Next Steps in the Fight for Fair Fiber Assessment

Dear Fibershed Friend,

Fibershed extends our heartfelt appreciation to our producer community for their swift and impactful response to our recent call for action regarding the European Council's stance on the Green Claims Directive and its Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology. Our community’s commitment to ensuring fair treatment for natural fiber farmers has resonated globally, with support pouring in from natural fiber producers worldwide. The Green Claims Directive is a legislative framework proposed by the Council of the European Union designed to assess businesses' environmental claims. At the core of this directive is the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method, which aims to measure products' environmental impacts. However, more than 900 signatories representing over 500,000 farmers across countries, including affiliates and producers from the Fibershed community, have penned an open letter warning that the PEF methodology unfairly favors synthetics and misrepresents natural fibers as harmful to the environment. While our combined voices have made a significant impact, we must inform you that the European Council has adopted language in the Directive supporting the PEF methodology. This decision is disappointing, as the current PEF methodology favors synthetic, fossil fuel-derived materials and misrepresents the true impacts and benefits of natural fibers. However, the collective efforts of our partners from the natural fiber community around the world have highlighted critical shortcomings in the PEF methodology that must be addressed. It is essential to continue pushing for improvements to ensure that natural fibers are accurately represented and fairly evaluated. Although the Green Claims Directive has been passed, the Directive will undergo further stages of discussion and negotiation before becoming codified in EU and member-state legislation and regulations. These regulations will have implications for the global fashion/textile industry and will impact regulations taken on by other governments around the world. This ongoing process presents opportunities to advocate for necessary changes to the PEF methodology. The Make The Label Count campaign, which Fibershed has been a part of since 2022, has outlined three necessary improvements to enhance the PEF methodology:?

• Include an indicator for microplastic emissions. The absence of a microplastic indicator effectively assigns zero impact to this emission, potentially encouraging the production and consumption of plastic products and fibers and exacerbating microplastic pollution.
• Include an indicator for plastic waste. There is an urgent need to reduce the demand for plastic materials and their release into the environment. Recently published research on the global apparel industry’s contribution to plastic pollution indicates that synthetic clothing is the main source of plastic pollution from the apparel supply chain. As plastic waste is one of the main impacts of synthetic textiles, omission of this as an indicator of environmental impact creates an imbalance that unfairly preferences those materials.??
• Include an indicator for circularity. Fossil-based materials are neither renewable nor circular, and none of the 16 PEF indicators measure circularity directly. Including circularity as a stand-alone indicator is crucial for assessing the sustainability of raw materials from both renewable and non-renewable sources.

Your involvement has been instrumental in drawing attention to these issues, and we encourage you to stay engaged as we move forward. Please stay tuned for opportunities in the coming months and in the next couple of years for our community’s voice to impact the final deliberations and form of the Green Claims legislation in the EU and beyond. Fibershed producers from across the world still have an opportunity to add their names to the open letter described above. If you are a farmer or rancher and want to add your name to the letter, send an email?to [email protected] with the subject line 'PEF Letter Support' by July 7. Together, we can continue to push for a more just and sustainable approach to evaluating and shifting environmental impacts in the textile industry. Thank you once again for your unwavering support and dedication to our shared mission.

With gratitude,

The Fibershed Team