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JAAF Sustainability Newsletter
July Edition
Ramesh De Silva
July 30, 2025
Dear Reader,
Thank you for being a part of JAAF’s sustainability newsletter. This newsletter is a part of JAAF’s efforts to respond to and serve Sri Lanka Apparel’s evolving needs especially through bridging the knowledge gap that exists in the Environment, Social and Governance Space.
So Welcome! to the July JAAF Sustainability Newsletter, featuring a selection of the latest developments in the sustainability space as it relates to the apparel industry in Sri Lanka. Through this information bridge JAAF aims to curate and communicate the latest developments in sustainability from across the apparel and textile sectors.
We look forward to your ongoing support and encourage you to engage with us by sharing this newsletter with your colleagues and peers in Sri Lanka and afar. You can also subscribe to this newsletter directly by clicking the link below.
Don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected] if you would like to partner or better yet share the developments in sustainability with our community.
Events
 | For more information, contact: Zahir Merchant: +91 9820028259 / Email: [email protected] For Booth booking kindly contact: Marian: +91 80075 25035 Pratima: +91 86527 66488 Indraneel: +91 7875932282 Ajitesh: +91 97177 35699
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 | What does sustainable indigo dyeing really look like? Join Transformers Foundation to dive into the new publication, presenting an industry-first benchmark for water consumption during the indigo dyeing process. |
JAAF Insights
On July 9th, the Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association (SLAEA) successfully hosted a timely and powerful CSDDD Awareness Program at Jetwing Colombo 7, a pivotal gathering focused on corporate sustainability and due diligence in the apparel sector.
The session set the stage for urgent, future-facing conversations around the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and its implications for Sri Lanka’s exporters and value chains.
The keynote address by Shyamali Ranaraja opened the dialogue with clarity and conviction, laying the groundwork for the robust discussions that followed.
A key highlight of the event was the powerful contribution of Lars Bredal, Deputy Ambassador of the European Union to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, who brought critical insight from the EU’s perspective. His message was clear: compliance with due diligence directives is not only a regulatory shift but a strategic opportunity and Sri Lanka is well-positioned to lead if it takes decisive, transparent steps forward. Lars emphasized the EU’s readiness to engage, support, and collaborate with nations like Sri Lanka in making supply chains more ethical, resilient, and future-ready. He commended the positive and structured approach that Sri Lanka is adopting towards the CSDDD.
We extend our appreciation to TrusTrace, our exclusive event sponsor, whose work at the intersection of traceability and sustainability continues to raise the bar for responsible business.
This event marks a critical step in aligning Sri Lanka’s sector with emerging global standards, not just to meet compliance, but to lead with purpose.
"The spark has been lit, the change is in motion, and the future is being built by all of us."
The inaugural capacity-building session of the Improving Transparency for Sustainable Business (ITSB) programme was held recently, bringing together senior representatives from the public and private sectors.
Jointly led by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), The Sustainable Development Council of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Export Development Board and JAAF, and supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, ITSB aims to enhance ESG reporting practices across Sri Lanka’s apparel and textile sector.
Through training on globally recognised GRI Standards, both SMEs and multinationals will build capacity to report transparently on key topics such as labour practices, climate impact, energy use, economic contribution, and waste management.
Global Fashion Regulations
European policy-makers are moving swiftly to scale back the scope and burden of corporate sustainability reporting. Specifically, in recent weeks, two parallel developments—one political, the other technical—have introduced further modifications to the European Union’s (EU) Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) frameworks. These developments signal that while the EU continues to focus on developing and implementing measures to facilitate long-term sustainable policies, it increasingly pivots toward reducing reporting and compliance burdens in order to foster economic competitiveness.
The European Parliament is debating legislation to reduce sustainability reporting requirements in the European Union. The original proposal of the European Commission included a drastic reduction of the scope of a pair of sustainability reporting directives. The member leading the drafting of the Parliament’s has released his draft proposal, calling for even more cuts, alarming sustainability activists and emboldening business interests. That proposal was debated in the June 24 meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs, known as JURI.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced today the release of its new finalized Climate Change and Energy Standards, aimed at enabling companies to disclose on climate-related and energy management issues and impacts, and on how they are managing those impacts.
GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards are one of the most commonly accepted global standards for sustainability reporting by companies, developed to enable consistent reporting across companies and industries, providing clearer communication regarding sustainability matters to a broad range of stakeholders, including investors. The GRI’s standards are developed by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB).
