Ecotextile Talks

In the second of a four part podcast series in partnership with Cascale, formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, we look at the potential impact on the textile industry of revolutionary new EU laws on green claims and eco-design.

Regular host Philip Berman is joined by Elisabeth von Reitzenstein, senior director of public affairs at Cascale and Baptiste Carriere-Pradal, co-founder of the 2BPolicy consultancy.

You can sign up to Cascale's public affairs newsletter, that Elisabeth mentions in the podcast, here.

You can get in touch with Baptiste's consultancy company here.

Welcome to a new four part podcast series in partnership with Cascale, formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, about the big challenges facing the industry, and Cascale's role in co-creating solutions at scale.

The first episode is about Measuring for Impact with host Philip Berman in conversation with:

Quentin Thorel, the Group Head of Sustainability of CIEL Textile with its HQ in Mauritius.

Ciel Textiles supplies fabrics and garments to some of the most iconic fashion brands in the world such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Armani, Hackett, Barbour, Levis, Tommy Calvin Klein, Lacoste and the list goes on and on…

It employs 23,000 people in four countries, Madagascar, Mauritius, India and Bangladesh and since 2019 has used both the Higg Facility Environmental, and Higg Facility Social & Labor Modules across all of its sites.

And Jeremy Lardeau, Senior VP of the Higg Index at Cascale who oversees the strategic direction and development of the Higg Index suite of tools.

Sustainability data and measurement are critical to drive meaningful action, so we ask whether Higg Facility tools (Higg FEM and Higg FSLM) can help users to improve the way they make sustainable decisions, and whether the Higg FEM 4.0 update has brought necessary changes to the tool? We also discuss why the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) has changed its name to Cascale.

In the second episode of this podcast series, produced in partnership with the Apparel Impact Institute about its Climate Solutions Portfolio (CSP), we take a look at the tool it's built to help decide who should get the funding, and what a winning application looks like.

As a quick re-cap, the CSP aims to find, feature and fund any initiative, project or piece of tech with the potential to reduce energy use and/or greenhouse gas emissions at scale in the industry.

And it has up to 250,000 dollars per year to award to projects that have the data to show they have the potential to make an impact.

In this episode, Ecotextile News correspondent Phil Patterson and environmental scientist Linda Greer explain how they developed a tool they call the 'Ready Reckoner' – to objectively compare the overall CO2 savings of different innovations and solutions across all parts of the textile manufacturing process.

Phil Patterson told host Phil Berman that he's come up with a punchier, and more colloquial nickname for the tool.

"Apologies for my language, but it's a bit of an 'eco bullsh*t detector' because there's lots of innovation out there but there are lots of people overclaiming the benefits that their solutions can deliver."

"What we've created is what we call a gas map of the entire supply chain, which is essentially looking at where greenhouse gases emissions occur, allocating a percentage of those emissions to individual processes within the supply chain.

Patterson and Greer talk in detail about how the tool can be used, and how it can be improved in the future as better data becomes available.

And most importantly they both drop some big hints on what they are looking for in applications, with lots of do's and don'ts.

Applications are open from 1 to 31 March, 2024.

To find out more about the Portolio, do check out its dedicated site where you can also contact their team if you need help with your application.

In partnership with the Apparel Impact Institute, Philip Berman takes an in-depth look at its new The Climate Solutions Portfolio which aims to find, feature and fund any initiative with the potential to reduce energy use and/or greenhouse gas emissions at scale in the industry.

And it has up to 250,000 dollars per year to award to projects that have the data to show they have the potential to make a big impact.

In this first episode, Philip Berman was joined by Kurt Kipka, the Apparel Impact Institute's Chief Impact Officer, and Linda Greer, who sits on the Institute's advisory panel and is one of the experts assessing the grant applications.

They talked about, why the Institute believe their new approach is needed, why there is no online registry of proven solutions, and what the Institute is doing about it, how the grants are being funded, and previous winners.

In episode 2, which is released on 29 February, there will be lots of tips on how to apply and what their team is looking for.

Applications open from 1 to 31 March, 2024.

If you want to find out more about the Portolio check out its dedicated site where you can also contact their team if you need help with your application.

In partnership with the Apparel Impact Institute, host Philip Berman takes an in-depth look at its new The Climate Solutions Portfolio which aims to find, feature and fund any initiative with the potential to reduce energy use and/or greenhouse gas emissions at scale in the industry.

And it has up to 250,000 dollars per year to award to projects that have the data to show they have the potential to make a big impact.

Launching Thursday 22nd February 6am GMT!

Subscribe for free now!!

To coincide with the week of World Soil Day 2023, our third and final episode of our Threaded Together: cotton and sustainability podcast series, sponsored by Cotton Incorporated, looks at the US Climate Smart Cotton Program- a bold, new and exciting initiative in the US, which aims to measure and improve the country's cottons' carbon footprint.

We look at what it is, how it works, who can take part, why it's needed, who benefits from it and why it's of interest to the whole value chain in the textile industry.

To answer these questions, host Philip Berman is joined by:

Daren Abney, the Executive Director of the US Cotton Trust Protocol, which leads on the programme.

Dr Cristine Morgan, Chief Scientific Officer at the Soil Health Institute, which is partner on the programme.

Dr Jesse Daystar, Chief Sustainability Officer at Cotton Incorporated, which is partner on the programme.

