Unwoven

UNWOVEN

A cyanotype print of sheep wool, created by exposing photosensitized fabric to sunlight with the raw material on top to reveal its form.

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INTRODUCTION

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Unwoven is an editorial project by the non-profit organization Textile Exchange. It aims to pull apart and reconstruct perceptions of clothing and textiles today by deepening our understanding of the materials that make them, and the stories, questions, and concepts behind them.

This first edition brings together perspectives from around the world. Each piece offers its own take on the links between materials and people, place, culture and nature – as well as their interconnectedness with questions around sustainability, social justice, and systems change.

An antidote to the ambivalence that often characterizes our relationship with material items, it reframes their significance in our lives by helping to weave them into a wider conversation.

CREDITS

UNWOVEN ISSUE 01

Project by Textile Exchange

by Textile Exchange

CEO Claire Bergkamp

Printed in London 2023 ©All rights reserved

Creative Direction and Design by Rachel Bullock Printed by Park Print

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Contributers Carlos Jaramillo Cecilie Nicoline Rasmussun Christine Goulay Kiana Kazemi Kin Coedel Leah Thomas Madeleine Brunnmeier Milan Kathiriya Rachel Arthur Ray Vázquez Sabiha Çimen Sofia Terçarolli Yessenia Funes Yichen Zhou

Special thanks FARFARM Kipaş Textiles Materra Terre de Lin Printed on Gmund Hemp 50% Accent Recylced Paper by G.F Smith

CONTENTS

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PERSPECTIVES

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INNER MONGOLIA Where the Wind Blows

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RACHEL ARTHUR Slowing Down Growth and Reimagining Value Creation

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INDIA Creating Climate-Resilient Cotton

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KIANA KAZEMI AND LEAH THOMAS A More Just Future for Climate Action

FRANCE The Lineage of Linen

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CHRISTINE GOULAY Ten Ways to Support Material Science Innovations

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YESSENIA FUNES An On-the-Ground Approach to Climate Storytelling

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BRAZIL Planting Cotton Forests

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TURKEY Rebuilding from the Rubble

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TIBET & GERMANY Transforming Textiles with Magnum Photos

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INNER MONGOLIA Where the Wind Blows

INDIA Creating Climate-Resilient Cotton

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TIBET & GERMANY Transforming Textiles with Magnum Photos

TURKEY Rebuilding from the Rubble

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The materials in our clothing and textiles originate from all over the globe. But we rarely think about how the final product connects us to different geographies, as well as to other lived experiences and ways of thinking. This chapter is a reminder of these connections. On-the-ground narratives from farms and textile processing facilities document difficult realities, as well as stories of hope and inspiration. As a collection, they remind us of the cultures and communities behind our textiles and illustrate the agency that this diversity of perspectives holds to help us shape a better future.

Places

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Where the Wind Blows in Inner Mongolia MANDULA TOWN CHINA

Photographer Yichen Zhou visits three Mongolian sheepherder families in Mandula Town to explore the ecosystem behind nomadic wool production, documenting how these traditions are changing over time.

“Where the Wind Blows” uses wool as its point of origin. I visited three sheepherder families in Mandula Town, at the border between Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, and Mongolia.

What was once a single nation is now divided by a national borderline.

With the development of the modern economy and new grazing techniques, the herdsmen that I photographed in Inner Mongolia had gradually given up their nomadic yurts and adjusted to “modern grazing” – moving into mud houses or brick homes with solar energy and high-speed internet. Now, they use motorcycles to herd their animals, monitoring equipment covers the entire grassland, and their mobile phones let them find their flocks at any time.

Yet in the homes of each family that I visited, wool-related items were found in abundance. There were wool scarves, rugs, blankets, unfinished sweaters, a beloved lamb, and of course, their flocks.

I used these objects as backdrops to take their portraits. I crafted the cyanotypes, contact printing grass, sheep manure, and wool in a way that contains the traces of time. I embroidered traditional Mongolian costumes on their pictures.

Through these objects and actions, I seek to show the entire ecosystem behind wool and find a pause between modern and traditional Mongolian culture that stops the loss of yesterday’s ways.

With so much in flux, the only constant is the wind blowing across the grassland and the enduring prevalence of this material in their lives.

“What lies behind each of these images of wool?

An insect, a piece of grass, a gust of wind, a family, a fleeting season, an ecosystem, a nation?”

Words and images

by Yichen Zhou 7

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Right: A female sheep herder poses on her motorbike, a new normal for the local families that are adapting their lifestyle to modern grazing practices.

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Below: Herds of sheep and their wool remain omnipresent symbols in the local environment, an enduring relationship in times of change.

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Environmental journalist Yessenia Funes unearths an ex-accountant’s journey towards creating climate-resilient cotton with Materra – an innovative company helping to encourage the adoption of regenerative growing practices.

Creating ClimateResilient Cotton with India's Master Farmers GUJARAT INDIA

Words by Yessenia Funes Images by Milan Kathiriya 14

Ranvirsinh Vaghela originally studied to become an accountant.

And the 39-year-old was good at it. After he used those accounting skills – crunching numbers to calculate profits and losses – to assess the earnings of his father’s farm in their village of Delvad in Gujarat, India, Vaghela changed career paths to assist his family.

The figures he found were troubling: “There was no profit,” he said in Gujarati over a video call.

Vaghela’s father used conventional farming methods that often involve pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Conventional farms can grow expensive to maintain, and some farmers have observed these external inputs to diminish soil quality and harm their own health.

In 2016, Vaghela decided to convert his family farm to organic.

Now, his produce sells for more at the market.

The accountant-turned-farmer has zero regrets about the switch. His crops now include cauliflower, wheat, sweet corn, tomatoes, cabbage, chilis – and cotton, the only one he offers on the global market. That’s because, for two years, Vaghela has been a part of a growing network of farmers in his area working with Materra, an innovative company helping to encourage the adoption of regenerative growing practices and optimize them for the local environment.

In 2022, Materra began working closely with 21 farmers in Vaghela’s community. There was no prerequisite to be using organic methods already – instead, Materra met the farmers where they were. Its ethos was all about learning from those who know the local land best, moving away from the specific requirements that organic certification calls for towards a context-based approach. This year, the company has grown its collaboration to over 1,000 farmers so that they can scale regenerative cotton farming in the region together and collect data as they go.

Materra’s strategy involves identifying “master farmers,” such as Vaghela, who are encouraged to share methods from which they’ve seen success. “Our program design team runs workshops to onboard

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these insights and embed them into our core crop recipe we use with farmers within that region,” said Edward Brial, Materra’s CEO. As a master farmer, Vaghela draws on the knowledge he’s gained over the years to help his peers. He’s shared the value of intercropping – where a crop is planted in between lines of cotton. He has found that placing cucumber and sweet corn in between cotton nourishes the soil.

His experience with organic agriculture also helps other farmers to reduce and substitute their chemical inputs. It’s something he sees as particularly important within his community since pesticide exposure can result in various negative health outcomes from skin problems and headaches to different types of cancer.

“Chemical farming is like slow poison,” Vaghela said. Protecting his family from these risks has been one of the greatest benefits since moving away from conventional farming methods. “I’m proud that whatever I grow is good for my health, the consumer’s health, and the planet’s health.”

Making such switches, however, is far from simple for farmers.

