For more than ten years, the concept of sustainable development has changed the textile industry worldwide and its business models, indeed partly, current more fundamentally. At the same time, a comprehensive and integrative... [ view full abstract ]
For more than ten years, the concept of sustainable development has changed the textile industry worldwide and its business models, indeed partly, current more fundamentally. At the same time, a comprehensive and integrative sustainable textile chain is not within reach (Aridov et al., 2015; Gjerdrum et al., 2015; Pedersen and Gwozdz, 2014; Ricchetti, 2016; Pedersen and Andersen, 2015).
Thus, the following challenges are still unsolved:
- A lack of an overview of all chemicals: Which chemicals are used for which raw materials and processing substances at which process and value-added stages of the textile chain to be used and possibly to act in humans and in ecology?
- The label jungle: Uncertainty about the certification standards that refer to which chemicals, industrial technologies and processes as well as the sustainability area in the entire textile value chain. No certification standard pursues the integrative approach of sustainability universally for all products of the textile chain.
- Sustainable consumption: How can end-users and purchaser or retailer be informed about the non-sustainability and toxicity of the textiles, and how can transparency be created in the whole textile chain?
These challenges are addressed by new and ongoing research to develop recommendations for the next steps towards a holistically more sustainable textile chain regarding to economy, ecology and social issues for each of the three pillars of a society, civil society organisations, politics and the economy. So, the aim is to generate graphics (e.g. of potential path changes) as well as the use in industry, trade and education in order to enable greater transparency along the textile value chain. The comparison of different textile process chains, the use of chemicals and their sustainability content can be used for recommendations of alternative paths and technology-chemical combinations as well as to develop adequate training materials.
In addition to the analytical-integrative approach, workshops with selected practice partners discussing new diffusion and consumption patterns are a transdisciplinary component of the research in order to be able to better understand sustainability-related changes in consumer patterns of different milieu groups with regard to textiles and to form adequate incentives and structures. In addition, a feasibility analysis should be carried out to identify possible regional and international real-life laboratories to realize an essential contribution to the strengthening of sustainable development.
The combination of textile value chain, use of chemicals, analysis of laboratories, sustainability requirements as well as economic, consumption-based and political recommendations follow an holistic approach. By means of discussion forums (companies, consumers and politics), the intention is to identify the paths of awareness and action, and to discuss alternative value-added paths and / or new forms of regional economic forums (e.g. cooperative alternatives or regional economic communities) and political control mechanisms. Diverse and innovative diffusion methods, like summer school, digital training materials, interactive publications enable the entrance into the textile reality. All at once lead to real transition to sustainability in textile chain from fibre to garment.
Keywords: textile chain, laboratories of reality, chemicals, digital trainings, regional economic forums
