Sustainable Consumption and Textile Agreements: Should Companies and Consumers Be Obliged to Comply with Minimum Standards?

In October 2014 the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles was founded by representatives from business, society, standards organisations and trade unions to achieve social, ecological and economic improvements along the textile supply chain. Just over a year after its launch has the alliance achieved initial successes? According to Sabine Ferenschild, SÜDWIND Institut für Ökonomie und Ökumene, one of the textile alliance’s weaknesses is its voluntary basis. Positive features, by contrast, are that it takes all stages of textile processing into consideration, as well as covering a broad range of content-related standards in both the social and the ecological fields. It is still too early to speak of success or failure, since the alliance is still busy setting up its foundations. Stefan Körzell, DGB, highlights that companies in particular are responsible for ensuring the safety of their worldwide production plants and suppliers. This should not be a matter of voluntary compliance, but requires stricter liability rules for companies at both a national and an international level. According to Thomas Silberhorn, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, the alliance is an example of how politics, business and society can work together on social and ecological improvements. However, a critical awareness of the issue on the part of consumers is also required to increase demand for sustainably produced goods and services, and to give companies incentives to make their production more sustainable.