Agriculture can be unpredictable, and changes can result in poor yields which directly affect their income. Take Vaghela’s own experience. His first two years were spent experimenting with ways 16

“I’m proud that whatever I grow is good for my health, the consumer’s health, and the planet’s health.”

Right: Ranvirsinh Vaghela tends to his cotton crops, which are often grown in between rows of cucumber and sweet corn.

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to keep pests and diseases at bay without the use of toxic products, so some harvests failed entirely.

“I couldn’t compete with other farmers in terms of production,” he said. He didn’t have any support from his peers, either. They didn’t understand why he wouldn’t stick with the old ways.

Materra hopes that creating a safe space for knowledge sharing between farmers will help them withstand the financial pains that come with this transition. The company brings in its own innovative expertise to help optimize practices seen to work on the ground, and onboards brands to contribute finances too.

“We take a precision agriculture mindset, supporting farmers on the key times to apply nutrients or how to control pests, helping minimize the inputs needed to grow a profitable crop,” said Edward Hill, Materra’s chief sustainability officer.

“Our goal is to partner brands with farmers into 10-year agreements to really enable change at ground level by providing stability to farmers and enabling meaningful transitions,” added Brial.

Materra is also developing a farmer support app called Co:Farm.

This AI-powered mobile and web application provides live, adaptive support to farmers and collects impact data, enabling the rapid scaling of regenerative farming. The impact data generated will also allow greater clarity for consumers who want to know more about where the raw materials in their purchases have come from and how they have been grown.

By communicating regularly with farmers, Materra hopes to improve their visibility. “Transparency is difficult to achieve when farmers are invisible and hidden behind complex trading initiatives,” Brial said. “Our field teams in India visit them regularly, and we can talk with them almost daily now through the Co:Farm platform.”

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Ultimately, Materra believes that using innovation to help scale regenerative agriculture will give farmers the opportunity to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. With the production and use of conventional pesticides and fertilizers thought to increase the emissions associated with growing different foods and fibers, removing these inputs can help them lower the climate impacts of their farming. At the same time, building back soil health can help get depleted land plots back in action.

India’s farmers are especially in need. Climate change is making the country – its resources and its people – increasingly vulnerable.

In June, a deadly heat wave overwhelmed the northern part of India, leaving at least 96 people dead. Such heat waves hit farmers whose work requires them to spend grueling hours outdoors beneath the unforgiving sun. There are also droughts and floods: India has been reported to have lost at least 70 million hectares of farmland between 2015 and 2022 to such extreme weather.

Vaghela hopes more companies move to support regenerative farming because, the way he sees it, there’s no alternative given the ecological and health crises the fashion industry presents to communities like his. He wants to pass his land and all that it’s taught him along to the next generation – to his son.

And today, the local farmers are finally taking note. As more growers start experimenting with these kinds of practices, Vaghela is waiting for them, ready to offer the help he desperately needed when he first got started. Together with the support of Materra, they can improve the fashion industry one cotton crop at a time.

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“Our goal is to partner brands with farmers to really enable change at ground level.”

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NORMANDY FRANCE

Photographer Cecilie Nicoline Rasmussen travels to the north of France to document the flax pulling process at Terre de Lin, a cooperative specialized in the culture and the conversion of textile flax from seed to fiber.

Every five to seven years in France’s Normandy region, a farmer’s field might turn into a sea of blue flowers. It signals that the flax plants have taken their turn on the land, patiently waiting amid a rotation of crops like peas, wheat, sugar beet, barley, or potatoes.

Cultivating flax for its fiber is an age-old craft in the area, which today has been interwoven with modern practices. Many farmers have learned farming from their fathers or grandfathers, transitioning the know-how between generations, and each growing the crop in their own way.

“It requires a different state of mind than doing things systematically,” explains Anne Nizery from Terre de Lin, a local cooperative of flax farmers, who is showing me around one of the farms. “Of course, farmers are now working a bit differently because there is new technology, but this local knowledge about flax production goes back to their heritage, to the farm where they grew up, and the type of soil that they have.”

A support system for local farmers, Terre de Lin equips them with the resources, knowledge, and assistance needed to build a flourishing flax industry in the region. Its work begins with supporting farmers in the cultivation of the plants and extends through to the pulling, drying, and extraction of fibers from the stems. Every step demands precision and a profound respect for this temperamental and delicate crop.

The Lineage of Linen on France’s Fields

Words and images by Cecilie Nicoline Rasmussun 20

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My photographs document the journey from the farm to the processing plant. I wanted to show the multifaceted world surrounding flax – its tactile nature, local significance, and sensory richness. For me, the project is about showcasing how the farmers and their machinery are integral to an intricate ecological system that extends beyond the fields, intertwining with the local environment, daily life, and climate context.

Each photograph aims to capture the scent, mood, and sensuality of flax production. I try to seize the immediacy of moments, preserving the experience. Dry flax stems and soft fibers are compared with other textures and forms, as well as people seen and met locally.

The series seeks a deeper understanding of the balance between humans and land through the production of this material.

“My pictures were taken close to the sea, where the climate is well adapted to growing flax thanks to the loamy soil and intermittency of rain and sunshine.

The crop’s success in the area is down to a mixture of nature and know-how.”

Below: The dried flax fibers are stored in bales, ready to be taken to the local plant for processing.

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Environmental journalist Yessenia Funes meets the women at the heart of an agroforestry project in Irituia, Brazil, where cotton plants are grown among native fruit trees.

In the Brazilian town of Irituia, the sun is virulent – as it tends to be this far north in Brazil. It’s early August, and the local factory workers are going about their day-to-day jobs. Their facility processes fruits and plants for organic farms around the region of Pará, a Brazilian state that sits nestled on the Amazon rainforest’s northeastern edge.

You can feel the jungle breathing into the community as children play in a stream that’s no doubt linked to the Amazon basin.

At this factory, there’s none of the rust, steel, or men one might imagine. Instead, bright teal walls and two towering doorways stand over 10 feet tall. Inside, the floors are dotted with dried-out shells of tucumã fruit. Four women are hard at work, laughing and smiling as they prepare the fruit to be turned into oil for skincare products.

“Having women working here is marvelous,” Eliete Nunes, lead producer at the factory whose hands are covered in black sticky pulp and shells from the fruit, said in Portuguese through a translator.

“Farming gives meaning to our lives.”

This is the beauty of Cooperativa D’Irituia, the farm cooperative that owns and runs the factory. It’s women-led. And in a few short months, this safe space will be devoid of tucumã fruit, which grows on native palm trees. In its place, the factory will be full of organic cotton – where machines will gin the fiber and shape it into bales to transport.

Planting Cotton Forests on the Edge of the Amazon

Words by Yessenia Funes Images by Sofia Terçarolli

Cotton has infused new life into the cooperative. Since 2021, it has been partnering with FARFARM, a start-up on a mission to reforest the Amazon biome, invest in smallholders, and clean up the fashion supply chain.

FARFARM works with a flourishing network of local farmers and agricultural organizations like Cooperativa D’Irituia to grow cotton organically using agroforestry practices, before buying the bales to sell to French shoe company VEJA. Agroforestry involves creating an ecosystem of plants and trees that bring diverse benefits to both the land and community, making for a farm that is at once a forest and a food system. Because of this approach, many local farmers grow cotton and native trees, like tucumã, just feet apart from each other on their land. Together, the crops help enrich the soil and provide farmers with multiple income sources.

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supports local initiatives that help to build out the region’s network of organic growers working with agroforestry. And throughout the region, women are at the helm of revitalizing the Amazon one cotton crop at a time.

Take Lenise Oliveira, a farmer from the municipality of Santa Barbara. Oliveira is the founder of Ecovila Iandê – a forest village where she and her husband live and train local farmers about agroforestry. The 58-year-old former zoo technician became an agroforestry expert after buying some land in 2011.

“Every farm should be led by women,” said Oliveira outside her guest house, engulfed by the forest’s melody of rain showers and bat calls. She is a small but stately woman who wears glasses and often walks around with a machete strapped to her tool belt. She keeps her style simple and practical, but she’s always wearing two black rings on her left hand. Her husband cut them from dried tucumã fruit; one serves as their wedding ring.

The land at Ecovila Iandê is lush with green leaves and vibrant fruit: cocoa, bananas, acai, and achiote. The property is adorned with reused material, as well – like the green and brown glass bottles cut into windchimes. The organization now runs one of the few community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs in the north region of the country, selling organic produce to families in the nearby city of Belém that have pre-paid for the harvest.

As part of the cotton project’s partnership model, FARFARM covers the free training to local farmers at Ecovila Iandê so that they can learn how to grow cotton organically through agroforestry methods. Beto Bina, FARFARM’s founder, describes the training as “an MBA for smallholder farmers.”

A key lesson is that agroforestry is all about experimentation.

Oliveira has experimented over the years with the design of agroforestry farms. Now, she has templates for how exactly cotton farmers should organize their land to maximize both the growth of their cotton and the forest.

Helping farmers to implement these methods successfully has contributed to a self-sufficient ecosystem in which smallholders now learn from each other, even outside of structured training programs.

Local farmer Maria do Socorro, for example, is growing cotton for the first time this year after being inspired by her neighbor, Cesar Souza, who was farming with agroforestry.

“The more women who farm, the stronger we’ll be and the more voices we’ll have.”

She’s excited to plant trees that’ll not only provide colorful fruits to sell year after year but also an aesthetic for her land. She finds the agroforestry approach to farming “beautiful.” The visual appeal of yucca, flowers, and cotton growing in clean lines is part of what drew her into the work.

Do Socorro’s mom used to farm, too, but her methods involved using blazing fires to burn plots after the harvest to clear and nourish the land. Those same ferocious flames, however, also chip away at the forest’s stunning expanse – all while releasing the carbon once stored in its tree trunks. Though the farmer’s strategy has changed, she still cherishes her mother’s memory when she’s out on the land.

“I just hope for health because I have plenty of courage to do this work,” said do Socorro, wiping away tears as she remembers her mom who died seven years ago. “The more women who farm, the stronger 28

“During our capacity-building training, we talk not only about agroforestry and cotton but also about health and protection.”

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we’ll be and the more voices we’ll have. It used to be just men in charge, and now women are empowered to take charge.”

Health plays a big part in why many farmers are looking to organic methods. It’s non all about offering environmentally friendly products to clothing and apparel companies – they also want chemical-free food to eat and sell. They want to skip the pesticides and toxins they believe are endangering their bodies and communities. And they want to end agricultural burns that pollute the air.

The women of Cooperativa D’Irituia say that cancer remains one of Irituia’s top diseases. The mother of Nayara Leão, the cooperative’s cotton and organic certification coordinator, had breast cancer.

She’s now cancer-free. The daughter of cooperative president Mariângela da Cunha Borges was also diagnosed with cancer at 14. She’s cancer-free now, too. This is why the cooperative focuses heavily on health. Every last Friday of October, the women plan a day-long event on breast and prostate cancer awareness where they teach local women how to conduct breast exams and also help men break stigmas around checking for prostate cancer.

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“During our capacity-building training, we talk not only about agroforestry and cotton but also about health and protection,” Leão said.

The cotton ecosystem in Brazil illustrates something we often forget about the items on store shelves – they are the products of both land and livelihoods. Every day in the field, workers have to walk around ant holes and bee hives. They toil beneath the sun. Sometimes, they even opt to work barefoot. Cotton is not a plant that simply grows – it is a plant that must be tended to: pruned, watered, harvested.

The items in our wardrobes are not only something to wear – they are items that must be created, and agriculture is often the beginning of that lifecycle.

By incentivizing organic farming and agroforestry, FARFARM has given the fashion industry an alternative model to support. It’s also given local farmers a financially viable alternative to the monoculture farming that has contributed to the Amazon’s devastation. And most importantly, it’s building resilience – as the forest loses tree cover and moisture, it’s slowly converting to a drier savannah ecosystem, and agroforestry is one way to overcome the region’s increasing dry spells.

The start-up hopes that more fashion brands see the value of incorporating materials grown responsibly and invest in farmers who want to nourish the land, rather than exploit it. “Connecting smallholder farmers with brands is my life journey and what I believe the world needs,” said Bina.

“Connecting smallholder farmers with brands is my life journey and what I believe the world needs.”

Already, his theory is proving true. Cooperative leaders say they are seeing the health of community members improve.

They’re eating more organic produce and abandoning their annual burns. These women want the world to know that what we buy has consequences. Our shopping habits often harm people.

Sometimes, however, what we buy can give back to the community in bountiful ways.

“We can’t scream loud enough for the world to hear us,” said Maria Fernanda de Oliveira Lima, Cooperativa D’Irituia’s secretary, in Portuguese through a translator. “Our stories need to be told.”

“We can’t scream loud enough for the world to hear us. Our stories need to be told.”

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Photographer Sabiha Çimen visits one of Turkey's major textile districts during the aftermath of February's tragic earthquakes.

When two devastating earthquakes struck in Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023, the impacts were felt deeply by the thriving textile industry that is based in the affected area.

Photographer and Magnum Photos member Sabiha Çimen visited the Kipaş Textiles production facilities in the Kahramanmaraş region of Turkey, to capture a series of film images that show the aftereffects and extent of the damage sustained. Home to around 6,500 employees, Kipaş Textiles has a production capacity of 80 million meters of fabric per year and 330 tons of yarn per day. It is Turkey and Europe’s largest integrated manufacturer of yarn and fabric. Çimen’s images show the vulnerability of both individuals and industries to natural disasters. They act as a powerful reminder that these impacts are endured long after the headlines go quiet, and the need for support throughout the entire journey to recovery.

Rebuilding from the Rubble in Turkey

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The second edition of Textile Exchange’s Materials Matter photography competition, in collaboration with Magnum Photos, invited emerging photographers to share a project under the theme “Textile Transformations.” This year’s brief explored the visual stories that take place when fibers and materials are cultivated, created, spun, woven, sewn, loved and cherished – gaining cultural and emotional significance through the journey.

The competition saw over 500 photographers from over 70 countries share their interpretations of the multitude of ways in which we transform textiles, and textiles in turn transform us.

By placing these themes at the center of the story, the resulting 8,000 photographs reframed the way we relate to their social, cultural, and environmental implications, helping to alter our attitude towards these everyday items.

Clothing and textiles connect us intrinsically to our planet and its many ecosystems, cultures, and communities. While each transformation brings cultural and emotional significance, our collective appreciation of textiles often centers around the product itself, rather than where it came from, who created it, or what it has come to mean.

The two selected entries portray entirely contrasting relationships between people and textiles, highlighting both their incredible potential to transform communities and shape identities, as well as contributing to a societal model driven by consumption.

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Judged by Aditi Mayer (Photojournalist, Sustainability Activist) Claire Bergkamp (CEO, Textile Exchange) Sonia Jeunet (Education Director, Magnum) Yessenia Funes (Independent Environmental Journalist) Emily Chan (Senior Sustainability and Features Editor, British Vogue) Lindokuhle Sobekwa (Magnum Photographer) Peter Van Agtmael (Magnum Photographer)

Transforming Textiles with Magnum Photos KIN COEDEL WINNER

MADELEINE BRUNNMEIER RUNNER UP

Kin Coedel is an analog photographer from Hong Kong who grew up in Canada.

In 2020, Coedel took a break from fashion photography to travel to Tibet, Mongolia, and India. The resulting work aims to go beyond being a voyeuristic lens, prioritizing genuine exchanges with local communities.

Mindful of power dynamics and historical representations, the artist collaborates with translators to ensure understanding and consent. His work challenges preconceptions, inviting viewers to engage in meaningful dialogues about the traditions, struggles, and triumphs of these communities.

Berlin-based artist Madeleine Brunnmeier studied Visual Communication at the Berlin University of the Arts as well as at Musashino Art University Tokyo.

Characterized by curiosity, her work explores both observationally and conceptually the relationships between individuals and their environment.

She often likes to work with places and things she finds without changing them, but pointing out the narrative she sees through the process of staging. Another big part of her work focuses on portrait photography where she recently discovered her joy in analog working processes.

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DYAL THAK: A COMMON THREAD Amidst the remote highlands of the Tibetan Plateau lies Norlha Atelier, a transformative force that inspired my photo series, "Dyal Thak," meaning “a common thread” in Tibetan.

Founded by Kim and her daughter Dechen in 2007, Norlha Atelier blends ancient traditions with modern creativity by working with local communities transforming yak khullu fiber into beautiful textiles. Deeply ingrained in the cultural heritage of the Tibetan region, this material embodies centuries of traditional herding practices and craft.

My photographs seek to illuminate the journey of yak khullu, from the nomadic community’s herding practices to the skilled artisans' weaving looms. Each image conveys the reverence with which this craft is approached, showcasing the transformative power of tradition preserved and revived.

“Dyal Thak” captures the spirit of this journey, celebrating the invisible ties that connect us to nature, to animals, and to each other.

Words and images by Kin Coedel 36

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“My aspiration as an artist is to transcend borders, offering a universal language of humanity.

I envision a world where cultural exchanges thrive on respect and shared heritage. I seek to inspire a compassionate and inclusive global community, promoting positive change.”

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GESTALTEN: A NEW NARRATIVE ON CLOTHING CONSUMPTION “Gestalten” is a photo series of temporary sculptures, composed of people and all their possessions of clothing. The images explore clothing as an everyday companion, our second skin, as present as it is invisible.

It is a means of communication, an expression of status, an archive, a shelter, and a habitat.

It functions as a mirror of the interior and a boundary to the outside world. It is a mass of identity, culture, and memory – an archive of our lives. On the one hand, the figures are very specifically personal, but they are also open to universal human interpretation – a collective study of the relationship of the body to clothing and clothing to the body.

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PART 2

PERSPECTIVES PLACES

Clothing and textile production can help us understand and reflect on some of the wider systemic challenges we are facing as a population today. That is because the parameters and power dynamics within these production systems are defined by the same structures as our society as a whole. In this chapter, we draw on a range of subject-matter experts who are breaking ground with their ways of thinking. From degrowth to diversity, scaling innovation to telling better stories, these pieces share expert insight as to what best practice currently looks like – from the perspective of those at the forefront of these conversations.

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Rachel Arthur is a consultant, speaker, and writer dedicated to actioning systems-level change within the fashion industry.

She focuses on value chain transformation, narrative shift, and political advocacy in order to create a sector that is less harmful to people and planet.

Arthur is currently the advocacy lead for sustainable fashion at the United Nations Environment Programme, overseeing a strategy looking at the role of consumer-facing communication in the context of the triple planetary crisis. With a background as an award-winning business journalist, she has also contributed to titles as varied as Vogue Business, The Business of Fashion, The NY Times, Wired, Forbes, The Guardian, Wallpaper, and more.

Here, Arthur reflects on the urgent need for the fashion, textile, and apparel industry to rethink growth if it is to meet its climate targets on time, calling for an urgent revisitation of what we consider value, and a move away from growth based on exponential increases in production and consumption volume.

Slowing Down Growth and Reimagining Value Creation RACHEL ARTHUR

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In 2019, the Global Fashion Agenda published its Pulse of the Fashion Industry report with a simple statement that transformed the way the industry should think about its sustainability work.

“Fashion companies are not implementing sustainable solutions fast enough to counterbalance the negative environmental and social impacts of the rapidly growing industry,” it read.

On its current trajectory, the industry today will still not transform in time for 2030, neither contributing to the intention of the Paris Agreement nor the UN Sustainable Development Goals. If it doesn’t change course, it will double the maximum required greenhouse gas emissions to stay on the 1.5°C pathway outlined by the Paris Agreement by 2030, where it should be looking to halve it, according to McKinsey & Co and Global Fashion Agenda.

Realizing that growth as it exists today is impeding progress shows us how important it is to explore what true systems change looks like for the fashion sector. Emission reduction targets are crucial, but alongside this, we need to start rethinking what we consider value. Moving away from growth based on exponential increases in production and consumption volume will be an important lever to pull if we are to meet the targets we set.

Although the exact facts are frequently debated and ultimately will remain unknown unless production numbers are reported by all

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companies, it is estimated the industry puts out somewhere in the region of 80-100 billion items of apparel and footwear every year.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation previously suggested production doubled between 2000 and 2015, while the number of times a garment was worn before being discarded decreased 36% during the same period.

This rapid increase is due to a rising global middle class, the growth of ultra-fast fashion, and an accepted narrative focused on newness and disposability. Yet to look at this through the lens of consumption alone is to place the onus on consumers for change; to suggest that reducing what we each as individuals buy is the way true transformation will occur.

In reality, it is the system itself that must shift. The degrowth movement – a word in itself that courts controversy due to the negative connotations it implies – is anchored in this sort of economic rethinking. While the industry has not yet established common language around this concept, we will refer to it as “slow growth” here. This doesn’t mean cutting production volumes overnight, but instead instigating a controlled reduction to align output with planetary boundaries as well as a social foundation.

One of the major things this calls for is a rethinking of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the primary measure of prosperity, and indeed progress, in the majority of economies around the world.

Even its creator, an economist named Simon Kuznets, when presenting the concept in the 1930s, warned GDP shouldn’t be used to determine success alone. In The Value of Everything, economist Mariana Mazzucato points out that the biggest challenge with GDP is how it makes no distinction between services that add value to the economy, and those that are dependent on extraction. If you pollute, GDP ultimately goes up, because someone is paid to clean up after you. Similarly, terrorism, war, crime, and cancer are all good for GDP.

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“Emission reduction targets are crucial, but alongside this, we need to start rethinking what we consider value.”

