Textile Exchange has called on the fashion-textile-apparel industry to achieve ambitious targets to help it meet its climate goals.
- The assertion has been made in the Materials Benchmark Insights and Trends report released late last week.
- The Materials Benchmark is a peer-to-peer comparison initiative in the fashion, textiles and apparel industry. It tracks the uptake of fibres and raw materials from recognised programmes, as well as how companies are addressing areas like circularity, biodiversity, land, freshwater, and forests.
THE KEY FINDINGS: Materials under sustainability programmes are gaining popularity among reporting brands.
- Share of raw materials under sustainability programmes increased from 53% in 2022 to 57% in 2023.
- Share of cotton under sustainability programmes (farm and recycled) increased from 79% in 2022 to 80% in 2023.
- The programmes and sustainability attributes most popular in 2023 were Better Cotton (64%), organic (7%), recycled (4%), and others (3%)
- Share of recycled polyester increased from 43% in 2022 to 55% in 2023
- Share of recycled polyamide (nylon) increased from 15% in 2022 to 20% in 2023
- Share of recycled viscose was still low at <1% (0.03%)
- Share of wool (on the farm or recycled) decreased from 38% in 2022 to 37% in 2023.
- 16% of wool used by the reporting brands was certified under the Responsible Wool Standard, and 17% was recycled. 5% of wool was covered under other sustainability programmes.
However, the share of recycled materials from textile-to-textile feedstocks remains very low. Less than 1% of all fibres used by the brands and retailers were from textile-to-textile feedstocks from postconsumer textiles in 2023.
VOLUMES OF RAW MATERIALS USED: Overall raw material usage by the reporting companies declined.
- The total fibre and raw material usage as shared by the reporting brands decreased from around 2.3 million tonnes in 2022 to 2.1 million tonnes in 2023.
- The usage of virgin fossil-based polyester decreased from 930,955 tonnes in 2022 to 679,871 tonnes in 2023 in contrast to the increase seen in its overall production.
- The usage of virgin fossil-based polyamide (nylon) decreased from 173,422 tonnes in 2022 to 171,863 tonnes in 2023.
TRACEABILITY OF MATERIALS TO COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Materials under sustainability programmes are gaining popularity among reporting brands. But brands and retailers still struggle to identify the country of origin of their raw materials. Percentage sourced from unknown country of origin:
- 80% of all cotton and wool;
- 75% of all polyester;
- 88% of all polyamide (nylon);
- 82% of all viscose.
CLIMATE AND NATURE INITIATIVES: Reporting brands are starting to implement their climate and nature strategies.
- Share of brands with SMART targets for nature increased from 19% in 2022 to 22% in 2023
- Share of brands investing in raw materials sustainability beyond the cost of sourcing more sustainable materials slightly increased from 50% in 2022 to 51%
- Share of brands with formal climate targets increased from 66% in 2022 to 79%
- Share of brands that implemented measures to reduce impacts on climate and nature during raw materials production increased from 79% in 2022 to 86% in 2023.
- Share of brands that implemented measures to restore and/or regenerate nature increased from 49% in 2022 to 61%
ABOUT THE MATERIALS BENCHMARK: The Materials Benchmark is open to all companies that want to measure and report their fibre and raw material-related progress. However, the data in the Benchmark factsheet refers to companies that report into the Materials Benchmark only, which far outperform the industry as a whole in terms of their sustainability progress.
- Since its launch in 2015, the Materials Benchmark has continued to grow. The number of reporting brands and retailers (including subsidiaries) increased from 57 in 2015 to a record 418 in 2024.
Companies in almost every continent report into the Materials Benchmark.
- 56% of the reporting companies are in Europe,
- 34% are in North America,
- 6% are in Oceania,
- 3% are in Asia,
- 2% are in South America, and
- 1% are in Africa.
Reporting companies have headquarters in countries around the world.
