practices have been widely documented, as have instances of gender discrimination and workplace harassment. Several high-profile incidents have highlighted unsafe working conditions in factories.

A lack of transparency in garment supply chains has amplified these concerns.

There are also well-documented environmental impacts associated with producing and disposing of textiles and garments (Figure 1). These industries contribute 4-10% of global carbon emissions, which could rise to 26% by 2050.

Many producers lack viable or cost-effective options to bring in more environmentally friendly inputs and processes. There are also practical obstacles to recycling used textiles and garments, including insufficient infrastructure to locate, collect and process discarded items. Only 13% of materials used across the garment value chain are recycled.

A range of public, private and multilateral frameworks, standards, initiatives and conventions have been introduced to better regulate the labour market and improve conditions for textile and garment workers.

In turn, many innovative measures and programmes have been introduced to counter the industries’ negative environmental impacts.

Better working conditions and safer working environments raise worker productivity and retention. Greater transparency along supply chains can help demonstrate compliance and bring competitive and reputational advantages for suppliers and brands. Compliance with sustainability provisions can avail access to trade preferences.

Here are five policy changes that could support this:

Greater recognition of these advantages, coupled with the implementation of the five policy priorities listed above, can help expedite the shift to more sustainable production and trade in textiles and garments.

The author is an economic adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat. This blog is based on a chapter on textiles and garments in the Commonwealth Secretariat’s publication on Sustainable Production and Trade: Perspectives from the Commonwealth.