Mapping Sustainability Trends for Apparel, Mills & Sundries

Authors

• Joyce Wong

  Former Associate, BSR

• Julia Nelson

  Former Manager, BSR

At the recent Apparel, Mills and Sundries Working Group meeting in Shenzhen, China, the 65 attendees from global brands and their strategic suppliers took turns mapping labor, environmental, and economic trends that are impacting their ability to achieve socially responsible, environmentally sustainable, and profitable textile and sundries production.

These trends—which included labor and energy shortages in China, rising raw material costs, climate change impacts, and increasing government regulation without adequate support—set the context for the rest of the day’s discussions on how to establish common goals between brands and suppliers to tackle some of these challenges.