With textile production being extremely dependent on nature for raw materials and water, a just-released fashion sector primer offers companies a science-based roadmap for determining what they take from nature, and how they can give back.
- The science-based targets for nature provides a way forward for the industry towards setting up biodiversity targets and showing that action is possible. It provides a critical introduction for the fashion, textile and apparel industry on how to set measurable nature targets.
- Raising the ambition for nature: A primer on the first science-based targets for nature for the fashion, apparel, and textile sector was launched Wednesday at the ongoing Global Fashion Summit has been brought out by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL),the Fashion Pact and Conservation International.
- The primer is part of a two-year project, ‘Transforming the Fashion Sector With Nature’, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The Primer: Developed with inputs from Textile Exchange and the Science-Based Targets Network (SBTN), this primer highlights:
- An overview of science-based targets for nature;
- How companies in the fashion, textile, and apparel sector can go about setting targets;
- An illustrative case study;
- Immediate actions companies can take to address nature loss.
- The methods to set science-based targets for nature published by the SBTN complement and build upon science-based targets for climate published by Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
- By setting both climate and nature targets in tandem, companies can incorporate both into their strategies, drive cost efficiencies and increase innovations that are win-wins for both nature and climate.
The primer charts out actions companies can take to help address practices that harm nature, including:
- Understanding their company’s impacts on nature by determining where they occur in the company’s operations and across the company’s value chain;
- Understanding both the data they have access to and where the gaps exist. For example, any data gaps between other businesses or suppliers they work with directly;
- Starting to trace material sourcing back to the regional, farm or site level for one product or unit.
Leading the way, becoming part of the collaborative actions to address nature loss by joining groups like the SBTN Corporate Engagement Program and Business for Nature, among others, putting businesses at the forefront of developments and enabling them to contribute, test, learn and share their experiences with technical experts.
WHY THE PRIMER: Textile production makes up 10% of the world’s carbon emissions, according to UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) and is extremely dependent on nature for raw materials and water.
- Globally, the $1.5 trillion-a-year industry plays a substantial role in nature loss, from cotton, leather and polyester production all the way to the impact paper packaging has on forestry.
- Scientists also estimate that 35% of the microplastics found in oceans can be traced to textiles, making them the largest source of microplastic pollution.
- There has also been unprecedented growth in the sector over the past decades, with clothing production doubling between 2000 and 2014.
- It is anticipated to grow to US$2 trillion per year by 2027—meaning impacts and dependencies on nature will only increase, further emphasising the need for industry to act.
