Femnet e.V.

Climate change, population growth, and shortages of key resources are already affecting the industry and they will bring profound changes over the next 15 years. By 2025 there are expected to be another billion people living on this planet and twice as many elderly people. Climate change will have major impacts on agriculture and patterns of global land use. Many communities will change radically, affecting the needs of the industry’s customers and the availability of labour. Demand for energy, water and food will grow, prices are likely to rise, and control of resources will be a key political issue. Other factors will shape our world in less predictable ways. China, India and other emerging economies will change global patterns of trade and power and exercise a growing cultural influence. Technology will continue to transform our lives and businesses and create new opportunities – think of the impact the internet has had in the last 15 years. People’s attitudes to resource shortages, climate change and sustainability, and their levels of disposable income, will affect consumer demand. How governments act, or fail to act, on trade, economics, the environment and poverty, and how they coordinate action on these and other global issues will also have a huge impact. They cover a wide range of issues and pose some searching questions: The future is likely to be fundamentally different from today. We have created four scenarios, exploring the challenges ahead for the fashion industry and its current business models.

• How will the industry react to shortages of cotton and other raw materials?
• How could the fashion workforce be affected by shifting supply chains and technological development?
• How might technology influence fashion and change the way it is produced and sold?
• How will people care for their clothes in a future of water shortages and high energy prices?
• How could reuse and remanufacturing of clothing develop as a response to higher demand and prices?

The four scenarios explore worlds where globalisation has progressed or gone into reverse and where society and its fashions change more rapidly than today.

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Extreme weather events in increasing numbers, the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the massive loss of animal and plant species – climate change is a global human issue and one of the greatest challenges of our time. Its effects are becoming more and more noticeable. The fact that a change of direction is inevitable is largely a matter of social consensus.

But the transformation towards a (nearly) zero-emission economy and society involves a number of challenges. Increasingly, the economic and social costs of this necessary transformation process are coming into focus. Climate protection is often pitted against prosperity, economic development and jobs. In some cases, even interest-based doubts are sown to give the impression that the sciences are at odds with "man-made" climate change.

The authors build on this supposed conflict of goals by pointing out the fields of conflict and analysing ten key points of criticism on a fact-based basis. They refute claims that persist in public discourse and confirm that there is still an enormous need for action in some sectors in Germany. Above all, however, they show that a future-oriented energy and climate policy is possible in line with prosperity and social progress. Provided that the correct measures are taken.

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This report summarizes gaps that need to be addressed in order to improve wages and working conditions for garment workers. It represents our findings on the actual wages that Vietnamese workers in some garment factories receive and the impact of wages on their lives and families.

The garment sector is delegated made up of women, so low wages plus poor working conditions is a matter of gender inequality. Therefore, paying a living wage and improving working conditions is an effective solution for addressing gender inequality in Vietnam.

The report stated practices in the global supply chains that lead to this status of wages and the domestic barriers to achieving a living wage. Low wages are the result of unfair business practices within the garment supply chain. The purchasing power of brands is the ultimate cause behind all these practices and is key to the solution.

The report provides recommendations to global buyers, consumers, factory managers, the Vietnamese Government and labour union for achieving a living wage.

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In this report we met 44 children aged 2-13: half live in the slums of Dhaka with one or both parents and half live in villages with relatives. The children’s parents sew clothes for Swedish and international buyers.

Several of the children’s rights are being threatened by their parents’ low wages, working conditions and low social status. According to international standards companies should identify and manage risks for adverse impacts on human rights. Children are a particularly vulnerable group. In the report, 18 Swedish companies state that they see a connection between their businesses and the wellbeing of the textile workers’ children.

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In a new investigation, Greenpeace has investigated indoor air in stores selling clothing and outdoor equipment containing per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs). In European flagship stores of the brands Mammut, The North Face, Norrona and Haglöfs, 20 to 60 times higher PFC concentrations were measured compared to air in office and storage rooms. Compared
For outdoor air, the concentrations measured in specialist outdoor shops are about 1000 times higher. The volatile polyfluorinated telomere alcohols and acrylates found in the indoor air of outdoor stores can be degraded into perfluorocarboxylic acids of health concern such as PFHxA and PFOA in the environment or after absorption into the body. PFOA is a chemical with particularly dangerous properties. It is classified and regulated under REACH as a substance of very high concern (SVHC).

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