DHAKA - A young woman has been killed and five other people injured in an explosion at a sweater factory - which reportedly supplies brands including H&M and Next - on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital city of Dhaka. Factory safety has once…
GENEVA - The H&M Group has agreed with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to co-operate on the ethical recruitment and protection of migrant workers in its global supply chains. H&M Group’s head of sustainability Anna Gedda and Simo…
YANGON – A new phase of the European Union’s SMART Textile and Garments project has kick-started, focusing on environmental sustainability within Myanmar’s apparel manufacturing industry. With backing from H&M, Bestseller and C&A, organisers of the…
NEW DELHI - At least 43 people have been killed in a fire believed to have been caused by an electrical fault at a garment factory in the Indian capital city of New Delhi. More than 100 people were reportedly sleeping inside the factory when the…
DHAKA – Ahead of this Sunday’s public commemorations of the 112 lives lost in a Bangladeshi factory fire seven years ago, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) reflects on the lack of progress its native industry has made in establishing a compensation…
ISTANBUL - A new report on the plight of Syrian refugees working in Turkey's garment industry says there is an urgent need for brands to act to improve conditions in their supply chains. Entitled Syrian Workers in Turkey's Garment Industry: Looking…
NEWCASTLE - The European Union is being urged by the lawyer authors of a new report to introduce new legislation to tackle poverty wages in global fashion supply chains. The Circle NGO, set up by the singer Annie Lennox to challenge injustices faced…
AMSTERDAM – Eight Dutch fashion brands including Kings of Indigo, Kuyichi and WE Fashion have today signed a ‘transparency pledge’ as part of their involvement with the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile initiative. In doing so, the…
SAN FRANCISCO – The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) has released the 2019 Higg Facility Modules; tools developed to improve social and environmental sustainability within the textiles industry. The introduction of the Higg Facility Environmental…
DHAKA – Fashion brands trade group American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) has written to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh expressing its fears for garment workers after the Nirapon safety monitoring organisation was shut down by the…
AUCKLAND - New Zealand fashion retailers Glassons and Hallenstein Brothers have introduced a whistleblower app to enable workers in supplier factories to report ethical breaches without fear of reprisal. Parent company Hallenstein Glasson Holdings…
BARCELONA – “When you look at the supply chain of an average retailer, when you look at how many workers are registered in that supply chain as a hypothetical example, you can factor in that there’ll be five times more invisible workers than visible…
NEW YORK - The head of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Myanmar, Marzuki Darusman, says the country is failing in its obligation under the Genocide Convention to prevent the mistreatment of ethnic minorities in the…
WASHINGTON – A new study conducted by the Fair Labor Association (FLA) has uncovered disparities in the maternity rights of women in Bangladesh’s ready-made garment (RMG) sector. Findings from anonymous interviews with 88 female workers spanning the…
BANGLADESH - Female garment workers producing Lululemon designer leggings are reportedly being physically and verbally assaulted at the Bangladeshi factory where they work. Young female factory workers told The Guardian newspaper how they struggled…
LONDON - BlackRock, the world's largest asset management firm, has entered into a global partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to set up an investment fund aimed at driving the development of a circular economy. BlackRock, which controls…
BRUSSELS – The Council of the European Union has given the green light to accelerate the transition of key sectors, including textiles, towards a circular economy and says it will encourage the use of economic instruments, such as taxation and…
KENDAL – The European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) has invited industry-wide input as it looks to whittle down the list of projects it’s set to fund with a combined €180,000 in the coming months. A public vote has opened today and will…
NEW YORK - The United States has blocked the import of goods suspected to have been made with forced labour from five countries, including clothing from China, in a rare crackdown on slave labour. The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it…
AMSTERDAM - Denim brand G-Star RAW has become the first Dutch company to sign up to the ACT initiative which campaigns for workers in the garment, textile and footwear industries to be paid a living wage. The popular label said it was proud to join…
YAMAGUCHI – Japanese fashion behemoth Fast Retailing has partnered with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to hone in on labour markets throughout Asia and improve social security and working environments. The owner of the Uniqlo brand,…
NARAYANGANJ - More than 40 people have been injured following clashes between police officers and garment workers protesting over unpaid wages in Bangladash. Police officers fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets to clear the protesters who were…
LONDON – The British Fashion Council (BF) has announced its intention to launch the Institute of Positive Fashion (IPF), saying that there is “an urgent need for industry-wide coalition to help set industry standards in a new way, embrace innovation…
XINJIANG – Supply chain risks are set to intensify for apparel brands sourcing from China due to the increasing use of forced labour in Uyghur detention camps in the Xinjiang region, according to a new report. Global risk analysis company Verisk…
DHAKA – The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BGMEA) – the trade body of apparel manufacturers in Bangladesh – is set to establish an RMG (ready-made garment) Sustainability Council, with the aim of implementing a…
