The Good Fashion Fund is an impact fund organisation working on implementing sustainable changes in the textile and apparel industry. Kashyap described it as a $19 million ‘demonstration’ fund focused on supporting sustainable manufacturers in the fashion industry. The company provides long-term USD loans (between $1–2.5 million) to mid-size textile and apparel manufacturers in India and Bangladesh to finance equipment along with targeted technical, environmental and social support. Every investment should lead to a significant reduction of one of three environmental goods (water, energy, materials).
“We have made four investments–two of which are in India (Pratibha Syntex, Sri Kannapiran Mills) and 2 in Bangladesh (Progress Apparels, Epic Group). We expect to make 2- 3 additional investments in 2024, after which our investment period will come to a close,” he said.
Kashyap adds that, as the second largest textile producer in the world, India employs over 45 million people and provides indirect employment to over 100 million people in allied industries. The country also makes 95% of the world’s handmade textiles, considered to be sustainable due to their minimal usage of energy and water.
In 2020, the Voice of India published a report “India Sustainability Report 2020” in which almost 43% of the surveyed consumers were not aware of the term ‘sustainable fashion’ although were curious to know more. It also pointed out that there is higher awareness amongst fashion and design students (85%) of those surveyed, while most consumers (82%) do not consider fashion to be among the top three contributors to pollution.
“Interestingly, the consumers indicated an interest to adopt sustainable practices, such as recyclable fashion or fashion made from natural sources such as coffee beans. Purchase decisions seem to be driven based on the brand/brand name (77%) and most consumers acknowledge they dispose of old garments or clothes,” Kashyap mentioned.He also pointed out from that sustainable fashion D2C brands are building business models that focus on promoting domestic craftsmanship, using safer, natural and recyclable materials in the products and ensuring fair wages and safe working conditions of their workers.“These practices are woven into the marketing and communication strategies of the D2C brands, inexplicably tied to their sustainability ambitions and improving overall transparency on how clothes are sourced, made and sold to the consumers. Nevertheless, a hurdle for these startups would be in convincing price-sensitive Indians to pay a premium on sustainable fashion products,” he said.
He reiterated his statement that there is immense potential for India to become a global hub for sustainable fashion. The country is fast becoming a prime destination for global brands looking to advance their sustainability ambitions.
Circular fashion supported by textile recycling is a key element to bring textile waste back into the supply chain, helping develop a competitive advantage for the country in deriving value from waste. “India is already a leader in mechanical recycling for instance and the value chain for waste is already in place with formal and informal trade and processing routes,” he said.
Explaining how sustainable manufacturing and supply chain management practices are key in the pursuit of becoming a hub for sustainable fashion, he said that apparel, fabric and yarn manufacturers alike are increasingly investing in sustainable technologies across dry and wet processes (ozone washing, digital printing), improving compliance through stringent certifications and benchmarks (ZLD, Higg, ZDHC) and re-constituting product portfolios with sustainable and circular products that are more durable and natural fiber-based.
“These initiatives are supported by gradual phasing out of coal-based power consumption with manufacturers switching to renewable sources of energy in an effort to reduce overall environmental footprint,” he said.
Challenges
He, however, also acknowledged the challenges in the sustainable fashion segment in India. One of the foremost being harsh environmental pollution (fresh water pollution, hazardous chemicals, coal-based power, waste management). Equally on the social side, there are exploitative labour practices and a general lack of transparency in the supply chains.
From the input side, he says availability of sustainable materials or indigenously made materials are on the lower side with a reliance on imports.
“The transition to green sources of energy for production needs to accelerate at a quicker pace, as climate change is a real and undeniable threat. For the textile and apparel manufacturers, the missing link in the sustainability adoption is private sector investment, beyond the regular avenues made available by the government and local financial institutions,” he said.
Data from Open Supply Hub (OSH) reveals the complexity of textile (and garment) operations in the country with over 11,000 facilities across yarn, fabric, and garmenting processes. While there are vertically integrated companies, the majority of the fabric for instance is produced in small to mid-size decentralised looms where there is a general lack of private sector investment to scale the adoption of sustainable practices, he said.
“Product development is currently not focused with sustainability in mind. Meanwhile regulations, both national and international (EU Green Deal for example) would be both a challenge and catalyst in the adoption of sustainable fashion,” he said.
Efforts needed
Talking about steps that can help this agenda of sustainable fashion in India, Kashyap said that for producers, the journey of sustainability transition requires a vision and a long-term roadmap, supported by existing competencies and upfront allocation and planning for operational costs and capital expenditure–which is predominantly debt-led.
Second, he said that increased access to smart capital (private or public-private led) becomes important for producers to retain their competitiveness with domestic and global brands and to constantly keep the order books healthy and growing.
“At a policy level, the government’s ‘Make in India’ programme, for instance, maps policies and programmes focused on sustainable manufacturing within the textiles (and garments) industry. The PLI 2.0 scheme and the MITRA parks are notable efforts by the government to improve competencies in the areas of technical textiles, man-made fibers for instance,” he said.
The SU.RE (Sustainable Resolution) project demonstrates commitment to UN SDG 12 (responsible production and consumption) via a five-point plan to help the industry reduce its carbon emissions, increase resource efficiency, tackle waste and water management and create overall positive social impact to achieve sustainability ambitions, he said.
“India is already a global hub for organic cotton and the largest recycler of PET products. Considering upcoming European Union (EU) regulations that directly affect India’s competitiveness, concerted efforts are under way by the Ministry with the support of public-private sector actors such as Fashion for Good, GiZ etc. to develop policies and to map the textile waste value chain to position India as a global hub for circular textiles,” he said.
Kashyap said he hopes that in the coming years, the awareness of sustainable fashion should be more about climate change and ethical supply chains, rather than sustainable fashion as a ‘nice to have’.
