Go back

Unlocking the Trillion-Dollar Fashion Decarbonisation Opportunity

The fashion industry is at a pivotal moment in its journey toward sustainability. With greenhouse gas emissions contributing significantly to global climate change, urgent action is needed to decarbonise supply chains. This report, developed by Fashion for Good in collaboration with the Apparel Impact Institute, outlines existing and innovative solutions to reduce emissions, unlock financing opportunities, and create a pathway to net zero by 2050. Through deep industry insights and financial analysis, this report serves as a guide for brands, manufacturers, policymakers, and investors committed to driving meaningful change.

Go back

Wealth in Waste

This report is part of the “Sorting for Circularity: India” initiative led by Fashion for Good and its partners. It aims to explore the untapped potential of India’s textile waste industry to transition into a circular economy by identifying waste streams, analysing current practices, and suggesting pathways for systemic improvements across the value chain.

Go back

Sorting for Circularity India

This project was designed to organise and optimise India’s textile waste supply chain. By evaluating various waste streams for collection, sorting, and pre-processing, the initiative aimed to enhance circularity in textiles. It sought to improve collection and sorting systems, foster recycling infrastructure, and introduce innovative solutions to generate new revenue streams and next-generation materials from textile waste-reducing reliance on virgin resources and minimising landfill and incineration.

Problem Statement

The apparel industry faces immense pressure to meet the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement, with fashion accounting for 2-8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 emissions, especially from processing (Tier 2), represent a critical challenge. Shifting to dry processing technologies has the potential to reduce water and energy use, contributing to lower emissions and a smaller environmental footprint.

Stakeholders involved

The D(R)YE Factory of the Future project brought together key industry leaders and innovators committed to revolutionizing textile processing. The project’s brand stakeholders included:

Go back

Sorting for Circularity India: Post-Consumer Pilot

India generates around 3,944k tonnes of post-consumer textile waste annually, with 48% viable for recycling feedstock, though inadequate sorting and recycling systems prevent full utilisation. This project involved two primary pilots that tested sorting innovations: Matoha’s FabriTell desktop scanner for semi-automated sorting and PICVISA’s ECOSORT for fully automated sorting. The pilots aimed to assess these technologies’ ability to categorise waste by fibre and colour efficiently, ultimately facilitating quality feedstock production for recycling. Initial findings suggest India could effectively harness a closed-loop textile recycling system, with cotton and polyester blends as dominant waste types.

Problem Statement

The apparel industry faces immense pressure to meet the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement, with fashion accounting for 2-8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 emissions, especially from processing (Tier 2), represent a critical challenge. Shifting to dry processing technologies has the potential to reduce water and energy use, contributing to lower emissions and a smaller environmental footprint.

Stakeholders involved

The D(R)YE Factory of the Future project brought together key industry leaders and innovators committed to revolutionizing textile processing. The project’s brand stakeholders included:

Go back

Sorting For Circularity Europe

The Sorting for Circularity Europe project was launched in early 2021 and initiated by Fashion for Good together with Circle Economy. The project was made possible by catalytic funding from Laudes Foundation and brand partners, adidas, BESTSELLER, Inditex and Zalando, with H&M Group as key project partners. The project addressed the need for data on textile waste in the market, identifying waste types and recycling opportunities.

Problem Statement

The apparel industry faces immense pressure to meet the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement, with fashion accounting for 2-8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 emissions, especially from processing (Tier 2), represent a critical challenge. Shifting to dry processing technologies has the potential to reduce water and energy use, contributing to lower emissions and a smaller environmental footprint.

Stakeholders involved

The D(R)YE Factory of the Future project brought together key industry leaders and innovators committed to revolutionizing textile processing. The project’s brand stakeholders included:

Go back

Future Forward Factories

The “Future Forward Factories” project, initiated by Fashion for Good, focuses on transforming tier 2 processing in the textile industry through innovative low-impact, decarbonisation solutions. It aims to generate actionable blueprints for factories of the future that combine renewable energy and technology upgradation including mostly dry processing innovations. These blueprints take into account the macro geographical factors that are customised for every product to achieve next-zero facilities with a strong return on investment.

Problem Statement

The apparel industry faces immense pressure to meet the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement, with fashion accounting for 2-8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 emissions, especially from processing (Tier 2), represent a critical challenge. Shifting to dry processing technologies has the potential to reduce water and energy use, contributing to lower emissions and a smaller environmental footprint.

Stakeholders involved

The D(R)YE Factory of the Future project brought together key industry leaders and innovators committed to revolutionizing textile processing. The project’s brand stakeholders included:

Go back

Materra Pilot

The aim of the pilot was to test and refine Materra’s technology to grow extra long staple cotton at a pilot farm, as historically this variety of cotton has not been grown in large volumes in this region due to specific climatic requirements for cultivation.

Problem Statement

The apparel industry faces immense pressure to meet the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement, with fashion accounting for 2-8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 emissions, especially from processing (Tier 2), represent a critical challenge. Shifting to dry processing technologies has the potential to reduce water and energy use, contributing to lower emissions and a smaller environmental footprint.

Stakeholders involved

The D(R)YE Factory of the Future project brought together key industry leaders and innovators committed to revolutionizing textile processing. The project’s brand stakeholders included:

Go back

Full Circle Textiles Project – Polyester (FCTP-P)

The aim of the Full Circle Textiles Project – Polyester (FCTP-P) is to validate and scale promising technologies in polyester chemical recycling and to encourage financing and offtake commitments in the fashion industry. The project builds on the framework and lessons of the Full Circle Textiles Project – Cellulosics (FCTP-C), which focused on investigating economically viable and scalable solutions for cellulosic chemical recycling. It brings together a consortium of stakeholders including brands, innovators, supply chain partners and catalytic funders – a structure that has proven successful in driving and scaling disruptive innovation in the industry. This is an ongoing project.

Problem Statement

The apparel industry faces immense pressure to meet the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement, with fashion accounting for 2-8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 emissions, especially from processing (Tier 2), represent a critical challenge. Shifting to dry processing technologies has the potential to reduce water and energy use, contributing to lower emissions and a smaller environmental footprint.

Stakeholders involved

The D(R)YE Factory of the Future project brought together key industry leaders and innovators committed to revolutionizing textile processing. The project’s brand stakeholders included:

Go back

D(R)YE Factory of the Future

Fashion for Good launched D(R)YE Factory of the Future in January 2022 in collaboration with brand partners Kering, adidas, PVH Corp. and manufacturing partners Arvind Limited and Welspun India with the aim of validating the most promising technology combinations in pretreatment and colouration processing steps to support the widespread adoption of mostly waterless innovations within the textile industry.

Problem Statement

The apparel industry faces immense pressure to meet the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement, with fashion accounting for 2-8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 emissions, especially from processing (Tier 2), represent a critical challenge. Shifting to dry processing technologies has the potential to reduce water and energy use, contributing to lower emissions and a smaller environmental footprint.

Stakeholders involved

The D(R)YE Factory of the Future project brought together key industry leaders and innovators committed to revolutionizing textile processing. The project’s brand stakeholders included: