15th-19th April 2024
Ecotextile News
The purpose-led multimedia news platform for sustainability in the global fashion and textile industry.
It’s been an extremely busy week for news here at Ecotextile, with a wide range of highly important stories breaking, which have gone viral both on social media and on our site. We’re sure you’ll have seen a few of them, but don’t worry if not- we’ve collated the most important here for our Weekly Briefing????
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Monday
??After it was criticised last week for plans to extend the use of carbon credits to offset scope 3 carbon emissions, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) performed a hasty volte face, saying there is “no change” to its current standards.
The retraction came just three days after the SBTi said companies would be able to use carbon credits to mitigate Scope 3 carbon emissions, which NGO Carbon Market Watch said had caused the SBTi to: “buckle to pressure from carbon market players and corporate interests to allow companies to meet scope 3 targets with carbon credits”.?
??Also, the Textile Exchange industry body issued a new report setting the fashion and textiles industry the ambitious challenge of ending the use of virgin fossil-based synthetic textiles by 2030.
The report also calls for the end of the use of PET bottles as feedstock for recycled synthetics, moving instead to textile-to-textile recycling - even though this so far accounts for just 1% of the global market.
Tuesday
??On Tuesday we released our new podcast episode!??
??Our host Philip Berman talks to Magnus Dorsch, head of corporate sustainability at German online fashion retailer About You, and Joyce Tsoi , senior director of the decarbonisation programme at Cascale , for our latest podcast on decarbonising the fashion supply chain.
This final episode of this four-part podcast series, brought to you in association with Cascale – the new name of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition – features a look at the deep and intentional partnerships required for the fashion and textile industry to accelerate greenhouse gas reduction, and how collective action and pre-competitive collaboration can be mobilised to deliver real impact.
Wednesday
??On Wednesday US Senator Marco Rubio called on the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to investigate Chinese-owned retail giants Shein and Temu for alleged links to forced labour in the Xinjiang region of China.
Rubio wrote to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking him to investigate Shein and Temu and consider adding them to the entity list of companies believed to be at risk of breaching the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act.
??We also released a new feature from our senior reporter, Simon Glover . He writes “As a new Textile Exchange report calls for an end to the use of both virgin synthetic textiles and polyester recycled from plastic bottles by the end of the decade, we spoke to three textile-to-textile recycling pioneers about their ambitions.
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All three are focused on recovering both polyester and cellulose from blended fabrics - regarded as one of the industry's toughest challenges - but are at different stages of development, from lab research to industrial scale.”
Read his full feature here????
Thursday
??On Thursday we disclosed that an open access platform which analyses shipping and customs data, import and export records and supply chain data to assess forced labour risks in the Xinjiang region of China has been launched.
The Supply Trace platform - which will focus initially on the apparel sector - is a joint project between 美国东北大学 in the US city of Boston and the UK's 英国谢菲尔德哈莱姆大学 .
??Also, fashion brand JACK & JONES , part of the BESTSELLER Group, and Spinnova have launched a t-shirt made from the latter’s fibre from textile and agricultural waste without the use of potentially harmful chemicals.
The launch will come as a welcome relief to the Scandinavian textile fibre innovator, which last month launched a cost-cutting review on the back of disappointing financial results for 2023 which saw revenues plummet and losses soar.
Friday
??Today, we reported that the EuRIC - The European Recycling Industries trade body is warning that textile reuse and recycling is on the brink of collapse across Europe.
EuRIC says the industry is in crisis in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK and that without European Union intervention it will escalate, causing irreversible economic and environmental damage.
??We were also sad to report some breaking news- an investigation has been launched after a fire broke out today at the Austrian headquarters and production facilities of cellulosic fibre manufacturer Lenzing Group .
"Today, April 19, 2024, at 8:36am, a fire broke out in the area of the Laugeturm (CAP exhaust system) tower on the premises of Lenzing AG for reasons not yet known," confirmed a Lenzing spokesperson.
??That concludes this week's briefing! Don’t forget to check up on our ongoing stories as we update you throughout the week, and be sure to subscribe- it’s free!??
??What better way to spend your weekend than listening to our podcast series with Cascale?????