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The UN Sustainable Development Goals for the Textile and Fashion Industry pp 21–46Cite as

Sustainable Development Goal 12 and Its Relationship with the Textile Industry

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Part of the book series: Textile Science and Clothing Technology ((TSCT))

Abstract

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals set the course: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Out of these 17 goals—also known as SDG—number 12 refers to sustainable production and consumption. It basically means a reduced use of resources and/or their correct management. The circular economy, for its part, aims to continuously keep products, components, and materials at their highest value. It proposes a long-term system in which today’s goods can become tomorrow’s materials, availing of prudence and equity to reconcile development and economy with environment and society. In this way, industrial processes are no longer a threat to the ecosystem, but, on the contrary, they seek to revalorise resources, thus promoting sustainable development. The textile industry is an essential part of people’s everyday life and a very important sector in the global economy. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to analyse SDG 12 and how it can be applied to the textile industry, considering the circular economy as a way towards sustainable development. In this connection, the chapter begins with an introduction to the SDGs, particularly to SDG 12, continues presenting the concepts of circular economy and textile industry, and concludes with the association of those concepts with cases such as Dutchawearness (the Netherlands), Excess Materials Exchange (the Netherlands), Rapanui (UK), Stylelend (New York), and Tejidos Royo (Spain). The chapter draws a few conclusions at the end, which could be summarised by stating that, to bring about a change of outlook, the circular economy should be at the heart of the company, reorganising resources, assets, capital and, above all, business potential to ensure the future of the company, which is the only way to achieve SDG 12.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For more information, please visit: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/es/home/sustainable-development-goals.html.

  2. 2.

    For more information, please visit: https://www.globalgoals.org/12-responsible-consumption-and-production.

  3. 3.

    Planned obsolescence shortens product life in order to encourage consumers to replace products; thus, consumption becomes an industry driver and creating more jobs. When the concept was first coined, it was based on the wrong idea that natural resources were infinite.

  4. 4.

    The background to the circular economy includes various schools and lines of thought, which evolved into different circular economy models. These currents are characterised by their focus on nature and emerge as urgent calls for a change of paradigm to offer sustainable development models. Among them, we can mention:

    • “Cradle to Cradle” [18] proposed to extend the useful life of materials while sorting components—previously regarded as waste—into biological or technical components.

    • Regenerative Design, which means to regenerate energy and matter during the production process.

    • Industrial Ecology, which, according to Graedel and Allenby [12], is “the means by which humanity can deliberately and rationally approach and maintain a desirable carrying capacity, given continued economic, cultural, and technological evolution. The concept requires that an industrial system be viewed not in isolation from its surrounding systems, but in concert with them. It is a systems view in which one seeks to optimize the total materials cycle from virgin material, to finished material, to component, to product, to obsolete product, and to ultimate disposal. Factors to be optimised include resources, energy, and capital” [12: 9].

    • Blue Economy, which is based on physics, using natural systems that cascade nutrients, energy, and materials. Gravity is the main source of energy, solar energy is the natural fuel, and water is the primary solvent.

    • We could also mention biomimicry [2] and permaculture [19].

  5. 5.

    Businesses should inspire, educate and create programmes to encourage consumers to embrace more sustainable practices. For example, at product end of life, they should make consumers return products to the store or fix them if damaged.

  6. 6.

    Source: https://pic-style.com/about-us/.

  7. 7.

    For more information, please visit: https://tonle.com/pages/zero-waste.

  8. 8.

    For more information, please visit: https://mudjeans.eu/.

  9. 9.

    Source: Website: http://www.orangefiber.it/home/ Accessed: 15 December 2018.

  10. 10.

    Source: Website: http://excessmaterialsexchange.com Accessed: 12 December 2018 and corporate documents.

  11. 11.

    Source: website: http://www.tejidosroyo.com Accessed: 9 December 2018 and corporate documents.

  12. 12.

    Oeko-Tex is the most widely used environmental standard on a global basis. It belongs to the International Association for Research and Testing in the Field of Textile Ecology, based in Switzerland. Mowbray and Davids [21].

  13. 13.

    Global Recycling Standard.

  14. 14.

    Organic Cotton Standard.

  15. 15.

    Institute for Ethic and Environmental Certification.

  16. 16.

    Better Cotton Initiative promotes a fairer industry by reducing the environmental and social impact caused by cotton growing. Source: Mowbray and Davids [21].

  17. 17.

    Business Social Compliance Initiative is a non-profit organisation based in Brussels that seeks to achieve and promote corporate social responsibility. Source: Mowbray and Davids [21].

  18. 18.

    Company MUD is working with this fabric, while delivering used garments and textile remnants to generate this fibre.

  19. 19.

    Source: Website: https://rapanuiclothing.com. Accessed: 8 December 2018.

  20. 20.

    Cotton seed remnants are pressed with other ingredients and used for animal feed, thus disposing of cotton processing waste and residues.

  21. 21.

    Both to ensure transparency and to bring producers and employees closer to users, Rapanui features every person responsible for the different cotton processing and textile creation stages on its website.

  22. 22.

    They use renewable energy. In the UK, they have a solar energy plant. In India, the factory is fitted with two wind turbines.

  23. 23.

    Information posted on: Teemill.com.

  24. 24.

    Source: Website: http://dutchawearness.com. Access: 10 December 2018 and corporate documents.

  25. 25.

    The firm has a separate website for these products: www.cliffstore.nl.

  26. 26.

    Source: Website: https://stylelend.com/how-it-works. Accessed: 11 December 2018 and corporate documents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sustainable Textile Center, Paroissien 2680, 5th “B”, C1429CXP, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Marisa Gabriel

  2. Sustainable Textile Center, Imperio Argentina 12, gate 2, 4th B, 29004, Malaga, Spain

    María Lourdes Delgado Luque

Authors
  1. Marisa Gabriel
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  2. María Lourdes Delgado Luque
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Correspondence to Marisa Gabriel .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Studies on Sustainable Luxury, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Miguel Angel Gardetti

  2. SgT Group & API, Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu

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Gabriel, M., Luque, M.L.D. (2020). Sustainable Development Goal 12 and Its Relationship with the Textile Industry. In: Gardetti, M., Muthu, S. (eds) The UN Sustainable Development Goals for the Textile and Fashion Industry. Textile Science and Clothing Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8787-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8787-6_2

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