Net Zero & Textiles: Industry Attitudes and Challenges

With roughly 2% of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions produced by the apparel sector, it is critical that the textiles industry addresses emissions. This ground-breaking study, including survey data from industry professionals, explores attitudes towards net zero in the textiles industry. This research identifies the key challenges facing organisations and stakeholders operating within the textiles sector.

Key areas addressed include, sustainability budgets, net zero targets, barriers to net zero, and key takeaways and recommendations.

This research explores attitudes towards net zero in the textiles industry, and identifies the key challenges faced as well as offering a series of recommendations for stakeholders moving forwards. This report a critical reading for c-suite members of the textiles profession, as well as stakeholders eager to understand sustainability and net zero challenges within textiles organisations. The survey results provide crucial insight into the current landscape and progress towards net zero within textiles.

Topics covered include:

• Sustainability budgets
• Net zero targets
• Barriers to net zero
• Environmental impacts on organisations
• External issues impacting business
• Challenges to net zero and overcoming these
• Net zero skills gap
• Key takeaways and recommendations

Textile Survey - Key Findings

Key Questions Answered:

• What are the major barriers and constraints in reaching net zero within the textiles sector?
• What proportion of textile companies have a plan to reach net zero, and how many have set a target to reach net zero?
• According to those within the textiles sector, which factors are having the biggest effect on the environmental impact of business operations?
• What can be done by companies within the textiles industry to work towards attaining net zero status?
• Are sustainability budgets set to increase over the next 12 months? Who within the organisation is the decision maker for this?

Data and Forecast

Deep-dive survey of professionals working within the textiles industry, with responses from across the sector (in terms of company size, business location, and industry representation.)

Survey carried out in partnership with textile industry analysts and experts WTiN (World Textile Information Network) broken into the following segments:

• respondent characteristics
• sustainability in textiles
• net zero in textiles
• barriers to net zero
• overcoming net zero barriers