Textile trade flows have created interdependencies between countries and distributed responsibilities for sustainability across the value chain. Since businesses aim to keep production costs as low as possible and maximize operational efficiency, raw materials and finished products are often sourced from different regions of the world – in line with comparative advantage in, for instance, where crops are grown (available land, amenable climate and access to water), where labour is cheap, where industrial know-how is concentrated, and what trade incentives exist. Although value-chain decisions are evaluated and optimized at each stage, ‘business as usual’ practices cumulatively generate significant water-related risks, exposing governance gaps and driving demand for more robust oversight.
Although textile value-chain decisions are evaluated and optimized at each stage, ‘business as usual’ practices cumulatively generate significant water-related risks, exposing governance gaps and driving demand for more robust oversight.
In this context, social and environmental concerns have prompted a proliferation of legal and voluntary initiatives applicable to the textile sector – among them global strategies and roadmaps, regulations, sectoral coalitions, and standards and certification schemes. However, few of these have adequately addressed the severity of water-related impacts. Coverage has tended to be partial, targeting specific commodities (e.g. cotton) or isolated metrics (e.g. water-use efficiency) rather than the sector’s full water footprint. This means that the broader linkages between environmental and social dimensions of the impacts of industrial-scale water use have at times been missed. One such example would be where standards are placed on water-use efficiency at the factory level, neglecting the wider question of equitable water withdrawal and how a water-efficient factory may still deplete a community’s water resources.
Nonetheless, some standards bodies and voluntary initiatives are moving to address this gap, paving the way for cohesive and unified benchmarks for meeting essential ecological health, social equity and climate resilience thresholds. As such, global governance for sustainable textiles is increasingly shaped by a suite of interlinked initiatives that promote transparency, accountability and environmental integrity across supply chains.
International, multilateral and regional standards
While not textile-specific, the 2023 OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct provide an important foundational framework. These guidelines are widely used across sectors to benchmark corporate sustainability efforts, underpinning many national and regional regulations. They encourage companies to assess and mitigate environmental and human rights risks, including water pollution and labour conditions, through due diligence practices that extend across borders.
The Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) has set widely adopted standards, of which the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) GRI 303: Water and Effluents 2018 form a part. This standard revises GRI 303: Water 2016 to reflect advancements in water stewardship and to align with international best practice, including instruments such as the CDP water security questionnaire and the CEO Water Mandate Corporate Reporting Guidelines. GRI 303 sets the required metrics to assess water impact at the basin level; it applies across all sectors and aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – including SDG 6 (on clean water and sanitation for all). Concerning textiles, it applies to earlier life cycle stages of raw material production and the manufacturing of finished textiles. It applies to downstream use, such as recycling or disposal facilities, insofar as those activities withdraw and consume water or discharge effluents, then these must be reported under GRI 303. Notably, too, a sector-specific GRI standard for textiles and apparel is under development, and is expected to be approved in late 2026; the new standard will determine best practice for textile production, apparel and footwear manufacturing and retail.
The UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, launched in 2017, brings together multiple UN bodies to coordinate action across the fashion and textile sectors. It explicitly addresses water use and pollution, promotes circularity and advocates for decent working conditions – including WASH provision for workers. Its multi-stakeholder approach helps align industry practices with the SDGs, particularly SDG 6 and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production).
The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Traceability for Sustainable Garment and Footwear initiative offers a globally harmonized framework for supply chain transparency. Developed under the UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), it supports digital traceability tools – including blockchain – and aligns closely with the EU’s Digital Product Passport. While it does not mandate WASH infrastructure, it promotes ethical working conditions and environmental data disclosure, including water impacts. Its relevance to trade is significant: it facilitates cross-border compliance and circular economy transitions by enabling traceable, verifiable product histories.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Roadmap for Sustainability and Circularity in the Textile Value Chain provides a strategic blueprint for governments, industry and civil society. It calls for reduced water intensity, improved wastewater treatment and safe working conditions – including WASH access – across all stages of the textile life cycle. The roadmap also addresses trade-related challenges such as the environmental and social risks of second-hand textile flows and promotes policy coherence across regions.
Reporting frameworks for sustainability disclosures are becoming more comprehensive in scope and moving towards greater interoperability, although water-related disclosures remain less harmonized than is the case for climate disclosures. Standards bodies such as the GSSB and the investor-focused International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) are pursuing alignment of common disclosures. While some methodological alignment across standards has been piloted, such as GRI 101: Biodiversity Standard and ISSB’s Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services, water-related standards (GRI 303) are not yet in scope. Among existing initiatives addressing water, the most prominent is CDP’s water security questionnaire, which has evolved into a unified climate, forests and water security questionnaire, whereby companies can report voluntarily on their water use, risks and management strategies in line with industry standards. Further initiatives to drive corporate reporting on water across their value chains are emerging – among them the combined effort by the WRI, WWF, SCS Global Services and the Pacific Institute to develop common terminology and standardized guidance for assessing and addressing water risks for businesses across full value chains.
Together, such initiatives form a robust global architecture that complements and informs regional efforts. The EU, in particular, has been active in standards-setting, given the bloc’s position as a major player in both the finished and used textiles trade, with many multinational companies in the textile industry based in EU member countries. EU-initiated voluntary reporting and regulatory measures have the potential to make important advances in addressing the environmental and social costs of the textile value chain. Table 6 summarizes the most substantive measures adopted in recent decades.