The European Commission has launched a comprehensive action plan to future-proof the EU chemicals sector, addressing structural weaknesses while unlocking investment in innovation and sustainability. The strategy is backed by a legislative simplification package that aims to reduce administrative burdens across hazardous substances, cosmetics, and fertilisers.
In a significant milestone for the European textile sector, the official launch of the European Parliament’s Sustainable Textile Working Group brought together policymakers, social enterprises, and civil society to confront one of the region’s most urgent sustainability and social equity challenges: the transformation of the textile industry into a fair and circular system.
Co-hosted by MEPs Saskia Bricmont, Barry Andrews, and Lara Wolters, the event convened key civil society players including RREUSE, Changing Markets Foundation, Clean Clothes Campaign, Fashion Revolution, Fair Trade Advocacy Office, ECOS, the European Environmental Bureau, and industriAll Europe to chart a course for Europe’s textile transition.
The European Union is moving to significantly reduce textile waste by banning the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear, a key measure under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). The prohibition will come into force for large companies starting in July 2026 and extend to medium-sized enterprises in July 2030. Smaller businesses will remain exempt.
The ESPR, which officially came into effect on 18 July 2024, targets the environmental footprint of consumer goods, with textiles and footwear among the first sectors addressed. According to Shoosmiths and Withers, the destruction ban will also be accompanied by new disclosure requirements. Companies must report publicly on the quantity, weight, and reasons for discarding unsold goods.
A DPP is a comprehensive digital record designed to provide consumers, businesses, and regulators with a clearer view of a product’s sustainability footprint. Once fully implemented, consumers will have one-click access to detailed information about a product’s entire life cycle, including its origin, material inputs, environmental impact, and end-of-life disposal instructions. By increasing transparency, regulators expect DPPs to drive circularity and more sustainable consumption and production patterns.
The Circular Fashion Index Report (CFX 2025), now in its fifth year, provides an extensive analysis of the industry’s progress in adopting circular practices.
It encompasses 246 apparel brands from 18 countries, covering five key product categories namely fashion, footwear, sports, outdoor and underwear and lingerie.
The report measures brand performance across seven dimensions that span the entire lifecycle of a product and beyond.
Neighborhood Watch
Cascale (formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition) has released “Bangladesh Country Report: Macroeconomic and Sustainability Analysis,” a comprehensive report detailing Bangladesh’s progress and potential to drive sustainable progress in the consumer goods industry. The report also reveals a pivotal opportunity to align with the Industry Decarbonization Roadmap (IDR), a sector-wide initiative to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 45 percent by 2030.
The Centre is working on launching a dedicated Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the garment sector, Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh has said.
This new initiative will be separate from the existing PLI scheme for textiles, which was launched in 2021 with an outlay of Rs 10,683 crore over five years to support production of man-made fibre (MMF) apparel, MMF fabrics and technical textiles.
According to Singh, 80 applicants have already been approved under the current scheme, and the government aims to disburse Rs 500 crore under it in the current financial year. The scheme is expected to attract over Rs 19,000 crore in fresh investments and generate more than 7.5 lakh jobs over its five-year span.
General
The fashion industry is responsible for up to 8% of the world's planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions, according to U.N. figures, which many of its companies have promised to tackle with targets to reach net zero by 2050 or sooner.
Yet researchers, companies and industry insiders say that little has been done to push this along in their supply chains in major textile-producing countries like Bangladesh, India and Cambodia.
"Brands are moving far too slow," said Todd Paglia, executive director of Stand.earth, an environmental non-profit advocacy group based in North America.
In 2025, about a third of the 42 brands surveyed in a recent Stand.earth report cut their emissions by 10%, compared to their baseline years - while 40% of brands saw their emissions grow.
It found that only a fraction of leading brands are providing funding to cut emissions in their supply chains, which puts pressure on factories and suppliers that lack the financial clout to shift towards cleaner processes.
Manufacturers in the apparel and textile industry have come together to launch the Apparel and Textile Transformation Initiative (ATTI), a new programme intended to foster sustainability and innovation.
The new edition of the International Production Cost Comparison (IPCC) from ITMF has been published. The report benchmarks manufacturing costs for a range of textile products along the primary textile value chain, disaggregated by key cost components at each production stage.
This edition of the IPCC covers cost data for the year 2023. Given the high level of expertise and detailed industry input required to produce the report, the process was extended to allow for the necessary engagement of industry specialists under exceptionally demanding conditions in the last two years.
This resource includes a contextual report and an interactive, user-friendly tool designed to help textile, clothing, and footwear companies identify and manage sustainability impacts across the value chain and navigate a rapidly evolving industry landscape.