“This doesn’t mean cutting production volumes overnight, but instead instigating a controlled reduction to align output with planetary boundaries as well as a social foundation.”

Furthermore, what GDP is often forgetting is that by not considering the negative impacts of growth – such as the externalities of resource extraction – it doesn’t account for the potential worsening of the human condition in the future. A landmark review of The Economics of Biodiversity commissioned in the UK in 2019, and in turn The Report of the Brundtland Commission of 1987 on Environment and Development, focused on exactly this. Both refer to the idea that sustainable development has to mean leaving behind at least as large a stock of assets as that which it inherits – in other words, taking depreciation of natural capital into account, which GDP quite literally ignores.

“Arguably, the view of the economy as external to the environment may have been comparatively harmless so long as the biosphere was more than able to supply the demands humanity made of it. That simply is not the case any longer, and has not been for many decades,” Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, economist and author of the report, explains.

Above: Photographer Ray Vázquez captures a roll of recycled, chemicalfree, and dye-free fabric made from post-industrial waste by circular textile company The New Denim Project.

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-36% The number of times a garment was worn before being discarded decreased by 36% between 2000 - 2015.

+ 100% Production rates for discarded apparel and footwear doubled between 2000-2015.

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Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning Fashion’s Future (2017)

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In other words, growth is not only destroying the planet without compunction, but cannibalizing its own future. Right now, we are consuming Earth’s natural resources 1.75 times faster than it can regenerate them, according to the Global Footprint Network.

Yet tragically, many saw this coming. In 1972, a report called The Limits to Growth was released by The Club of Rome, an NGO comprised of scientists, economists, business leaders, and former politicians. Written by a group of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it examined the implications of continued worldwide growth taking into consideration population increase, agricultural production, non-renewable resource depletion, industrial output, and pollution generation – all of which the fashion industry in some way touches.

Using a computer model to crunch the numbers, it ultimately concluded that the earth cannot support such growth much beyond the end of the 21st century, even with advanced technology. Based on tracking a business-as-usual plot line, the model showed “overshoot and collapse” by 2070.

“The view of the economy as external to the environment may have been comparatively harmless so long as the biosphere was more than able to supply the demands humanity made of it.”

“Reaching the sustainability targets of this industry will require a reduction in the volume of new raw materials extracted and used to make new products.”

As we know it today, the vast majority of growth and value creation in this industry is indeed tied to extracting from the earth in order to produce new products. It’s essential we start to scale business value opportunities outside of this old model. Reaching the sustainability targets of this industry will require a reduction in the volume of new raw materials extracted and used to make new products. Ultimately, this means the goals of the system need to change.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) calls this the Elephant in the Boardroom; uncomfortable and unmentioned because it challenges the entire business model as it stands. But the planet’s natural systems and finite resources cannot keep up, which means growth predicated on unchecked consumption is no longer an option, it explains. It calls instead for the pursuit of new business models that allow growth within the planet’s limits and generate stakeholder value in new and exciting ways.

Fashion’s growth was confronted at the Textile Exchange conference in 2021, in a keynote address given by Jason Hickel, economic anthropologist and author of Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. Referring to the industry as a textbook example of what is wrong with the economy, he explained how focusing on efficiencies is not going to cut it alone, noting that to actively achieve the climate targets set out before us, we need to scale down aggregate textile production.

The emissions modeling conducted by Textile Exchange backs up this point. Even in a scenario in which substitution of materials to preferred options is aggressively and rapidly occurring, the fashion, textile, and apparel industry will not meet its 2030 target of a 45% emissions reduction in raw materials sourcing unless overall growth rates are also reduced.

What’s key here is that organizations, and the industry at large, see absolute reduction in their emissions, whereby total emissions (and resource extraction) are reduced irrespective of company growth.

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“If we want to truly decarbonize our global businesses, we need to move from carbon intensity reductions to absolute reductions.”

This is compared to relative reductions, whereby emissions intensity might fall as new efficiencies and technologies are employed, but the total volume of emissions still increases as the business grows. When we talk about decoupling value creation from resource extraction, it is only absolute decoupling that matters.

This is something luxury group Kering recently committed to – reducing its absolute greenhouse gas emissions across its businesses by 40% by 2035 on a 2021 baseline. Or, in other words, aiming to reduce the volume of its total emissions no matter how much it grows. In contrast, previous company reporting showed that while it reduced its footprint by 12% in 2018 as a proportion of revenue compared to a year earlier, on an absolute basis, that reduction was fully offset by the company’s growth. Its progress was thus “limited by its success,” reported The Business of Fashion.

Of its recent commitment, Kering chairman and CEO FrançoisHenri Pinault, said: “If we want to truly decarbonize our global businesses, we need to move from carbon intensity reductions to absolute reductions. I am convinced that impact reduction in absolute terms combined with value creation must be the next horizon for truly sustainable companies.”

How it is going to do so is yet to be seen, but Kering has nodded towards things like scaling repair and resale services, material innovation, and upcycling.

Ralph Lauren has similarly previously spoken about how it can achieve “financial growth through degrowth of resources,” or in other words, producing less new product, while continuing to make a profit.

Both Ralph Lauren and Kering refer to increasing their understanding of inventory to ensure less overproduction and wasted product.

On the consumption side of things, Selfridges is also interesting to consider. In 2022, it committed to a target to have 45% of transactions across its stores and online to come from circular products and services by 2030, compared to less than 1% today.

“Increasing revenue share from circular business models and processes is crucial to achieve a decoupling of value creation and resource extraction.”

Above: Denim scraps from local garment factories in Guatemala are documented by photographer Ray Vázquez as a sea of deep blue hues, before being recycled into fabric by The New Denim Project.

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Increasing revenue share from circular business models and processes is crucial to achieve a decoupling of value creation and resource extraction. While numerous fashion brands have been launching all manner of circular solutions seemingly aligned with this thinking, we’re not yet at a point where any of them are able to show that doing so has replaced any significant percentage of new product creation.

Perhaps what’s key at Kering, is that efforts towards absolute decoupling are also being anchored by a new sustainable finance department, which will “follow in depth the decarbonization roadmap and everything linked with our strategy, and to be sure that business and sustainability go hand in hand.” This sort of systems thinking, with new value creation baked into the structure of the organization, is what it will take for success.

At the Textile Exchange conference in 2022, a dedicated session on this topic identified the need to redefine value as an industry accordingly. A key suggestion was for a framework to help track, manage and set goals for absolute decoupling, and to create incentives to help drive this change. This must also focus on ensuring any efforts towards slowing growth understand potential trade-offs and enable a just transition.

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LEAH THOMAS KIANA KAZEMI

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Intersectional Environmentalist (IE) is building a new reality for environmental education: one that centers front-line voices and helps people with intersectional identities find hope in the environmental movement.

Led by a powerful trio of women of color, the organization was founded in 2020 to highlight how social justice is, and must be recognized as, intersectional with environmentalism. Acknowledging that those most impacted by the climate crisis are the least responsible, IE aims to bring their perspectives into the conversation and ensure that co-creation is embedded in solutions.

Together, Leah Thomas, the founder of IE, and Kiana Kazemi, co-director of the organization, spoke about the importance of representation in leadership, illustrating how bringing a diversity of voices into the climate conversation is fundamental to driving change.

