Femnet e.V.

This report reveals the hidden reliance of the fast fashion industry on fossil fuels. It demonstrates how the historical and projected growth of synthetic fibres, such as polyester, has become the backbone of the prevailing unsustainable fast fashion business model, which is driving runaway consumption and presents a major obstacle to a circular economy. It also uncovers how, in light of the fashion industry’s growing dependence on fossil fuels, the oil and gas industry are betting on production of plastic, including plastic-fibres, as a growing share of their revenue.

The production of polyester alone is leading to annual GHG emissions equivalent to 180 coal power plants and this is projected to nearly double by 2030. In addition to the climate crisis, fashion’s addiction to fossil fuels is also driving the waste crisis – from ubiquitous microfibre pollution to mountains of textile waste ending up in nature, landfills and incinerators. The report calls for a significant slow-down of fast fashion and highlights the upcoming EU textile strategy as a good opportunity to introduce sweeping legislation that should change the course of the industry.

Mehr Details

Based on the experience of the consultations of two smaller municipalities, FEMNET summarizes in this brochure how municipalities with fewer (purchasing) staff can also make a contribution to socially and ecologically sustainable purchasing. The handbook would like to show that even with a thin staffing level, (still) lack of political backing or legal uncertainties, there are ways to make public procurement fair.

If socially and environmentally sustainable purchasing criteria are introduced, this entails additional requirements. Procurers must familiarize themselves with relevant product groups and know quality labels. You need to know how appropriate criteria can be legally anchored in the procurement process. The handbook aims to support this by using examples from procurement practices of similar sized municipalities.

Mehr Details

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, garment workers around the world have been left unpaid or underpaid, causing a wage gap between what they received and what they are owed. This report from August 2020 estimates for seven countries the wage losses that workers have suffered and urges brands, retailers and e-tailers to commit to a wage assurance to make sure workers are made whole.

Mehr Details

Fashion has a major misinformation problem. While there have been attempts to debunk fashion misinformation, we have not taken the problem seriously enough. Fashion misinformation is part of the same society wide information disorder destabilizing democracies and undermining public trust. While we need not agree on a one-sizefits all solution to environmental and social problems, all players in fashion—from journalists and non-profits to consumers, suppliers and brands—need to agree on the facts, or hope for progress will fade from view.

This report aims to take a new approach, using the cotton industry as a lens through which to tackle misinformation. Most of the common claims about the cotton industry are inaccurate or highly misleading (from the idea that cotton is water-thirsty to the notion that it takes 20,000 liters of water to make a T-shirt and a pair of jeans). It is an ideal place to begin to unpack how misinformation operates. In this paper, readers will:

• Become critical consumers of data, using the cotton industry’s environmental impact as a case study.
• Learn how to debunk the most common myths about the cotton industry and gain much-needed context about water consumption and pesticide use in the cotton industry.
• Gain access to the latest and best available public data and context on cotton’s environmental impact to use in place of misinformation.

Mehr Details

Two and a half years after the Rana Plaza building collapse and the launch of the first industrial reform programs to address the pervasive fire and structural hazards in Bangladeshi garment factories, workers report they will not be safe without a voice at work. Fire, electrical, and structural safety in garment factories is essential and will save lives. But these renovations and repairs must be the foundation for additional reforms that address the intimidation and violence that keep workers silent, afraid to voice concerns and put forward solutions to ensure their own safety. A next phase of reforms must instill the lessons that respect for workers is as important to safety as are fire exits, that workers’ perspectives on safety are as important as the findings of building engineers. Without it workers’ lives and health will continue to be in jeopardy.
Between October 2014 and January 2015, the International Labor Rights Forum interviewed more than 70 workers with the assistance of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity. We set out to talk with them about fire, electrical and structural safety issues. But almost all workers wanted to talk to us about more than the necessary technical repairs and renovations in their factories. This report is an attempt to do justice to their words and to tell the story of safety from the point of view of the workers we interviewed.

Editorial team: Foxvog, Liana / Gearhart, Judy

Mehr Details