Textile Exchange

🔔 Understanding the environmental risks linked to leather production is becoming easier with new, location-specific insights. Textile Exchange’s Materials Impact Explorer tool has now been updated to include leather as an additional material category. The update includes risk ratings and recommendations tailored to the raw material country of origin for the production of cattle for bovine leather. This pioneering risk assessment tool is designed to help brands and retailers understand the potential risks relating to the raw materials they source and how they can mitigate them. It can also be used to support risk assessment for several reporting and disclosure frameworks. Powered by partnership, the Materials Impact Explorer combines Google Cloud’s technical capabilities with WWF’s conservation expertise to provide context-based recommendations to the fashion, textile, and apparel industry. 🔗 Explore the latest update to the tool at https://lnkd.in/diz9V6wj

🌱Join us for the Organic Cotton Summit in 2026 Organic Cotton Accelerator and Textile Exchange are excited to invite you to join the Organic Cotton Summit taking place from June 2–4 2026 in Istanbul, with an optional field trip in Izmir, Türkiye. This landmark gathering gives you the chance to connect directly with the people and organizations shaping the future of organic cotton. Over the first two days, farmers, brands, manufacturers, policymakers, and innovators will share practical insights, address real-world challenges, and explore pathways toward a more resilient, sustainable, and scalable organic cotton sector. The industry is at a pivotal moment, and your participation matters. Whether you’re navigating growing pressures on the ground, seeking solutions that deliver both impact and scale, or exploring new collaborations, the Summit offers a place where challenges, ambition, and opportunities meet. Expect shared learning, hands-on problem-solving, and meaningful conversations that can accelerate transformative progress for organic cotton.     Türkiye offers the ideal setting for this global event, with its rich heritage in cotton and its unique position as a natural crossroads for participants from around the world. On the third day of the Summit, you will also have the chance to join a field trip in the Aegean region near Izmir, to witness local organic cotton farming and supply chain innovations firsthand.  Save the date: more details and registration coming soon! 📷: Anass Ouaziz, Shutterstock

This year, there was a noticeable shift. Our annual conference always leaves attendees feeling energized, but this year it went further. While the need for solutions is more urgent than ever, there was a recognition that disruption and uncertainty can be catalysts for systems-level progress, and that collective action is what will get us there. Incorporating a diversity of voices, sessions and plenaries explored place-based insights, local approaches, and how these can be effectively integrated into global strategies for climate and nature. With perspectives from across the supply system, it was clear that collaboration and innovation are redefining the future of the fashion, apparel, and textile industry. Our community of changemakers came from all around the globe, united in a desire to accelerate action and see our industry transform to meet shared climate and nature goals. We all share the same vision: a textile industry that values nature, promotes biodiversity, and supports the communities who are the closest to the source. Watch the highlights below and feel the momentum driving systems change forward. Want to know more? Discover the key takeaways from this year's conference: https://lnkd.in/daGZC5Sj #textileexchangeconference2025 🎥: Sirence Studios

Join us behind the scenes on our field trip to Manteco in Prato, Italy, to discover the circular future of wool. The winner of the Climate Project of the Year in our 2024 Climate and Nature Impact Awards, Manteco gives post-consumer wool garments and pre-consumer scraps a second life. These materials are transformed into new wool fabrics through closed-loop, low-impact mechanical processes. The recycled wool fabrics they create are not only as beautiful and durable as virgin wool—they are also certified to our Global Recycled Standard (GRS). We believe that field trips like this one are invaluable in helping to reconnect the industry with the people and processes behind the fashion supply system. Each year, field trips are an integral part of our conference agenda—there’s no substitute for getting out on the ground and seeing innovation and challenges in action. Discover the winners of the 2025 Climate and Nature Impact Awards and find out about other projects shaping a regenerative and equitable raw materials economy through collaboration and innovation: https://lnkd.in/deS_2vvr

Our Recycled Engagement Lead, Adam Gardiner, will be speaking at the Functional Fabric Fair in Portland, Oregon this month. He’ll join two panels on November 12 to discuss the evolving role of recyclers in advancing textile-to-textile recycling and how outdoor brands are driving progress through the adoption of recycled materials. 🔗 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e8BaE8dd FUNCTIONAL FABRIC FAIR (powered by PERFORMANCE DAYS)

Take a break from scrolling. This #WorldEcologyDay, immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of the remarkable landscapes that could be at the start of your clothing's journey. 🌱 The featured landscapes include the smallholder farming communities of Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, India, where organic cotton is not just a crop—it is an inheritance, nurtured through ritual, tradition, and care for the land. Across India, farmers in these communities are making the shift to organic with support from the Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA). 🐑 You can also experience Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region, a harsh and brittle landscape at the heart of Australia’s wheat and wool industries. On Prospect Farm, pioneering wool growers are proving that even in challenging conditions, regenerative farming practices can thrive. 🦙 Reach the heights of the grasslands in Peru’s central Andes, where alpacas have sustained families for generations. At 45,000 meters above sea level, the changing climate is making alpaca farming increasingly difficult, but the age-old bond between farmer and animal persists. Find out more about the practices bringing the land back to life in Western Australia: https://lnkd.in/gMAme8qD Soundscape: Anton Spice Video: Ana Projects India videography: Karthik Subramanian and Priyadarshini Ravichandran Australia videography: Tristan McKenzie and Mike Terry Peru videography: Alejandra Orosco

