‘Ten years to transform textiles’: WRAP launches Textiles 2030

By Lottie Jackson

This week the UK’s leading sustainability charity, WRAP, launched the ‘most ambitious ten-year programme for clothing and textiles in the world’, with established high-street brands such as M&S, Next, ASOS, Boohoo and Primark having signed up to this vital agreement.

As the first in a new wave of international sustainable textile agreements, the Textiles 2030: UK Sustainable Textiles Action Plan urges business to help change clothes and homeware for good and halve their climate impact in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Over the next decade, the voluntary agreement will slash the environmental impact of UK clothing and home fabrics through practical interventions along the entire textiles chain. The agreement is supported by more than half the UK market at launch, with nearly 60% of clothing placed on the market (by sales volume) by UK retailers coming under the agreement.

“I’ve been impressed by the way business has committed to reducing the environmental impact of its products and striving for net zero. They clearly see this as core to their business models and essential for building back better as they recover from the pandemic.” says Marcus Gover, CEO of WRAP. “We have been working with business to develop Textiles 2030 to drive forward the sector-wide change needed to redress how we use textiles. Our research shows that public demand is there for clothes made more sustainably, and not disposable fashion so the time is right for this transformation.”

WRAP has also unveiled the Textiles 2030 Roadmap which will direct the actions under Textiles 2030. This sets out the water and carbon reduction targets, and the key milestones necessary to introduce circular use of textile products and materials at scale.

The Textiles 2030 Roadmap states what signatories must do to deliver the targets, with key outcomes by the end of 2022, 2025 and 2030. These environmental targets include:

·       Cut carbon by 50%, sufficient to put the UK textiles sector on a path consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change and achieving Net Zero by 2050 at the latest.

·       Reduce the aggregate water footprint of new products sold by 30%.

Roadmap ambitions for circular textiles, which partner signatories will join forces to achieve:

·       Design for Circularity: agree good practice principles, including durability, recyclability, use of recycled content and minimising waste, and implement them as appropriate to their business model and customer base, to lower the impact of product placed on market in the UK.

·       Implement Circular Business Models: pilot reuse business models as appropriate to their product ranges, share learning, and develop large-scale implementation to extend the lifetime of clothing in the UK – and decouple business growth from the use of virgin resources.

·       Close the Loop on Materials: set up partnerships to supply and use recycled fibres for new products, accelerating the commercialisation of fibre-to-fibre recycling in the UK.

Textiles 2030 is also being supported by Baroness Young of Hornsey OBE. The Crossbench peer and Co-Chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion: “We urgently need to protect the planet from the damaging, unsustainable impact of the way we produce and consume clothing and textiles. Innovation, creativity and commitment, underpinned by collaboration is essential if we are to be successful. By working together, businesses across the UK can take the critical steps needed to transform business practices in the sector for good and achieve our climate goals. With WRAP’s expertise in delivering initiatives such as Textiles 2030, and with the sector’s knowledge and expertise I am excited by the impact we can achieve together. I urge every fashion and textiles business in the UK to sign up to Textiles 2030.”

Check out the Textiles 2030: UK Sustainable Textile Action Plan – a roadmap to 2030 here.

Further details and joining information can be found here.