More than 1,400 people from across the fashion and textiles industries came together in Lisbon, Portugal this month to share insights around scaling sustainability solutions in a world of increasing uncertainty and change.

Brooke Summers represented Cotton Australia along with Allan Williams from CRDC, networked with brands and retailers, technology companies, the Textile exchange team, suppliers and fellow cotton programs.

“The opportunity to network with the sustainability and textiles community globally deepened my understanding of topics like traceability data standards and shifts in EU policy, and provided opportunities to identify areas of work that will help us reduce duplication across the cotton programs”, Brooke Summers said.

“This is especially important as we progress the Australian Cotton Strategic Roadmap, and I was able to provide feedback to Textile Exchange and others about the importance of including farmer perspectives in the tools that brands are using to make decisions.

“The recent Roadmap Roadshow gave us valuable insights into the incentives farmers need to participate in sustainability and traceability programs, and it was encouraging to see this narrative throughout the Conference for farmers globally. The challenge now is to make it happen by leveraging our relationships with brands, retailers and organisations like Textile Exchange,” she said.

A well attended break-out session on Life Cycle Assessment tools put the spotlight on what these should and shouldn’t be used to measure, and launched a new resource for brands and retailers that was put together by Better Cotton, the U.S Cotton Trust Protocol, Cotton Incorporated, Cotton Australia and CRDC.

Key take outs from the week include:

• Impact data and the way it’s collected must be context specific and accessible, and our work in aligning Australian cotton data with the global frameworks used by brands is essential
• Shining a light on microfibre shedding and its impact on human health and the environment represents a huge opportunity for natural fibres – we must collaborate with other cotton programs to shine a light on the impacts of polyester
• Convincing arguments for sustainability adoption must focus on the numbers and make good business sense first – this applies to brands, and to farmers
• The textile sector is subject to shifting legislative priorities in the EU, with some aspects being simplified or wound back - this change of focus has introduced new layers of uncertainty for business and farmers
• Equitable economic models at Tier 4 (farming) are vital – how can the costs of transitioning farmers to preferred production systems be fairly distributed, ensuring premiums reach those at Tier 4.