Femnet e.V.

Despite significant challenges in the fashion industry over the past few years due to Covid-19, we are encouraged by the number of brands using next-gen materials in their products. The number of fashion, automotive, and home goods brands interested in next-gen materials has increased along with the supply of next-gen materials. This market trend is not surprising given the increased consumer demand for animal-free and environmentally friendly products and the development of new technologies allowing for significant improvement in the aesthetics and performance of next-gen materials.

Mehr Details

Weltweit werden immer mehr Textilien produziert – mit gravierenden Folgen für die Umwelt. Ein möglicher Lösungsansatz: eine kreislauffähige Textilwirtschaft mit funktionierenden Recyclingprozessen und entsprechenden Infrastrukturen. Das Forschungsprojekt „DiTex - Digitale Technologien als Enabler einer ressourceneffizienten kreislauffähigen B2B-Textilwirtschaft“ erprobt im Charakter einer Machbarkeitsstudie eine kreislauffähige Textilwirtschaft im Geschäftskundensegment, d.h. im Bereich Business-to-Business (B2B). Dahinter steht die Einschätzung, dass bei Berufsbekleidung und Flachwäsche (Bettwaren, Handtücher) im gewerblichen Kontext enorme Volumina identischer Textilien im Umlauf sind und die Logistik über jeweils fixe Ausgabe- und Rücknahmepunkte in den einzelnen Einrichtungen gut organisiert und etabliert ist. Die Beteiligten in diesem Projektverbund erachten es in besonderem Maße für möglich, in dieser weitgehend geschlossenen B2B-Textilwirtschaft einen ressourceneffizienten ökologischen Materialeinsatz mit einem dienstleistungsbasierten und auf häufige Nutzungszyklen ausgerichteten Geschäftsmodell zu verbinden, das digitale Technologien smart nutzt. DiTex will dafür eine Erprobungsplattform sein.

Dieser Integrative Forschungsbericht (IB) stellt eine möglichst vollständige Ergebnisdokumentation der DiTex-Arbeiten nach zwei von insgesamt drei Jahren Vorhabenslaufzeit dar. Alle bis Sommer 2021 in den Arbeitspaketen (AP) 1 und 2 erzielten Recherche- und Prüfergebnisse werden in diesem Bericht dokumentiert, ausgewertet und interpretiert.

Mehr Details

Textiles and plastics are two of the key product value chains that are considered a priority in the EU Circular Economy Action Plan (EC, 2020a). As a result, the EEA has devoted specific attention to textiles and plastics in the circular economy, building the knowledge base on the textiles and plastics systems, their environmental and social impacts, and potential pathways to more sustainable and circular systems.

The briefing Textiles in Europe’s Circular Economy (EEA, 2019) and its underpinning ETC report Textiles and the environment in a circular economy (ETC/WMGE, 2019) highlighted the sector’s significant environmental impacts, ranking textiles as the fourth most significant in the use of primary raw materials and water – after food, housing and transport, and fifth for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The study also highlighted that synthetic fibres have overtaken cotton in the production of clothing, household textiles and technical textiles.

Mehr Details

This study analyses the limiting impact of using a company size threshold in future due diligence and corporate accountability regulation in the Netherlands and the EU. Based on an analysis of the Dutch textiles and garment sector as a whole and the companies participating in the Dutch Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textiles (AGT), this study finds that any company size threshold would very strongly limit the number of companies covered by future due diligence legislation. If a high company size threshold, as currently applied in the French Duty of Vigilance Law and the German Supply Chain Law, were to be used in future Dutch and EU due diligence regulation, this would mean only a very limited number of companies would have to comply with mandatory due diligence obligations. In contrast, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), just like large enterprises, face severe risks in their value chains and can be directly linked or contribute to human rights violations or environmental damage.

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