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Founded in 1972, the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system, and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
UN Environment aims to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
UN Environment works through its divisions as well as liaising between the regional offices and out-posted offices and a growing network of collaborating centres of excellence.
UN Environment maintains sustainability while focusing its work on seven broad thematic areas that include:
UN Environment contributes through its activities and work streams on Sound Chemicals Management, Sustainable Consumption and Production, Resource Efficiency, and Circular Economy in different sectors, including the textile and fashion sectors; and Environmental Education and Training for Sustainable Development. In addition, UN Environment contributes to related platforms and initiatives – to enhance synergies globally.
UN Environment is working on the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) project that focuses on sound management of chemicals and highlights emerging policy issues. The key issue highlighted in this project is the chemicals in products (CiP). The CiP programme, approved in 2015, includes a set of objectives and methodologies which facilitate stakeholders’ access to information on the chemical content of manufactured products. The program, as applied in China in the textile industry, aims to identify and demonstrate best practices and stakeholder roles and responsibilities for chemicals information exchange in textile products.
Additionally, UN Environment has conducted a review of the textile value chain through a life cycle analysis, addressing social and environmental impacts. Results from this study will enable a focus of eco-innovative solutions in the most problematic stages of the life cycle (plantation of cotton and dyeing stages for cotton textile, and fibre production and dyeing stages for polyester textiles).
UN Environment through its Economy Division is currently working on sustainable textile and fashion through approaches that include:
Eco-innovation
This methodology develops new business models and strategies which incorporate sustainability through life cycle thinking and cooperation across the value chain. Eco-Innovation is not only actively working with companies but also offers support to governments in developing policies to enable eco-innovation in their countries. It is specifically designed to be applied also by small enterprises and can be seen by large brands as an effective way to engage companies, especially SMEs, with their value chains and help them comply with their requirements. It has been implemented in developing countries in companies working on the chemicals value chain, including dyeing and spinning companies from the textile sector, as well as in the agri-food sector. The UN Environment–UNIDO Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production network (RECPnet) supports the outreach to companies, especially SMEs in developing, manufacturing countries.
The life cycle approach
An assessment of the textile value chain based on a life cycle approaches highlights the most problematic products, processes and stages (called “hotspots”). Hotspot analysis is understood as a simplified Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that uses available data to roughly but accurately understand the main sources of environmental impact or social risk in a system. Using this type of assessment allows UNEP to focus on what is important and to understand where actions are necessary to reduce impacts. By applying this approach, UN Environment works with partners to guide decisions for targeted action across the life cycle of the textile value chain.
Sustainable lifestyles
UN Environment’s work on sustainable living and lifestyles applies a people-centric lens to examine how the way we eat, move, work and play affects the planet, the people around us and how we can take positive action to improve everyone’s well-being and reverse alarming trends. Fashion is a key domain, particularly in the areas of fast fashion for the young, new consumers (2-3 billion anticipated in urban areas) expected to come on line in the next decades. Fashion is one of the core lifestyle areas followed by the One Planet Network Programme on Sustainable Lifestyles and Education, which is co-led by the governments of Sweden and Japan. UN Environment contributes to the Programme as an advisory committee member with research, piloting and practical guidance. The Options and Opportunities guidelines (which include fashion) help urban policy makers and cultural influencers co-create initiatives that activate people to make a difference. In 2019, building on the Good Life Goals, a tool for how people can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, additional videos are being developed highlighting every day actions people can take around food, stuff (which includes fashion), moving, money and aspirations.
Consumer Information
Consumer information tools, such as ecolabels, voluntary standards or marketing claims, aim to enable consumers to make more sustainable decisions regarding product purchase, use and end of life. It is important that information provided is reliable. Therefore, UN Environment, together with the International Trade Centre, has developed international ‘Guidelines for providing product sustainability information’, which can guide and encourage producers and other actors in the textile sector to make reliable claims about their products’ sustainability performance. The Guidelines are a key output of the One Planet network Consumer Information Programme and have been road tested in specific sectors, including the textile one.
In January 2019, UN Environment convened a multi-stakeholder workshop under the theme ‘Accelerating Actions for a Sustainable Textile Value Chain within a Circular Economy’. Overall, the group highlighted the importance of looking at a system, the full textiles value chain, with an approach based on circularity. The importance of involving all stakeholders was stressed: government, companies, research institutions, waste sector, finance sector, consumers. Suggested prioritised actions reflected the engagement of these key actors in a sustainable textiles value chain, in the areas of consumption, business model and innovation, technology, production and transparency.
Based on current consumption trends and current work, UN Environment envisages to reinforce, with its partners, efforts around the fashion and textile sector. It is expected to take the form of a multi-stakeholder engagement towards sustainable textile value chains, with the aim to increase the circular economy approach, while supporting sound management of chemicals, to reach a non-toxic circular economy that promotes decent work. This will be complemented by continued sustainable living and lifestyle initiatives that will address fashion given its central role in consumer purchasing.
Future work is expected to:
The Fourth UN Environment Assembly laid the groundwork for a radical shift to a more sustainable future, where innovation will be harnessed to tackle environmental challenges and development will no longer cost the earth. Complementing five days of deliberations by delegates drawn from more than 170 United Nations Member States, were a crescendo of events laying out a vision for sustainable fashion in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. Read more…
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