Environment in textile supply

Textiles are traded globally and hence the environmental impacts of the buyers’ choice of purchase will impact far from the consumer themselves, but in the global society where the impact can indirectly affect the consumer and the international community. Textiles are an industry where trade exists ’locally but impacts globally’. This is a challenge of global concern.

Globalization means open communication worldwide. Nobody can expect to hide their activities in the end, as long as public attention is focused on them.

Purchasing activities is increasingly in the public focus – in particular in public enterprises like municipalities, for example in ’Green purchasing’.

Why focus on textile service purchasers?

Textile Service companies are purchasers of a significant amount of textiles and are unique by the fact that these companies take  responsibility for the entire maintenance cycle of the textiles. Textile service companies have already established many behaviours to limit the environmental impact of their own activities and the textiles supplied. This handbook will further support assurance that the environmental impacts of textile production are considered.

The main target group for this handbook are the professional purchasers of textiles in textile service companies. This group bears significant accountability for the ‘responsible behaviour’ of their companies but sometimes do lack ‘in-depth’ knowledge and understanding of environmental issues. This handbook aims to fill in the gaps.

No group of industries related to textile use in society is better equipped to deal with the ever existing dilemma between purchasing the cheapest available textiles on the world market – bearing no concern with how they are produced – versus the responsible purchase approach where the environment and social factors are considered a quality aspect of the textiles purchased.

It is our hope that this handbook can contribute to identifying a reasonable and balanced approach for environmental considerations in textile purchase, providing the appropriate guidance and tools for securing textiles – and textile services – a well deserved position as a environmentally sustainable industry.

Why a handbook?