Linking their efforts to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as many as seventy one companies have got themselves up to the mark and put their names forward for benchmarking against their peers and competitors in the Textile Exchange Preferred Fibre & Materials (PFM) Benchmark programme.
61 per cent of companies have set targets for switching to a more sustainable source of cotton, three quarters having a specific target for organic.
Said Liesl Truscott, Materials Strategy Director for Textile Exchange, millions of people including cotton farmers, foresters and other textile feedstock providers form the base of the textile supply network and are impacted by the decisions brands and retailers make every day. Influencing improvement in fibre and material production is one of the greatest opportunities textile brands and retailers can contribute to securing a sustainable future.
Preferred is another way of saying more sustainable. Textile Exchange defines a preferred fibre or material (PFM) as one that is ecologically and socially progressive and has been selected because it has more sustainable properties in comparison to conventional options.
The mix of fibres in your product range can be just as important as the sustainability profile of each fiber,” Truscott added.
Textile Exchange recommends a portfolio approach building a suite of preferred fibre and materials from a choice of preferred options by way of the consideration of impacts and product range priorities. The goal is that PFMs are produced to a globally accepted standard, with strict criteria that qualifies the product as preferred, and can be traced through the supply chain.
One of the partnership is with the Appachi ECO-LOGIC Cotton Project in India which brings together a value chain from the farmers to the customers. The key is the partnership and working together – and we see this as pivotal for the entire industry. Seventy one companies, up from 57 last year, ranging from Adidas to Woolworths, completed a bespoke online survey and have received confidential company feedback reports revealing their individual results.An Industry report containing the combined results of all participating companies will be released this week.
