EUR 33.06 For Business Accounts Only

Making Textile & Garment Supply Chains Clean, Fair and Competitive

​Clothing and footwear are our chosen second skin. Next to providing cover, they are essential to our view of who we are, and who we desire to be. The textile and garment industry is also the world’s #2 polluting industry, after the petroleum industry. How do these two things go together, and what can we do about it? Why is this a field for impact investing? This USD 3 trillion industry has been a powerful source of commerce for emerging economies ever since it took off 250 years ago during the first industrial revolution in the UK. The industry has since become an engine of development in many countries, providing mostly unskilled but formal sector jobs to women. The sheer size of the industry is impressive, as is the omnipresent role its products play in our daily lives. However, there are also a number of issues to sort out ranging from working conditions to environmental footprint. The report outlines the main issues the industry faces, and explains how by investing in efficiency and productivity measures, impact investors can help achieve a systemic improvement in textile production in the context of a market-based, scalable approach.