A special part of this year's Textile Exchange Conference was announcing the 2025 Climate and Nature Impact Award winners, which we celebrated in the beautiful surroundings of the Estufa Fria botanical gardens in Lisbon. All the winners excelled in their field, showing an impact-focused mindset that is helping the fashion, textile, and apparel industry move forward in alignment with Textile Exchange’s 2030 Climate+ strategy goals. Congratulations to the winners: 🏆 Textile-to-Textile Recycling Partnership Award Winner: Recover and Intradeco Our selection committee highlighted the Recover and Intradeco partnership as a standout example of localized textile-to-textile recycling systems, showcasing effective infrastructure development and a strong solutions-driven approach. 🏆 Ryan Young Climate Leader Award Winner: Pablo Roberto Borrelli, Co-Founder, Ovis 21 The committee was impressed by Ovis 21's measurable achievements, including its contributions to educational programs, farmer support services, and its pivotal role in developing a standard for grassland regeneration. 🏆 Regenerative Land Leadership Award Winner: James Brodie The selection committee awarded James Brodie's deep commitment to regenerative practices and dedication to supporting other farmers to adopt similar approaches. His efforts have been key to driving change at scale and creating true landscape-level ecosystem impact. 🏆 Collaboration in Action Award Winner: Victoria’s Secret & Co. and Alabama farm partners The committee was incredibly impressed by the application and leadership shown in building one of the first scaled, fully traceable US cotton programs connected directly to named growers. The committee especially commended the co-design approach with farmers, which reflects a genuine partnership where both the producer and brand share equal responsibilities. 📷: Diana Tinoco, Pedro Pina, Hugo Macedo PHOTO, Matilde Fieschi

We’re taking the time to look back on some standout moments and key insights from the 2025 Textile Exchange Conference. Last week, three days of collective learning sparked conversation and connection amongst over 1,700 people from across the fashion, textile, and apparel industry. We’d like to thank everyone who attended for your engagement, insights, and enthusiasm. What makes the conference so special is the chance to gather as an industry to share knowledge and experiences, exchange perspectives, and be inspired by the shared commitment to move forward. Thank you for making it such a success. Another big thank you goes to FibreTrace®, Reju, Worldly, and all of our other sponsors for their support in making the event possible. Our week together in Lisbon, Portugal, consisted of a carefully curated agenda of plenaries, breakout sessions, and collective action workshops. We heard from experts at every level of the supply system and explored how local, place-based insights can inform global frameworks and strategies. Some of the key themes that emerged from the conference were: 🍃 The impact of our shifting our language from preferred materials to preferred production systems 🍃 The importance of collaboration and systems thinking for advancing progress 🍃 The urgency to address economic barriers in order to achieve transformation at scale. You can read through all of our key takeaways from the three-day agenda in more detail on our website: https://lnkd.in/daGZC5Sj See you all in Vancouver for the 2026 Textile Exchange Conference! 📷: Luisa Bravo, Diana Tinoco, Pedro Pina, Hugo Macedo PHOTO, Matilde Fieschi

Hope, collaboration, and education—key themes emerging from our conference. Last week in Lisbon, the 2025 Textile Exchange Conference was a moment to listen to a diverse range of impactful voices—from brands and retailers to supply system partners, innovators, farmers, nonprofits, and academics. In this video, hear directly from some of our speakers on the ideas, collaborations, and perspectives that inspired them most. Hope was a common theme, with conference attendees and speakers alike energized by fresh perspectives and the spirit of collaboration. We were also reminded of the importance of leading with information and education, focusing on landscapes and local contexts, and finding the intersection of climate and human rights. Thank you to Samata Pattinson, CEO of BLACK PEARL, for leading these conversations and for the warmth, energy, and expertise you brought as our conference host. Find out more about the conference and read our key takeaways on our website: https://lnkd.in/daGZC5Sj Reju Patrik Frisk Tiffany Rogers Fair Labor Association WWF South Africa Rachel Kolbe Semhoun Kering Tariq Fancy Ashley Gill #textileexchangeconference2025

🔔 Quick reminder! Textile Exchange’s session at ITMA Asia + CITME SG 2025 in Singapore is coming up on October 28. The session is targeted primarily to suppliers, but open to all. We’ll dive into the Materials Matter Standard, share practical tools and resources for suppliers, and discuss how to accelerate progress toward preferred materials. Save your spot here 👉 [https://lnkd.in/dFy9aTMp]