Greener polyester dyeing has moved closer to industrial use after University of Leeds spinout SwitchDye secured minority equity investment from John Hogg Technical Solutions. The partnership will support factory-level trials, combining SwitchDye’s carbonated-water colouration process with John Hogg’s production knowledge, stewardship experience and customer access.

A producer-led decision-support tool designed to help apparel factories prioritise decarbonisation investments by financial return and carbon impact has been launched by a group of leading manufacturers. Commissioned by Elevate Textiles, Epic Group and Shahi Exports, the Bang for Buck Framework addresses a long-standing gap between industry climate ambition and facility-level investment action.

Extreme heat has become a growing workplace safety concern across global apparel, footwear and travel goods supply chains, prompting new operational guidance for factories, buyers and suppliers. The recommendations cover heat thresholds, structural mitigation, workload adjustment, education, medical monitoring, shared buyer-supplier responsibility, and compliance with labour and public health codes.

Two DITF research projects have received Techtextil Innovation Awards for materials made from renewable, biodegradable raw materials. NUO FlexHolz and FormLig combine wood veneer, cellulose, hemp and lignin with textile flexibility, three-dimensional shaping and design applications, while reducing synthetic adhesives, CO₂ emissions, microplastics and landfill waste.

Breakthrough textile materials have received $34 million in new Bezos Earth Fund grants, backing research into bacterial fibres, spider-silk-inspired biodegradable materials, coloured cotton and cotton seedbank restoration. The funding targets materials that can match rayon, silk and cotton while improving cost, performance and environmental outcomes across fashion and textile supply chains.

Fashion for Good has launched Project FAE (Feedstock Activation Europe), a new initiative to build the sorting and pre-processing infrastructure needed to channel non-rewearable post-consumer textiles into textile-to-textile recycling across Europe. Backed by Adidas, Bestseller and Inditex, the project addresses the feedstock supply gap that continues to prevent post-consumer waste from becoming a viable raw material for recyclers.

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.

Organic cotton grown by smallholders in Tanzania under the Cotton made in Africa Organic standard has recorded one of the lowest environmental footprints in global cotton production, new research has confirmed. The findings, drawn from a comprehensive lifecycle analysis, showed that the absence of synthetic pesticides, artificial fertilisers, and irrigation kept emissions well below industry norms.

Cotton's farm-level production standard has been strengthened with a sharper regenerative agriculture focus, following BCI's release of Principles and Criteria v.3.2. The updated standard introduces targeted improvements to selected indicators, enhances auditability across diverse growing contexts, and advances BCI's broader ambition to operate as a fully regenerative standards system.

Climate resilience, productivity and workplace safety are being advanced across Ethiopia's leather, textile and garment sector through a new ILO-Japan joint initiative. The one-year programme targets 40 factories across five cities, integrating Japanese expertise, digitalised safety tools and a women's leadership development programme to drive sustainable and inclusive industrial growth.