The Partnership for Sustainable Textiles sees itself as a platform for sharing knowledge, learning and dialogue. Information and experience are processed and shared with all members via webinars and workshops, work in expert and project groups and by means of tools and support material.

The Textiles Partnership pursues a holistic approach and covers a wide range of themes. Working groups devote themselves to individual topics such as supply chain transparency, purchasing practices, chemical safety, or natural and synthetic fibres.

Four New Expert Groups

Expert groups aim to address individual topics across all three fields of work of the Textiles Partnership: individual responsibility, collective engagement and mutual support. Beyond this, they also strive to set up strategic cooperations on specific topics with relevant partners and organisations. Four new expert groups were launched in 2020, on climate action, circular economy, gender-based violence and chemical safety.

Coping with the crisis together

During the COVID-19 crisis, the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles strove to provide its members with the best possible support, by means of numerous information and exchange formats, guidelines, a comprehensive range of information on the website and joint activities with other organisations.

COVID-19 Update

In its COVID-19 update on its website, the Textiles Partnership has given its members sector-specific information, amongst other things about impacts on textile supply chains, guiding principles for responsible purchasing practices and specific information on 15 producing countries.

Wide range of topics reflected in events

Besides the various support activities related to COVID-19, a large number of mainly virtual events took place. The range of topics addressed by the Partnership was also reflected in the demand for and participation in learning and dialogue formats. These concerned supply chain management and relations with partners in the supply network, the implementation of due diligence obligations in each company and at political level, risk analysis, living wages and purchasing practices, circular economy, climate action and environmental topics.

Top 10 Events by number of participants

With the Zoom meetings, video calls and network meetings, virtual events characterised the year of the pandemic like never before. The two main annual events of the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles – the Working Meeting and the Members’ Meeting – also took place online in 2020. Despite the lack of personal meetings or small-talk during coffee breaks, the online events nevertheless offered an opportunity to exchange ideas and information and to carry out substantive work on the topics addressed by the Textiles Partnership. The virtual formats also have the advantage that more people can participate, irrespective of their location. Thus, experts from Bangladesh, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong took part in the panel discussion, which was live-streamed to the participants’ (home) offices.

The guideline on risk analysis help to identify and then prioritise the social, environmental and corruption risks in company’s supply chain. As well as meeting basic requirements for corporate due diligence processes, the risk analysis also forms the basis of the Review Process in the PST. The new Partnership tool, Textile Risk Expert System (T-REXS for short), offers support in this context.

The guidelines on supply chain transparency explain how supply chains can gradually be made more transparent. They provide the necessary information needed to map supply chains and the involved stakeholders beyond direct business partners. They also offer guidance on how greater transparency can be created for external stakeholders and what opportunities exist for disclosing supply chain data.

In 2020, the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) published the Playbook for Climate Action for the textile and garment sector. The Charter aims to achieve net zero emissions throughout the sector by 2050 at the latest. The Textiles Partnership is one of the Charter’s supporting organisations. The German translation of the Playbook for Climate Action is now available.