A More Just Future for Climate Action KK

LT

Leah, it’s been almost three years since the founding of IE. We’ve built everything from a podcast to a magazine, and now we’re hosting climate concerts and handing out books for free like Oprah, where everybody gets a book! All in an effort to radically re-imagine and pave new paths for environmental education, policy, and movements. Can you tell me a little more about IE’s mission that we’ve honed in over the years?

It’s been a pleasure working together. As you know, Intersectional Environmentalist (IE) is a Black-founded and women-of-color-led environmental justice education and awareness organization that has become a leading resource for content and programs that explore environment, culture, and identity.

Environmental justice education is absent from many environmental science and STEM curriculums in the US from primary education to universities and beyond; whichwe believe is a large factor in the lack of funding for grassroots environmental justice and for more action and support. We want to shift environmental education, movements, and policy to center environmental justice and the

importance of equity in these spaces, to ensure a better and safer future for all people, especially those most impacted by the climate crisis.

KK

Landing on our mission and theory of change has definitely been a beautiful journey of team collaboration and community learnings along the way.

It’s amazing to think back to that first post that led to IE’s origins, calling for the mainstream environmental movement to acknowledge the intersection of social justice with environmentalism. Since then “intersectional environmentalism” has become common terminology within the sustainability space, which we never expected! Why is it so critical that we go beyond looking at climate in isolation and consider social justice too?

LT

Those most impacted by the climate crisis are the least responsible.

Those bearing the brunt of environmental injustice are Black, Indigenous, and people of color as well as lower-income, disabled, and communities in the Global South. Race, income, and ability are leading factors in who experiences climate injustice, so they can’t be left out of the conversation. Doing so is detrimental to their livelihoods.

As long as this inequity persists, we must not look at climate in isolation.

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KK

Having conversations around the intersection of climate and social justice is so important, but we can’t stop at that.

One of my favorite things about the team we’ve built at IE is our BIPOC women leadership, and how that has translated into the transformational work we’re able to do in helping to build diverse workspaces, campus cultures, and movements. I’m curious about what your experience has been with representation in leadership structures and why it’s so important.

LT

Just like the earth and its ecosystems thrive on biodiversity, so does the sustainability industry as a whole and leadership structures. When there are more perspectives in a room, with unique backgrounds, tackling sustainability issues can become more holistic and collaborative. We all bring such unique experiences to the table that inform how we assess and analyze sustainability and the prisms in which we see it. When we team up together, respecting and acknowledging the beauty in these differences, we can co-create new solutions to the climate crisis and create more sustainable businesses, organizations, and policies. Kiana, with the programs you create at IE, you always ensure we partner with local people of color-led environmental justice initiatives, professors, and more. Why is it so important that historically excluded voices are represented in not only our programming but in the climate conversation as a whole?

2022 we launched a program called the IE Contributor’s Network, which creates space for anyone in our community to submit their research, story, or artwork to be published on our platform, and get paid for it. Additionally, when showing up across the country for our in-person events, we partner with local grassroots organizations to share local stories of resilience, climate organizing, and resistance. By including these voices in our programs, we’re empowering historically silenced voices to share their climate solutions, and help our audience connect to the initiatives they care about.

“Initiatives and storytelling helps address and correct a historic lack of inclusion and pave a brighter future.”

LT

“Just like the earth and its ecosystems thrive on biodiversity, so does the sustainability industry.”

KK

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We have everything to gain and little to lose from collaboration and coalition building, which is why all our programs have community at their core. For example, in early

While we’re a non-profit, we consult with businesses in every sector from fashion to technology to food and beverage and beyond to reshape their sustainability strategies to be rooted in diversity, justice, and inclusion. Companies can get started by getting familiar with environmental injustice in their surrounding communities and even the stories surrounding their suppliers across the globe.

Getting to know the issues and the organizations that are fighting to correct these issues, becoming their partners and a strong support system to their efforts, is one of the best ways companies can do better.

Many environmental justice organizations have solutions in mind but are in need of amplification and resources to carry out those solutions, which is the perfect way for companies to partner with these initiatives.

KK

I couldn’t agree more, and I’m really excited to see companies take on more responsibility in these arenas in the future.

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If the clothing and textile industry is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions enough to stay within a 1.5°C temperature rise scenario, it has to start by changing the production systems behind the most common materials on which it has come to rely, including cotton, polyester, wool, and viscose. But it doesn’t stop there.

“Closing the innovation gap” is one of Textile Exchange’s three key action areas needed to reach its 45% emissions reduction target for the industry’s production of raw materials. This “innovation gap” captures the potential impact reduction related to systems innovation, such as regenerative agriculture, that do not yet have standardized modeling methodologies available. It also reflects the potential of innovative solutions that are being developed as alternatives to traditional materials, many of which have generated excitement in recent years. But how can we help to turn them into scalable solutions?

Here, innovation expert Christine Goulay provides personal, practical guidance on how to take action to help accelerate material science. With over 20 years’ experience working at the intersection of sustainability, innovation, entrepreneurship, and fashion – whether leading initiatives for Kering and PANGAIA or working as a corporate lawyer – her work has kept a steady focus on fast-tracking marketbased solutions. Her advice highlights the role that everyone can play in helping to scale these solutions – regardless of decision-making leverage or technical expertise.

Ten Ways to Support Material Science Innovations CHRISTINE GOULAY

In many ways, we live in an age of paradox. On the one hand, we are anxiously aware of the impacts of the climate crisis already being felt, as we complete a record-breaking hot summer.

On the other hand, we are witnessing the creation of some incredibly innovative solutions with the potential to help address these impacts, providing hope and awe at the power of human ingenuity.

I feel fortunate that my work within the fashion, textile, and apparel industry brings me into contact with a growing amount of exciting material innovators. This dynamic ecosystem has witnessed a rapid increase in recent years. The Material Innovation Initiative’s State of the Industry report on Next Generation Materials shows that the number of start-ups operating in the space has grown from 42 in 2014 to 95 in 2021, a 126% increase. These innovators promise to reduce our dependence on finite resources such as petroleum, land, and waste; to minimize human rights and animal welfare risks; and to enable more circular ways of production.

So how can we support these new materials innovators to increase adoption and drive scale? Here are some practical ways that we can all help to accelerate the new materials revolution in our own capacity.

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Source: Material Innovation Initiative, 2022 State of the Industry Report: Next-Gen Materials (2022)

+126% The number of start-ups operating in the material innovation space grew from 42 in 2014 to 95 in 2021, a 126% increase.

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01

CONNECT It can mean so much to a start-up to speak with them, give feedback, and connect them with others who you think could help. Saying yes to a promising innovator could lead to an open door for them.

Have you ever heard that when you are looking for a job, you should do ask for three introductions that could be relevant? When you are speaking with innovators, try to think of three people to connect them with, and pay it forward.

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BE A CHAMPION Commit to being an internal champion within your organization when you meet an innovator in whom you really believe. It is very difficult for start-ups to navigate complex organizations with several departments, priorities, and budgets. It requires accompaniment, patience, transformation, changing minds and hearts, reaching out to colleagues, following up, and pushing projects ahead when people lose steam. Commit to being a champion, and you will be able to look back – as will the start-up – and identify how you were an instrumental catalyst in driving the adoption of a promising impactful solution.

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SHARE INFORMATION One of the most difficult things for material innovators is understanding how to direct their R&D to achieve product/market fit. For example, which iterations and functionalities should be prioritized in the R&D roadmap?

