Authored by Sara Cavagnero1*
Abstract
The textile and food industries seem worlds apart. One is focused on trend-setting and design, the other on growing, processing, manufacturing and distributing food, from the farm to retail shops and restaurants. For a long time, synergies and trade-offs between these sectors have been overlooked. More recently, however, the two industries came together to tackle common challenges, unleashing innovative and sustainable solutions.
Through a theoretical and empirical analysis, this paper investigates emerging methods of treating food waste and by-products to produce fibres, arguing that cross-industry collaboration can lead to regenerative impacts for the benefit of nature, society, and economy. Orange Fibre, Piñatex, S. Café are among the case studies scrutinised to illustrate the advantages related to edible innovations. Turning waste into a resource is essential to increase efficiency and close the loop in a circular economy, improve waste management practices, and limit the use of landfilling, in line with the EU Framework Directive on waste and SDG 12.3. Furthermore, recycled and innovative fibres do not require any extra farmland, water, fertilisers or pesticides to be produced.
Fostering cross-industry collaboration, pursuant to SDG 17, can also serve as a source of brand differentiation. As more-sustainable solutions seem increasingly attractive for a growing customer base, partnerships may open up new opportunities for business, despite the pressures of resource scarcity.
Introduction
The world is currently implementing the Agenda 2030 adopted by the UN in 2015 (United Nations, 2015). With unprecedented resources constraints and just 10 years left to the 2030 deadline, the achievement of the SDGs requires immediate and accelerated actions, as well as collaborative partnerships among stakeholders at all levels to go beyond a business as usual scenario. The ways societies – at individual, corporate, national, and international levels – translate this global blueprint into actions vary among the world’s regions, but it appears that there are still major challenges to be faced. Indeed, the rate of global progress is not keeping pace with the ambitions of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and no country is on track to meet all the targets by 2030 in terms of financial resources and political support [1]. In addition, the growing pressure on the planetary boundaries, as defined by the Stockholm Resilience Center, is generating continuing deterioration of the biophysical environment – threatening largescale ecosystems collapse [2,3].
Globally, millions of workers, communities, and businesses are involved directly and indirectly in the complex and fragmented food and apparel value chains. Albeit being considered as worlds apart, garments and food share many similarities: they are both commodity products, which have origins in agricultural systems - food in an almost total way, while natural fibers make up 27% of the global supply [4]. Apparel and food are typically manufactured from little valued and indiscriminately sourced raw materials involving hard labour at the beginning of the supply chain, and intensive commercialization at the end [5]. The price of both food and clothing has reduced over the last twenty years, while the purchased volume has increased [6]. Over-consumption, as well as linear models for producing, distributing, and disposing goods characterizes both sectors [7,8].
Acting upon the sectors’ vast sustainability challenges and risks in a concerted manner would contribute to the achievement of several SDGs, such as ending poverty, adapting to climate change and fostering inclusive growth. The table in Figure 1 aims at highlighting the linkages and trade-offs of acting towards the achievement of nine SDGs, where the industries have the most direct social and environmental footprint. Partnership is a cross cutting issue across these clusters.
For the sake of clarity, it is relevant to notice that although the terms are often used as synonyms, the fashion and textile industry do not coincide. The latter commonly concerns the production of yarn, textiles and fabrics, while the former (also referred to as the garment or apparel industry) relates to the production of clothing. The textile sector also includes household and technical/ industrial textiles, while the fashion industry encompasses shoes, bags, jewellery and other accessories [9,10]. Such considerations are relevant to bear in mind when examining data, as it is often difficult to distinguish the garment and textile sectors within their complex, multi-layered and fragmented supply chains, although the second is broader and includes - among the others - home ware and bedding [11]. Another important consideration is that estimates are inconsistent, as no standard method for calculations of either the environmental or social impact has been accepted in the industry. However, for sustainability assessment to be successful, reliable, timely and granular data are needed to emphasise where the industry is making progress and where it is falling behind.
System Thinking: Leveraging Interactions Between the Food and Textile Industries
Under pressure from investors, employees, civil society, consumers, and other stakeholders to become more sustainable, the two sectors are starting to recognize the business opportunities inherent in cross-industry collaboration, in line with SDG 17. However, finding efficient and effective means of addressing negative externalities while taking advantage of synergies will require the implementation of a systematic and holistic approach.
This is already partially happening in the agricultural and food sector with a progressive shift towards a food system approach: in 2017 the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) embarked on a multi-stakeholder policy convergence process which will lead to the development of Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition. Well-known methods like the value chain development and the market systems approach are deemed to be, in certain instances, too narrow. The former evaluates how value is generated and secured not only by producers, but also by other stakeholders - i.e. workers, governments and consumers - with a view to improve the value chain efficiency through systemic analysis and integrated interventions. Nonetheless, this approach focuses on one particular commodity, often neglecting the synergies and trade-offs with other food value chains. Similarly, the market systems approach considers market linkages to address constraints affecting multiple value chains but it is usually limited to one market [12]. The food system approach is instead a wider concept and takes into account all the subsystems - e.g. input supply, farming, waste management, etc. - of a given food system as well as their interactions with other key systems - e.g. energy, trade, health, etc. Food systems also add an overall societal and environmental perspective by considering crucial subjects as food security, health, nutrition, employment, research, education, protection of the natural environmental, tradeoffs between the multiple objectives of agriculture (food, feed, fuel and fibre) and so on. It thus encompasses political, economic, social and environmental dimensions.
In this regard, the textile and fashion sector seem to lag behind, as the “cradle-to-grave” impact of a product is not being comprehensively evaluated yet. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a globally accepted and product-oriented method for analysing environmental impacts of a good’s entire life cycle, including raw material extraction and processing, product manufacture, distribution, use, disposal and recycling [13], is being implemented only by a few brands, notably by the Kering Group through the Environmental Profit and Loss (EP&L) or by Reformation’s RefScale. When it comes to social issues, comprehensive evaluations are even less widespread. The closest tool to LCA is the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA), which is quite problematic in terms of data collection [14]. Indeed, regardless S-LCA’s quantitative nature, some social issues like health and well-being are difficult to measure against given benchmarks and many indicators depict circumstances related to the manufacturing facilities rather than the product itself, which producers are much more hesitant to reveal.
All in all, the adoption of a systemic approach appears a challenging but highly desirable outcome to shed light on nonlinear processes in the textile and fashion industry, and on possible trade-offs between activities and policy objectives. Systemic thinking also broadens the perspective when seeking solutions for the root causes of problems such as labour and natural resources exploitation, acknowledging interactions not only within the industry but also across different sectors, ultimately linking with, and integrating into, innovative and more sustainable value chains.
Addressing Common Challenges to Secure Long-Term Sustainable Outcomes
Implementing collaborative programs based on a systemic thinking approach enables companies to make significant progress in a relatively short amount of time. Benefitting from key learning’s, expertise, and best practices generated by frontrunners, companies can enhance their performance in environmental as well as social areas, while generating proof-points supporting the business case for sustainability.
In the fashion industry, there is a strong push to make every phase of production more sustainable. In particular, following alarming warnings concerning rising costs of materials as well as increased consumer demand for more sustainable products, major maisons, companies in the mid-price segment and, lately, even fast fashion brands, are adjusting their business models and investing in innovation [15]. Thanks to the increased visibility connected to their own sustainability performance, companies have started to take specific actions targeting their input materials, and finding less resource-intensive fabrics is now considered as a priority [16].
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