The environmental impact of textiles arising from microfiber shedding has increased dramatically over the past years as the use of synthetic fibers in the apparel industry continues to grow and fast fashion business models continue to gain share. Fiber fragmentation and resulting microplastic and chemical pollution affects waterways, the air and soil.
The environmental impact of textiles arising from microfiber shedding has increased dramatically over the past years as the use of synthetic fibers in the apparel industry continues to grow and fast fashion business models continue to gain share. Fiber fragmentation and resulting microplastic and chemical pollution affects waterways, the air and soil.
Brightplus Ltd. raised €2 million in growth funding to advance the industrial scaling of its recyclable, bio-based textile coatings. The funding round was led by Swiss impact investor Collateral Good, with participation from Butterfly Ventures, E.A.T. Holdings, FF-Future, Nordic Option and FutureLab X. Brightplus' BrightBio® technology offers PFAS-free, waterless coatings derived from local biowaste, designed to integrate into existing production lines without added cost.
The adoption of ionic liquids (ILs) as an alternative to conventional textile dyeing could dramatically slash the industry's environmental footprint, new LCA research suggests.
A new industrial-scale life cycle analysis has found that dyeing polyester fabric with ionic liquids — a type of green solvent — can cut environmental impacts by up to 95.9 percent compared to conventional methods, a breakthrough that could transform one of the world’s most polluting industries.
The peer-reviewed study, published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, compared the traditional high-temperature dyeing process of polyethylene terephthalate or PET fabric with a newer method using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride or Bmim Cl, an ionic liquid.
The ZDHC MRSL Conformance Guidance outlines the requirements for indicating ZDHC MRSL conformance. It shows how confident we are that a chemical formulation would always conform. That's useful information for chemical formulators wanting to make safer products. Because ZDHC Accepted Certification Standards are used to indicate conformance, this document also shows those standards how to earn ZDHC acceptance.
On 18th April 2024 the ZDHC MRSL Conformance Guidance was updated from V2.0 to V2.1.
A research team at RIT’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS) is developing a fully automated system to identify, sort, and disassemble garments at high speed and in high volume, for textile recycling in efforts to address a critical global waste problem.
RIT-GIS research engineers develop automated system to dismantle used clothing for high-quality textile recycling.
AI and laser technology identify and remove non-recyclable elements like zippers, logos, and mixed materials.
The prototype, inspired by collaborations with Nike, Goodwill, and Ambercycle, aims to reduce landfill waste and support a circular economy for the fashion industry.
In today’s world, where instant gratification shapes consumer behaviour and digital platforms dominate retail, fast fashion has fundamentally reshaped how people acquire and interact with clothing. The rise of e-commerce has removed traditional barriers to shopping: no longer confined by store hours or geography, consumers can browse vast collections of trendy apparel from the comfort of their homes, with just a few clicks. Coupled with savvy, data-driven marketing strategies that tap into psychological triggers, brands deploy enticing incentives such as free shipping and, notably, free returns—a policy designed to eliminate any perceived risk in the purchasing process. This seamless convenience has given birth to a consumption culture where clothing acquisition is not only effortless but virtually consequence-free from the buyer’s perspective.
The fashion industry is on its way to a systemic recalibration. For decades, it has operated on a high-volume, low-margin model driven by trend cycles, accelerated by social media, and in-built overproduction. But that model is cracking under its own weight. As mounting waste, environmental costs, and unsold inventory threaten
both margins and reputations, a new approach is required. The writing is on the wall when reality show Love Island, a cultural barometer of trend-driven consumerism, has dumped fast fashion giant Pretty Little Thing for Ebay, a second-hand resale platform, as its lead sponsor.
At eBay, we’ve long believed in the power of pre-loved fashion. Today, that belief is being supercharged by digital innovation. From Digital Product Passports (DPPs) to next-gen textile recycling, circular fashion is gaining momentum and accelerating a more transparent, sustainable, and economically vibrant fashion ecosystem.
The new agreement cements their role as one of Circulose’s inaugural Scaling Partners, with H&M aiming to replace a significant portion of its man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCF) with Circulose-derived fibres.
Circulose, developed from repurposed textiles, represents an advanced material that enables fashion brands to progress towards a circular fashion model by decreasing dependence on new, virgin fibres without compromising on quality and functionality.
To decarbonize the consumer goods industry, production must switch to renewables, fast. But for companies whose supply chains span the globe, multiple factors make this transition a challenge. That’s why Eric Jen founded Ren Energy, a powerful platform that helps companies plan, procure, and monitor to help scale renewables, even in the most complex markets. How? Listen now.
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