Daren Abney tells listeners: "I think this opportunity really came about because the US government is seeing agriculture at scale as an opportunity to address climate challenges."

Soil health expert Dr Morgan explains later in the podcast: "The main thing that we want to do is improve the soil. We want to get carbon out of the atmosphere and we also want to release fewer greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."

Here are the factsheets recently released by Dr Morgan that she says demonstrate how soil health management systems are making cotton growers more profitable.

• -Factsheet: Economics of Soil Health Management Systems on Eight Cotton Farms in Georgia
• Factsheet: Economics of Soil Health Systems on Eight Cotton Farms in the Texas Southern Great Plains
• Webinar: Economics of Soil Health Systems on Eight Cotton Farms in the Texas Southern Great Plains

Other partners in the programme include, Cotton Council International, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State University, Alabama A&M University and Texas A&M AgriLife Research.

Cotton Incorporated is a US-based, not-for-profit company, that provides resources and research to help companies develop and market innovative and profitable cotton products.

Cick here for Episode One of Threaded Together: Cotton and Sustainability

and

Click here for Episode Two of Threaded Together: How best to measure cotton's environmental impact.

For a look at our complete podcast archive, click HERE.Subscribe to our podcasts and radio shows by following us on Apple, Google, Spotify and Amazon Music, to automatically get alerts when we launch a new Ecotextile Talks Behind the News podcast.

In the second of this three-part podcast series: 'Threaded Together' about cotton sustainability, host Philip Berman talks to Dr Jesse Daystar, from Cotton Incorporated and Joel Mertens from the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, about the best way(s) to measure sustainability in the cotton industry and how it can drive change.

Jesse and Joel discuss the purpose of a life cycle assessment (LCA), the different types and, in light of the recent KMPG review of the SAC's Higg Product Module, how they should be used, how they can get misused and their limitations.

Cotton Incorporated is a US-based, not-for-profit company, that provides resources and research to help companies develop and market innovative, and profitable cotton products.

It's probably best known for its Seal of Cotton trademark which was created 50 years ago, in 1973, and has become an iconic symbol to consumers and is globally recognized by the textile industry.

Subscribe to our podcasts and radio shows by following us on Apple, Google, Spotify and Amazon Music, to automatically get alerts when we launch a new Ecotextile Talks Behind the News podcast.

Many fashion brands and retailers talk a good game on circularity, but will they ever consistently pay a premium for materials made using 100% textile-to-textile recycling?

Acting CEO of Renewcell Magnus Håkansson joins Ecotextile Talks to discuss the company's current challenges in receiving a higher price for a product offering the circularity so often discussed at textile sustainability conferences.

Despite great industry excitement when Renewcell moved to a full-scale production facility earlier this year, in readiness for full commercialisation, the Swedish innovator has encountered a difficult few months since the summer of 2023.

Share prices have tumbled amid concern that the appetite for Renewcell's proprietary Circulose pulp may not perhaps as high as expected - despite several take-off agreements having suggested this would not be an issue.

The latest instalment of Ecotextile Talks sets out to better understand the situation behind a slump in optimism about the scaling up of a much-discussed company which aims to help fashion firms move away from linear practices.

In a new three-part sponsored series entitled, Threaded Together, podcast host Philip Berman looks at Cotton Incorporated's role in improving the sustainability of cotton in the textile industry.

Cotton Incorporated a US-based, not-for-profit company, provides resources and research to help companies develop and market innovative, and profitable cotton products.

It's probably best known for its Seal of Cotton trademark which was created 50 years ago, in 1973, and has become an iconic symbol to consumers and is globally recognized by the textile industry.

In this first episode Philip Berman talks to Dr Jesse Daystar, a Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Cotton Inc; Mary Ankeny, the organisation's Vice President of Product Development and Operations; and Dr Joe Sagues, Assistant Professor in Biological and Agricultural Engineering at North Carolina State University.

They enjoy a wide-ranging discussion covering issues from, the biodegradability of cotton and its impact on microfibre pollution, to pioneering research into composting cotton textile waste to capture CO2.

Subscribe to our podcasts and radio shows by following us on Apple, Google, Spotify and Amazon Music, to automatically get alerts when we launch a new Ecotextile Talks Behind the News podcast.

Following a report outlining the potential benefits for fashion brands looking to integrate resale into their business model, Ecotextile Talks hears from Andy Ruben, founder of recommerce specialist Trove, who shares his insights on where the greatest opportunities lie.

In a conversation dominated by statistics rather than rhetoric, Ruben speaks to Ecotextile News editor John Mowbray at an industry event in Boston to discuss how Trove worked with sustainable tech platform Worldly to identify the fields in which second-hand apparel can directly improve the economic and environmental outputs of brands.

Rather than casting apparel resale as a solve-all solution, Ruben shares data suggesting successful approaches will always need to be tailored according to variables such as retail price points and will likely prove far more effective for certain market segments.

"When you make items that have value beyond the first sale – which tend to be higher price point items because people can't access them on the first go around – they [consumers] covet those brands, they're strong brands, they want them on the second go around," Ruben states, referring to the resale suitability of premium, luxury and outdoor apparel.

The episode also dives into how the research, published in Where Are Circular Models Effective Sustainability Strategies for Fashion Brands?, was devised and conducted.