Bangladesh

The EU's mandatory separate textile collection requirement came into force in 2025, backed by recyclability targets for 2030. What the policy framework has not accounted for is that the larger share of fibre loss in a cotton garment occurs before any consumer touches it. A new study traces a single t-shirt across its full global supply chain to quantify where that loss actually goes.

The global apparel industry's sustainability reporting expanded substantially in the years following the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster. A new study examining 322 reports from 69 companies over seven years jhas found that the expansion was real and the accountability was not. Environmental content consistently outranked labour conditions, and the sector's reporting tone became progressively more optimistic regardless of what was happening in the supply chains those reports described.

Environmental permitting systems across ten major textile-producing nations contain significant gaps in how industrial pollution from spinning mills, dye houses and garment factories is regulated, a new UNEP report has found. Most national legislation fails to classify textile activities as environmentally significant or to consider gendered impacts on workers.

Thirteen years after Rana Plaza killed more than a thousand garment workers in Savar, the disaster is still generating money. The question survivors are now asking is where it goes. Recently, the Rana Plaza Survivors Association turned its demands away from brands and factory owners and toward the institutions that built campaigns, funding streams and organisational visibility around their suffering—and that, in survivors' view, have not been required to account to them for how those funds were used.

A new Roadmap has urged global fashion brands sourcing from major garment-producing hubs to fund and implement a Just Energy Transition across their supply chains, warning that persistent financing gaps, weak adaptation measures and price-driven purchasing practices are shifting climate risks onto suppliers and workers throughout production networks.

A new University of Sydney–led study shows that low-cost, sustainable cooling strategies could safeguard millions of garment workers facing extreme heat. Simulations of Bangladeshi factories revealed that reflective roofs, fans, and access to drinking water reduce core temperature and maintain productivity, offering scalable protection for an industry employing over four million people.

Bangladesh’s garment workers face grave reproductive health and safety challenges, according to ICDDR.B’s first cohort study. Conducted over two years in Dhaka and Gazipur slums, the research followed 778 young female workers. Findings highlight widespread adolescent marriage, early pregnancies, increased violence at home and in workplaces, and minimal factory-based services. The evidence offers a basis for policy and programme reforms in the sector.

Bangladesh’s garment industry faces mounting pressure to decarbonise amid regulatory shifts and brand climate commitments. Yet, financing, energy infrastructure, and governance gaps hinder progress. A new Apparel Impact Institute report has outlined the critical enablers required for a just transition, from policy reform to capacity building. AII President and CEO Lewis Perkins throws light on programmatic investment and long-term collaboration to future-proof the sector in Bangladesh.

As the fashion industry struggles to firm up a roadmap towards decarbonisation, one of the players that has been pro-active in trying to clean up its supply chain is the H&M Group. Kim Hellström, Senior Sustainability Manager, Climate at the Group speaks at length about the challenges in decarbonising the supply chain.

At a critical crossroad, the apparel and textiles industry in Bangladesh could lead global decarbonisation efforts while unlocking substantial economic and social benefits, including the creation of green jobs, says an Apparel Impact Institute (AII) report which also outlines proactive, actionable strategies to further decarbonisation efforts, foster collaboration, and enable meaningful progress for the industry.