What does the market really want?

What test results are needed to prove performance? And what hurdles might suppliers run into during implementation? Try to overshare with innovators. Do not assume that they know what you know. Be explicit about the testing you require, any specifications that you can give, etc. This is priceless information for start-ups.

“Try to overshare with innovators.”

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AVOID “LONG MAYBES” Innovators often don’t have many resources, and they put an overwhelming amount of them into finding the right partners. I once heard someone say that “long maybes” kill start-ups. If you like a start-up and technology but know that your company will not use them, it might be better to give a quick no than a long maybe so that small teams can move on and focus elsewhere. This doesn’t mean that the door is closed forever. It very well could open a year or two later when the time is right (something I have seen happen many times).

“I once heard someone say that 'long maybes' kill start-ups.”

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FORM THREE-PARTY PARTNERSHIPS AMONG BRANDS, INNOVATORS, AND SUPPLIERS This is a big one that cannot be underestimated. To accelerate and optimize R&D roadmaps for material innovators, to ensure that the solution will work in today’s supply chains, and to help de-risk upstream solutions for brand partners, we need to involve key suppliers early. Historically, brands and partners work together, driving innovations back upstream. However, suppliers are vital to success and scale.

We need to continue to create three-party partnerships among innovators, brands, and suppliers to move quickly.

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TRACK IMPACT-RELATED KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIS) The need for quality, current, reliable data is crucial, especially in light of the current regulatory framework. This means that we all need to be very disciplined in collecting primary data when working with innovators to confirm hypotheses related to impact.

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Many material innovators are too early stage to do full Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs). By defining outcomes and KPIs together at the start, you can work together to ensure that the solution is indeed producing results in terms of impact.

This data will also allow teams to adjust and pivot if necessary.

Let’s make the collection of impact data part of our daily work.

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BREAK DOWN BUDGET SILOS If we really want to get beyond small capsules to scale, we need to stop linking the price premium that comes with sourcing innovative materials to increased material procurement costs. Instead, we should be looking at the cost of the lifecycle of the product.

Let’s get creative. Can we price the new material the same and ask the brands to pay a royalty on sales, as they reap huge benefits from marketing new materials to consumers? Can we look at the cost of achieving net zero and see how switching to better materials will reduce the carbon reduction budget? Can we look at costs related to non-compliance with incoming legislation and supply chain risks and factor these into the equation? What are the solutions that we can put in place here? Find allies in legal, merchandising, finance, and marketing departments. Go to lunch together, brainstorm about this, and see how you could come up with creative solutions.

KEEP COMMUNICATING Often brands want to do this anyway, but good, accurate marketing is massively helpful to new materials innovators.

Not only do they raise awareness about start-ups and their technologies, but they also serve as proof points in the market, demonstrating to others that there is a way forward. Of course, communicating sustainability claims in todays’ context is more difficult due to new regulations and uncertainty on what and how to communicate, leading to the greenwashing / greenhushing debate. Let’s try to tell these stories with accuracy and evidence.

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SIGNAL DEMAND When fundraising, material innovators need to show investors that there is market demand for their solution. One of the most powerful ways of doing so is through signing offtake agreements.

An offtake agreement is a purchase commitment by a brand for a new material over a set period of time for a certain price and quantity.

These agreements are often one of the first things that an investor will look for. They are also beneficial to brands as they allow them to secure supply of the material and be first to market. Risk is reduced for the brand as it is customary to ensure that the material achieves certain performance requirements in order to trigger the purchasing commitments. Offtakes are not the only way to signal demand; although they are not legally binding, letters of intent (LOIs) and demonstrating projected volume needs also help build the case for innovators.

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DON’T GIVE UP Innovating in material science is difficult. We need to work together and collaborate to make a lower impact apparel sector a reality. It’s time to get beyond concept products, prototypes, and capsules, and we can only do this by supporting innovators, each other, and working towards achieving economies of scale to get new technologies on par in terms of cost, performance, and more.

“We need to stop linking the price premium that comes with sourcing innovative materials to increased material procurement costs.”

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Source: Apparel Impact Institute and Fashion For Good, “Unlocking the Trillion-Dollar Fashion Decarbonisation Opportunity.”

1.5°C Pathway

39%

The Apparel Impact Institute and Fashion For Good have estimated that 39% of the emissions reductions needed for the fashion industry to meet the 1.5°C pathway will come from scaling innovative solutions – with innovation at both the facility level and materials level playing a role.

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Yessenia Funes is an independent environmental journalist and writer.

As the former climate director at Atmos, a magazine covering climate and cultures, she now serves as editor-at-large for the publication.

Funes’ writing focuses on climate justice, examining how our various ecological crises harm communities of color across the globe. She’s written for i-D, Vogue, The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, and more. During her time at Atmos, she launched The Frontline, a newsletter that created a platform for the global perspectives of those experiencing the climate crisis firsthand.

Here, Funes draws on her own experience as a journalist to illustrate why on-the-ground voices should be at the center of the stories we tell about climate change – and the role that brands have to play in bringing more human perspectives into their sustainability storytelling.

An On-theGround Approach to Climate Storytelling YESSENIA FUNES

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Climate stories don’t have to be about only science or data.

They should also be about people, communities, and emotions.

Last year, I walked the desert route many immigrants cover as they cross the U.S.-Mexico border north. For years, I had covered the human rights crisis at the border from afar, always looking at the numbers and facts. Last year, I focused on the families instead by tracing a migration route to experience firsthand what the extreme heat of Arizona’s Sonoran Desert can do to the human body.

Littered across the desert landscape were empty jugs of water.

Thirst is what kills many on their quest to the U.S. I attempted to put myself in their shoes to understand the feeling when you can’t escape the sun and have only your two feet to rely on.

I attempted to paint a story that would help the public sympathize with the hundreds of thousands of migrants who cross the border a year – a number that the climate crisis will heighten.

I spoke to families who had lost loved ones in the desert and to the advocates who search for their bodies. I interviewed scientists who were analyzing, for the first time, the ways climate change is heating up the ecosystem and, thus, testing the temperatures the human body can withstand. The result was a personal, data-driven narrative.

We all have the power to tell such stories. Even the private sector.

Every day, companies and brands tell their own stories through

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“This is the climate narrative we need: one that inspires empathy and action.

The public needs to believe that their home is worth saving – and that, indeed, it can be saved.”

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Below: Photographer Carlos Jaramillo, part of the storytelling team that traveled to the Arizona desert, captures a member of the search and rescue team carrying a yellow cross in case a body is found.

the products they sell and the messaging they use. Some ignore the climate crisis entirely. Those that do pay attention often focus their efforts on reducing emissions, sourcing innovative materials, or piloting new recycling schemes. Plenty of attention is placed on the sustainability attributes of their products, but what about the people? When we talk about climate and the environment, communities on the frontlines should be front and center.

This is why in 2020 I launched The Frontline, an environmental justice newsletter published by Atmos magazine. I featured on-the-ground global perspectives of those experiencing the climate crisis first and worst. Every climate story connects back to human rights. The newsletter highlighted those links – in fashion, agriculture, education, and more.

Consumers are growing interested in “sustainability,’’ but how are companies defining that? Can a product be sustainable if its assembly harms communities along the way?

