2021 Annual Virtual Meeting and Training Symposium

There is a growing amount of pressure for companies to improve the sustainability within their organization, products, and supply chain because of increasing calls from both the general public and NGOs. Companies that try to meet these calls to action through individual efforts often find that improving sustainability is fraught with challenges and is met with resistance that seems insurmountable at times.

This session will cover how the apparel industry received such a call to action and how responding with collaborative action has resulted in monumental progress towards improving sustainability. In 2011, Greenpeace initiated their Detox campaign which challenged apparel companies to eliminate hazardous chemicals from wastewater discharge of the textile industry. The apparel industry responded by not just by taking individual action, but by forming the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) group, in order to foster collaboration and by extension coordinate efforts to reduce hazardous chemicals in waste water discharge of the textile industry.