LONDON – A collective of campaign groups which includes workers’ rights NGO Labour Behind the Label has called on school uniform supplier Trutex to disclose information about the factories from which it sources apparel, to ensure the firm can’t be…
AMSTERDAM – The UN Climate Change’s (UNCC) Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action has welcomed Dutch clothing brand G-Star Raw as a signatory. The popular denim brand has signed up to the UN’s 2018 initiative, which outlines a plan for the…
NEW DELHI – A new building safety initiative launching today in India, which promises to “build on the learnings and experiences” of the Bangladesh Accord, has been questioned by Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) which says that the very brands and…
YANGON – Apparel brand Esprit has gone on record to say that it will no longer source from a garment manufacturing facility believed to be linked to Myanmar’s military. This, after a recent report from the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding…
MANCHESTER – A new report commissioned off the back of Channel 4’s Dispatches investigation in 2017, which found that workers in Leicester, England, were paid less than half the legal minimum wage, has now discovered that the same level of…
BÖNNIGHEIM – Thread manufacturer, the Amann Group, has released its first ever Sustainability Report, in which it details the notable progress it has made to reduce resource consumption between 2015 and 2018, and lays out targets which it will…
UTRECHT – Solidaridad and its partner technology QuizRR have launched a pilot project to improve working conditions and productivity in China’s textile and garment supply chain. The project has received funding from the ASN Bank and will also…
Legislation has long been called for to drive lasting industry change. With France seemingly leading the way on fashion policy-making, are other nations, such as Canada, now ready to step up to the plate and make similarly transformative proposals?…
COLOMBO – Sri Lankan apparel manufacturer Brandix has set its sights on achieving 100 per cent carbon neutrality by 2023, part of its broader goal to record zero carbon footprint. The company is to invest US$28 million in its Batticaloa facility…
LONDON – A new report which delves into the state-of-play in Turkish apparel manufacturing facilities reports that Syrian refugees, of which 650,000 are employed in menial jobs throughout its supply chains, are exploited in the name of fast fashion;…
ISLE OF WIGHT – The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has called for 20 million designers to help move the global economy towards a circular model, using its new Circular Design Programme to shift products at end-of-life away from landfill. The Foundation…
STOCKHOLM – The H&M Group has launched its Social Entrepreneurship Project; through which it plans to engage with entrepreneurs in developing countries whose work brings about positive change in local communities. In collaboration with global…
ASHBOURNE – Fashion Revolution, which first collaborated with the NGO Microfinance Opportunities in 2016 to introduce the Garment Worker Diaries (GWD) – a research project documenting the lives of garment workers across Southeast Asia – has now…
NEW YORK – International non-governmental organisation (NGO) WaterAid has joined Gap Inc., and USAID’s (the United States Agency for International Development) Women + Water Global Development Alliance (W+W Alliance) as an implementing partner. The…
DHAKA – A new initiative introduced by Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE) will look to highlight progress made in the country’s garment manufacturing industry since the devastation of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013, by offering the…
AMSTERDAM – ZDHC has announced the addition of three new contributors to its Roadmap to Zero Programme, bringing the organisation’s growing pool of partners and contributors to 138, spanning 24 locations. Joining as Value Chain Affiliates, Trumpler…
OAKLAND – Ahead of its launch next year, the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute has today opened a 60-day window in which it wants industry stakeholders to feedback on potential revisions to its drafted Cradle to Cradle Certified Product…
AMSTERDAM – ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) has announced the release of version 1.1 of its Wastewater Guidelines. The industry coalition, which counts Inditex, Kering, H&M, Adidas and Nike amongst its contributors, has revised its…
DHAKA – Reports from the newspaper Dhaka Tribune allege that 180 workers – of which 65 are Bangladeshi – operating in the garment factory of Tex Knits Garment in Mauritius have not been paid salaries for the past two months and have, at times, had…
SAN FRANCISCO – As the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) confirms the appointment of Amina Razvi as its new executive director following a stint as interim, she tells Ecotextile News that a top priority in her new role will be the finalisation of…
BRUSSELS - Despite the best efforts of circular fashion advocates to scale up the implementation of sustainable business practices, visions of the future remain clouded. Until now, perhaps, as a new report lays out ambitious, detailed plans which…
XINJIANG – Fashion brand Target and Australian retailer Cotton On have opened investigations into suppliers in Xinjiang, China, after reports that detained Uyghur Muslim workers are being forced to make clothing. It’s alleged some workers are…
DHAKA – The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BGMEA) – the trade body of apparel manufacturers in Bangladesh – has joined the UN Climate Change’s Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action (UNFCCC) initiative. By joining…
LUBBOCK – Textile Exchange has released version 3.0 of its Responsible Down Standard (RDS), representing its first substantial revision since 2014. The standard covers more than 500 million birds ensuring brand and retail partners, of which it…
GENEVA – The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has become the latest signatory to the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action; a commitment through which it will work cohesively with a growing number of brands, manufacturers and organisations…
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