Two topics shaped the year 2024 like no other – upcoming or enacted laws for more sustainability in the industry or reporting on the latter and artificial intelligence (AI). Textile recycling also made leaps forward last year.
In addition, 2024 marks the tenth anniversary of Fashion Revolution Week – and with it the commemoration of the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh. FashionUnited, together with Fashion Revolution, looked back on the achievements and how far the industry has come in terms of transparency. Earth Day seems to have degenerated mainly into a PR campaign.
Artificial intelligence
In addition to boosting e-commerce, AI plays a key role in the transition to a more sustainable fashion industry. By enabling on-demand production, for example, overstocking is avoided and waste is significantly reduced. This approach not only promotes a more efficient model, but also offers concrete solutions to one of the fashion industry’s biggest challenges. From optimizing supply chains to reducing waste, this technology is proving to be an indispensable partner in implementing circular production models.
Textile recycling
Various projects and initiatives made a name for themselves last year. At the end of October 2024, the four textile and footwear suppliers On, Patagonia, Puma and Salomon presented the fruits of their collaboration with the French biochemical company Carbios: the first garment made from 100 percent textile waste in a biological recycling process developed by Carbios. It is a white T-shirt created from colored and mixed textile waste.
The three-year European research project SCIRT (System Circularity and Innovative Recycling in Textiles) also celebrated its conclusion at the end of October. The findings are intended to accelerate the transition to a circular fashion industry. As part of the project, 18 European partners worked together under the leadership of the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) and the entire textile value chain was involved.
A guest article by the organization Circle Economy examined which two solutions are available for textile recycling. With the Biomimicry Institute’s “Design for Transformation” pilot project, she is doing pioneering work in the processing of mixed textile waste in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Eeden is also investigating how mixed fibers can be recycled in the future and brought back into the textile cycle as new textile fibers. The start-up from Münster is about to build the first recycling plant for polyester-cotton blends that works on an industrial scale. FashionUnited spoke to Co-CEO Steffen Gerlach and Ida Marie Brieger, Business Development. FashionUnited spoke to Reju CEO Patrik Frisk about recycling polyester fibers.
Initiatives
The ACT initiative (Assessing low-Carbon Transition) is the result of collaboration between the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA). Together they have developed a methodology for assessing the maturity of companies’ low-carbon transition plans. Last year, an ACT methodology was developed specifically for the fashion and luxury industries that assesses the credibility of companies’ decarbonization strategies. So if a company says, “I am company whatever means you want to achieve this.”
Reports
Industry insiders should definitely not miss the results of the “Fashion Accountability Report 2024”, published for the fourth time by the non-profit organization Remake. It measures the performance of 52 major fashion companies (with annual sales of more than $100) such as Fast Retailing, H&M, Inditex, Kering, LVMH and PVH in six key areas: traceability, wages and wellbeing, trade practices, raw materials, environmental justice and Governance.
Cultural sustainability organization Black Pearl aims to make it easier for “everyone who wears clothes” to find sustainable fashion solutions for every wardrobe, from everyday to special occasions to red carpet events, with its “Sustainable Style Guide for Everyone.” Six criteria are applied: Who makes our clothes and under what circumstances, how, where and what is it made from and where does it go when we no longer want or use it? And finally, what can we as individuals do to dress more sustainably?
The Material Innovation Initiative (MII) released a “Brand Engagement with Next-Gen Materials 2023” report in the first quarter that highlighted a surge in collaboration between innovative materials companies and apparel, accessories, footwear and home goods brands: “By “Gucci to Stella McCartney – the big fashion brands will be relying on next-gen materials at a rapid pace in 2023” is the conclusion.
Data from the current “Materials Market Report” from the non-profit organization Textile Exchange shows that the market share of new, fossil-based synthetic fibers continued to rise in 2023, while the share of cotton and recycled fibers fell. Also a must-read.
At the beginning of August, Fashion Revolution published the report “What Fuels Fashion?” It calls on brands to invest at least 2 percent of their annual sales in a just transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy in order to operate their production sustainably.
The fourth edition of Kearney’s Circular Fashion Index found that “most brands continue to operate within their traditional linear models and make suboptimal decisions from an environmental perspective in almost every step of the process, from raw material selection to consumer education,” it said sober conclusion from Brian Ehrig, co-author of the report and Kearney partner.
Also not to be missed is the new due diligence guide from Retraced, the compliance platform for the fashion and textile supply chain. The white paper aims to demystify the regulatory framework that is reshaping the fashion industry and help companies reduce risks and improve their social and environmental impact.
legislation
In the first three months of the year, the EU Parliament spoke out in favor of stricter rules and wants to hold textile manufacturers more accountable in the future in order to reduce textile waste and waste. France even considered a five-euro tax on every fast fashion item sold. For the fashion industry, the new “right to repair” means that it will soon give consumers the right to repair if repairing a product is cheaper than replacing it.
Many new legal regulations in the area of sustainability are in preparation, keyword “Green Deal”. That means a tougher crackdown on greenwashing, a push for better traceability through the introduction of digital product passports, mandatory corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD) and the CSDDD directive, which forces organizations to address environmental and human rights violations in the supply chain.
In addition, regulations are being developed for all EU countries that make manufacturers responsible for the collection, reuse and recycling of the products they put on the market. The European Commission is also considering a revision of the current European legislation on textile labeling. Based on the EU agenda for textiles, all textile products placed on the EU market must be designed for durability, recyclability and repairability.
background
FashionUnited also published some background articles in 2024 on the broad area of ”sustainability”, such as the hot topic of regenerative fashion/regenerative agriculture, artificial intelligence, what the new right to repair means for the industry and more.