Sustainable clothing futures

The clothing sector of today has great sustainability challenges, including high primary resource use, extensive climate (and other) emissions, linear supply- and use patterns and low use rates of garments.

A shift towards sustainable and circular clothing is a complex journey that needs to consider the entire value chain and its societal context.

The sustainable clothing futures project adopts a holistic approach, aiming to map consumer behavior connected to new business models, evaluate new production and recycling technologies and investigate which policy measures could support the transition to sustainability.An interdisciplinary research team will combine field studies in consumption behavior with system dynamic scenario building, Life Cycle Assessment and policy analysis.

This combination of methods provides parallel insights into the rational and key factors driving change in the clothing sector, as well as quantitative assessments of the changes in terms of environmental impacts.

Input will be drawn from diverse stakeholder groups such as consumers, representatives from the clothing and recycling industry, and policy makers to create scenarios for the clothing sector of tomorrow.

Results will help to identify the most promising technologies and practices, and under which circumstances they could become a reality.

The upscaling through scenarios also reveals the potential for new skills and jobs that could be created in the European clothing sector of tomorrow.