Building Sustainability and Circularity in the Textile Value Chain
The textile industry is one of global importance, providing high levels of employment, foreign exchange revenue and products essential to human welfare. 300 million people are employed in the textile industry and, many of them are women.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) works on providing strategic leadership and encouraging sector-wide collaboration to accelerate a just transition towards a sustainable and circular textile value chain, while supporting sound management of chemicals.
What is UNEP doing on textiles?
- UNEP is looking for a Partner Organization to assess the potential environmental and socio-economic impacts of circular interventions in the textile value chain. Apply until May 16th. More information available here.
- Consultations and creation of an expert community – Since January 2019, UNEP has been leading consultation workshops with stakeholders across the value chain to inform research and define priorities. Workshop participants have also become part of a wider expert community nurtured by UNEP which now is comprised of 400+ stakeholders.
- Report Sustainability and Circularity in the Textile Value Chain - Global Stocktaking – This report was released in October 2020 and identifies environmental and socio-economic impacts along the value chain, takes stock of initiatives working to address those, and outlines priority action areas.
- Sustainable fashion communication – This strategy aims to change the narrative of the sector from one of extraction, exploitation and disposable consumption, towards regeneration, equity and care. It is focused on doing so by increasing consumer awareness, industry accountability and policy breakthroughs. So far, this has led to a new communication commitment added to the upgraded UNFCCC Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action. Learn more about UNEP's sustainable fashion communication work.
- WCEF 2021 accelerator session on 'Accelerating Sustainability in the Textile Value Chain: Inspiring Action and Behaviour Change'. Panellists from across the textile value chain came together to discuss the importance of consumer engagement for a sustainable transition and how actors can effectively communicate around sustainability. The event also promoted key outcomes of the upcoming UNEP textile roadmap report and featured insights from UNEP’s sustainable fashion communications strategy.
- You can read more details about UNEP activities here.
