5 key takeaways from the new UK Textiles Pact Roadmap

But here’s the thing, I truly believe you’d be hard pressed to find a more practical plan – shaped by real numbers and real insight – to support you with your ESG goals, than the UK Textiles Pact’s new Roadmap.

It’s been built to not only halve fashion’s carbon footprint and cut water use by 30% by the end of the decade, but to help shape a sector fit for the future. A sector that we can genuinely be proud to be a part of.

And if Roadmaps feel to you like floral dresses do to Miranda – predictable and something you’d rather skip – consider this your shortcut. I’ve pulled out five headlines it’s worth knowing about.

Spoiler, there’s plenty here that should give businesses hope and a sense that you can be part of a movement that’s making a real difference.

1. Our environmental targets are achievable (and the maths proves it)

Good news first: we’ve crunched the numbers and the Roadmap shows that if businesses collectively follow our eight new indicators, the Pact can meet, or even exceed, its environmental targets.

Some areas, like Design for Circularity (think: durability, recyclability and recycled fibres), will have a particularly big impact. This area alone could deliver over 30% of the absolute carbon savings and almost 95% of the absolute water savings we need.

Following our new indicators works, and the best part is, no one has to guess where their efforts will have the best environmental return on investment, the Roadmap does that for you.

2. The Roadmap is realistic about production growth

If we look to the facts, the amount of clothing being produced is going up, not down. The volume of products on the UK market today is already 17% higher than in 2019, and if recent years are anything to go by, this is likely to keep rising through to 2030.

When building the Roadmap, we knew we couldn’t rely on this trend reversing completely. So instead, we calculated the indicators based on the footprint we expect to see in 2030, with this growth factored in.

What we found is that it is possible to decouple growth from environmental harm. We’ve seen this play out elsewhere: globally, CO₂ emissions from energy have already begun to separate from GDP growth, and in regions like Europe and the US, emissions per capita are falling even as GDP per capita continues to rise.

Our Roadmap shows how the textiles sector can follow the same path – proving that even with expected production growth, our targets are still within reach if we meet the indicators.

That said, it will be an uphill battle. As one analogy goes, “we’re currently paying back the interest, not the loan.” If production were to stabilise, return to 2019 levels, or even reduce further, we’d see faster progress and dramatically greater impact.

3. We’re not banking on policy to save us in time

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy is often talked about as the sector’s “silver bullet” for putting sustainability at the heart of fashion design and ‘waste’ management.

The UK Government is due to unveil its Circular Economy Growth Plan this year, which is expected to include measures on textiles, and we hope will include references to EPR too.

But the timelines to design, legislate and operationalise a textiles EPR scheme – and to realise the level of environmental savings required in its early years to meet the Pact’s 2030 targets – would be tight if one were to be introduced.

We know EPR is essential for long-term, deep-rooted change and we’re continuing to advocate for it. However, our Roadmap had to be designed to deliver impact without being reliant on EPR.

4. Not every business will meet every indicator – and that’s ok

No two companies look alike. They differ in size, products, supply chains, customer base, you name it. So expecting every organisation to hit every indicator in the same way would be unrealistic.

All businesses will need to take some action across all eight indicators because the system is so interlinked (a resale scheme won’t work if products aren’t built to last through multiple owners, and recycling machinery won’t help if garments aren’t designed to be recycled). But not every business will meet every indicator in full and that’s ok, because what matters is the collective effort.

Some businesses will go further in certain areas than others and that balance, across the whole Pact, is what gets us to the targets. We’ve mapped out how this could look in practice using four example businesses in the Roadmap. This is about collaboration, not competition.

5. We’re not starting from zero

Many Roadmaps start by listing everything that needs doing, which can feel daunting rather than inspiring. Ours starts further along. Across several indicators, Pact members have already made strong early progress.

On our first indicator, ‘100% of total material use is from preferred sources’ the Pact is already at 53%, just over halfway. Of that, 16% is from recycled content, more than double the global average of 7.6%.

For our fifth indicator ‘60% of post-consumer textiles (as a % of sold) are collected through Pact signatories’ our members are already at 43%.

So, while there’s a long way to go, we aren’t starting from zero. The groundwork is there and with more businesses involved, progress would accelerate significantly.

Final thought: if you’re not in the Pact yet, now’s the time to join us

The Roadmap makes one thing abundantly clear, the work is doable when the collective comes together to form more than the sum of its parts.

If you’re a brand, retailer, sorter, manufacturer, reuse organisation, recycler or innovator looking to play your part in transforming the UK textiles sector, the UK Textiles Pact is where that work is happening. Guided by a clear plan, supported by Government, data, and a collaborative, pre-competitive environment.

We’d love to have you with us.