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Experts Advice on Sustainability

Interview with David Alonso

The fashion industry is facing a reckoning. Consumers are demanding more sustainable practices, and regulations are tightening. 
Today, we’re sitting down with David Alonso, a sustainability expert with extensive experience in the textile industry. David will guide us through the three pillars of sustainability and explore the legal landscape surrounding sustainable practices.

David will break down upcoming regulations designed to make the industry more circular and eco-friendly, including the concept of eco-design and the digital product passport. We’ll also talk about the challenges brands face in achieving true sustainability, from complex supply chain traceability to ensuring ethical labour practices.
But let’s not get overwhelmed by the complexities. David will also share inspiring examples of how companies like Tally Weijl are pushing the boundaries of sustainability through innovative research projects.

1. Can you introduce us to sustainability and the fashion industry today?

David: -We must start by emphasizing that sustainability is based on 3 pillars:

  1. Environmental: Decrease the environmental impact by tackling climate change, pollution, water, biodiversity resource use and circular economy.
  2. Social: Promote wellbeing among all the stakeholders: own workforce, workers in the value chain, affected local communities and consumers.
  3. Governance: Transparency, ethics and business policies.

Due to the international nature of companies, the Social part becomes vital in global supply chains. Performing Human Rights due diligence in the value chain is of paramount importance, even if the textile industry workforce concentrates on the garment manufacturing stage. The OECD guideline on responsible business is a good guideline for addressing this challenge. The International Labour Organization conventions are a key resource to understand the requirements on social performance for a company.

And regarding the legal aspects of sustainability in the apparel industry…

2. What considerations and requirements a fashion brand must follow nowadays? Can you highlight specific regulations or certifications?

David: -In 2020, the European Union released a communication on “A new circular economy action plan for a cleaner and more competitive Europe”. It was followed in 2022 by a communication on an “EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles”. This is the EU strategy for the textile industry until 2030. We can find some interesting concepts, such as eco-design and the digital product passport. The EU will release new regulations so that companies can adapt their practices to sustainability according to the EU 2030 strategy. The final goal is to have harmonized requirements that companies can adhere to to become more sustainable.

France is one step ahead and is already requesting to disclose product information on “environmental characteristics”, demanding the amount of recycled material, microfibers release, and traceability of the supply chain.

3. What do these future regulations consist of?

David: -The EU strategy focuses on several aspects, but it is worth mentioning two of them:

  • Eco-design: The decision you take during the product development impacts both down and upstream. Material selection directly impacts the environment and the life cycle of the garment, whatever is more or less suitable for reuse, repair, recycling, etc. At the design stage, garments are born, so decisions taken at the design stage will impact the garment value chain.
  • Digital product passport: It is related to the information accompanying the garment during the life cycle. We still don’t have the details on which information is needed, but it will probably be related to the traceability of materials and stakeholders involved, and some performance attributes such as durability, reparability, recyclability, etc. Companies will need a traceability system in place, and consumers will have access to more information to make a sound buying decision.

4. What will the situation be like in 2025?

David: -We are all waiting for the final details in the Digital Product Passport, and we are already developing the needed tools to have traceability far beyond our tier 1 (garment manufacturers).

A sustainability report is already mandatory for some companies in Europe, and during 2025 and 2026, it will become mandatory for medium-sized companies, too.
However, I would not focus only on 2025, but the focus should be on 2030. It is important to follow the European Union textile strategy to be informed of the upcoming regulations.

Fashion Sustainability

5. Can you tell us more about how Tally Weijl is being sustainable these days?

David: -We aligned our Sustainability strategy with Sustainable Textiles Switzerland 2030 with the goal to take advantage of synergies in the textile industry. There are four main targets in our sustainability strategy:

  • Target 1. Climate change. Reduce CO2 emissions by 50% in 2030.
  • Target 2. Promotion of fair wages and human working conditions for all.
  • Target 3. Promotion of innovative business models towards a circular economy.
  • Target 4. Transparency is needed to ensure that sustainable purchasing decisions can be made.

Regarding innovative business models, we are participating in two research and innovation projects:

  • tExtended. It aims to introduce an innovative approach to the cycling of discarded textiles by developing a Blueprint, a knowledge-based masterplan for the optimized cycling for different textile flows. We are 20 partners from different EU countries with different backgrounds working together with a common goal. Link to textended.eu
  • Circle UP Textile (CUT) 2. Aims to develop an eco-design recommender tool that will help shape the transformation of the industry. It is a Swiss-founded project with six participants. It allows us to bring knowledge of Eco-design practices into the company and help develop more sustainable collections. CLink to Circle Up Textiles (CUT) 2 | Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (hslu.ch)

6. What are the biggest sustainability challenges facing the apparel industry today?

David: -For a newcomer, the first challenge is legal compliance. Once there, we need to take into account the upcoming regulations and how and what you need to adapt in the company. I would highlight three main challenges:

Fashion Sustainability
  1. Material and supply chain traceability. The textile supply chain is quite complex. Usually, brands have a direct business relationship with the garment manufacturer (Tier 1), but other factories are involved, such as fabric and wet processes factories (Tier 2), yarn factories (Tier 3) and raw materials extraction, for instance, cotton, polyester, etc. (Tier 4). Ensuring traceability in the supply chain for every garment is a challenge due to the complexity of the supply chain.
  2. Data and information. It needs accurate data and information to report on several topics, such as greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). It is important to have information on factories, processes and materials.
  3. Human rights in the supply chain. Due to the complexity of the supply chain, it is harder to perform due diligence on Human Rights even though we can rely on partners such as the ILO, Better Work, OECD guidelines, etc.
David Alonso Pic

About David Alonso

I have a Chemistry Degree and an MBA. In my early professional beginnings, I worked in consultancy, chemical and pharmaceutical companies, mainly in Environmental, Quality and Health and Safety roles.

I moved to the textile industry in 2011 in a Sustainability role, and since then, I have been working in the industry.

I have always been interested in research and innovation, and during the last 5 years, I have been involved in research and innovation projects at the EU and national levels.

Contact David through LinkedIn here

Mentioned and Related Sources

This information is a part of the research conducted for our third book, Strong Seams, a seam catalogue focused on garment durability and quality. We couldn’t include all the research in the book. However, we believe it’s worth sharing with people like you who are also interested in quality and long-lasting garments.

We hope the material is helpful. If you want to know more about our book Strong Seams, please visit the following link: book Strong Seams (link)

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