We need stories that challenge the narrative of so-called green capitalism. These tales don’t have to be all heartbreak and devastation. My piece on the border, for instance, celebrated the rescuers who go out in search of migrants. The article shared my own perspective as the daughter of a young woman who once trekked through those same lands and survived.

This is the climate narrative we need: one that inspires empathy and action. The public needs to believe that their home is worth saving – and that, indeed, it can be saved. They need to see the humanity outside their borders – to remember that another’s hands produced the shirt on their back or the chair in their kitchen.

We all have a role to play. Whether companies are selling electronics, food, or new tech, their environmental goals should assess impacts on farmers, garment workers, disaster survivors, women, trans folks, gender non-conforming people. How do marketing campaigns and investor reports center those stories without exploiting them?

We are all storytellers. How brands source their products, treat their workers, and invest in their communities shape the stories they leave behind. Our work can empower those on the frontline, or it can silence them.

Words hold power. Stories shape history. After all, what is history but a set of stories society has chosen to remember?

“Words hold power. Stories shape history.

After all, what is history but a set of stories society has chosen to remember?”

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Q&A WITH OUR CONFERENCE SPONSORS

In Conversation with the Industry ORITAIN

Striving for guaranteed traceability across global supply chains, Oritain looks to forensic and data science – and applies it to products and raw materials. The science-driven company shares more about its unique approach to verifying product origins, and its outlook on the future of textile traceability.

WHAT IS AN ORIGIN FINGERPRINT, AND HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM TRADITIONAL TRACEABILITY MARKERS? The Origin Fingerprint is a unique code. Forensic science gives us the key to unlocking the answers to where a product comes from.

Using world-leading forensic science, we analyze the unique elements that make up any product. Our statistical models then translate this data into an Origin Fingerprint. This acts as a fingerprint for a broad range of commodities and the exact location they come from.

Oritain’s science differs from traditional traceability methods as the elements that constitute an Origin Fingerprint will remain within a product at every stage of its development – the truth of its origin lies within the product itself; it cannot be replicated or tampered with.

In contrast, traditional traceability methods require the product to be sprayed, labeled, or have a digital record attached. These elements are external to the product’s core and can be removed, tampered with, or entered at any stage of the supply chain.

Therefore, alternative methods cannot return the product to its roots and guarantee its origin.

WHAT WILL MAKE FORENSIC TRACEABILITY TECHNOLOGY WIDELY ACCESSIBLE ACROSS THE FASHION, TEXTILE, AND APPAREL INDUSTRY? The first step for us is education. This extraordinary science is unknown to many, even in the industry. Once they know this technology is commercially available, that’s a huge step.

As the fashion, textile, and apparel industry continues to become more ethical and sustainable, our forensic traceability will become even more widely adopted. It will take brands, manufacturers, and legislators to emphasize the importance of making ESG claims and targets that can be verified; the pressure this will put on those who fall into complacency will mean that our science becomes a necessity.

WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN GOALS FOR THE FUTURE? Our vision is to be the world’s most trusted company at scientifically verifying the origin of products and to help create a tangible difference in our world. The science is expanding daily, and our research and development teams are constantly refining the work.

The goal is to continue to refine this extraordinary science so we can continue to provide data-driven insights to our clients. As companies grapple with regulation, we see a significant expansion opportunity in cotton and broader fiber.

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ISKO

With a production capacity of 300 million meters of fabric per year, ISKO is one of the world’s leading denim manufacturers.

Here, Ebru Özküçük Güler, Head of Sustainability at the Turkish company shares his insights on the opportunities and considerations that come with prioritizing investments in sustainability.

TRANSFORMING OUR INDUSTRY TO BE MORE SUSTAINABLE REQUIRES INVESTMENT. HOW IS THE INVESTMENT LANDSCAPE CHANGING TO MEET SUSTAINABILITY GOALS? Sustainable investment planning is a process that brings a different perspective in addition to all other known investment disciplines today. It requires practices based on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors as well as traditional financial measures. In this way, investment planners aim to achieve long-term financial returns while contributing to positive environmental and social outcomes.

HOW DO YOU BALANCE FINANCIAL GROWTH WITH SUSTAINABILITY AND CIRCULARITY EFFORTS? I believe that today's most important added value is a management structure that respects the environment and turns problems into opportunities.

The very definition of circular fashion is a well-established holistic design approach that aims to eliminate waste by reducing the number of natural resources used to make our clothes and by removing the products from being waste. In short, it is the production of new materials from old materials with a circular/closed-loop system.

This kind of change should be supported by management, like in ISKO’s case, because circularity measures – while requiring initial investment – can also result in significant cost savings and efficiency. Using fewer new resources will ultimately have an impact on costs in the long run.

WHAT INNOVATIONS DO YOU HOPE TO SEE NEXT IN THE FASHION, TEXTILE, AND APPAREL INDUSTRY? It is actually very difficult to answer this question objectively because I am part of the team that puts together our future plans based on what we think will be most beneficial and makes investments to support it. But as well as innovation, we need collaboration – and we can’t move forward if we don’t work with industry partners. In addition to advancing our purpose as a company and broadening its scope, partnership and cooperation provide financial and structural stability while achieving common goals.

Textile Exchange is a global non-profit driving beneficial impact on climate and nature across the fashion, textile, and apparel industry. We guide and support a growing community of brands, retailers, manufacturers, farmers, and others committed to climate action toward more purposeful production, right from the start of the supply chain.

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TEXTILE EXCHANGE

The materials in our clothing and textiles are interwoven with a myriad of cultures, communities, systems, ecosystems, structures, questions, and concepts, as well as ways of thinking, working, and living. When we unravel this context, we can see the scale on which our everyday decisions can make a difference – and the extent to which materials really do matter.

MORE BY TEXTILE EXCHANGE If you’d like to learn more about materials sustainability, discover our other publications.

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BIODIVERSITY LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS September 27, 2023

MATERIAL PATHWAYS: ACCELERATING ACTION TOWARDS CLIMATE+ GOALS March 30, 2023

Since so many of the materials used by the fashion, textile, and apparel industry come from the land, companies are intrinsically responsible for protecting biodiversity. Published by Textile Exchange and the Fashion Pact, in partnership with Conservation International and supported

by Biodiversify, this report aims to align companies on their journeys toward actively protecting and restoring nature.

This report provides clear guidance on actions to take to meet our Climate+ goal, including areas to focus on by strategic fiber type: polyester, cotton, viscose, and wool. Each year, we will expand on our guidance as we learn and make progress, solve gaps, and identify new opportunities to move forward. This is just the start of an evolving roadmap, but now is the time to start aligning and acting.

REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE OUTCOME FRAMEWORK July 12, 2023

STRENGTHENING INTEGRITY IN ORGANIC COTTON November 4, 2022

Sponsored by CottonConnect, J.Crew Group, and Kering, this open-source framework lays out the key indicators that make for a regenerative system.

It is designed to help the fashion, textile, and apparel industry align on outcomes for assessing the holistic benefits of regenerative agriculture, encouraging collaboration by including expectations for both brands and growers.

Addressing the root causes of integrity issues, this report outlines the concrete steps that organizations can take to recognize fraud, fight it, and prevent it from happening in the first place. We strive to go beyond exploring integrity to focus on practical guidance so that our members can confront a major sector challenge and protect trust in organic – a vital way of tackling the climate crisis.