- Industry needs reliable, concrete data on climate risks
- Worker experience is key to accurately assessing hazards
- Industry and government collaboration required to mitigate threats
DHAKA – Fashion suppliers are starting to consider climate risks when deciding where to locate their factories and how to keep workers safe within them, but a lack of adequate data has led to concerns about the threat. Initial mitigation efforts are being hampered, industry officials warned.
Mohammad Monowar Hossain, Head of Sustainability at Team Group, a leading apparel supplier in Bangladesh, said: “Climate change poses a risk of supply chain disruption, so doing business in the long term requires consideration of such risks.” There is a need.”
His organization is credited with being among the first to incorporate climate risk into its business plans, and now takes land elevation and potential flooding risks into account when locating new factories. This is an important consideration in low-lying countries, which are among the countries most at risk from climate impacts. said Hossein.
The company also has two factories certified as green buildings by the U.S. Green Building Council, and three more factories are awaiting similar designations, he said.
But Hossain said much of Bangladesh’s garment industry is similarly struggling to plan for climate risks, largely because reliable information about the threats facing factories and their workers is not readily available. He said he is doing so.
data gap
Bangladesh’s fashion industry has focused on reducing its carbon footprint in recent years, with major brands turning to emissions-reducing transformations to win the support of green buyers and help meet global climate goals. are investing.
But efforts to prepare for the direct climate threats faced by the industry, from extreme heat waves to flooding, are newer.
Sabina Loreniuk, a garment industry expert at the University of Nottingham in the UK who studies the impact of climate change on Cambodia’s garment industry, said: “To some extent, we are focusing too much on mitigation. This means that adaptation is being neglected a little.”
In January, Loreniuk and a team of researchers launched a UK government-funded website, Invisible Workers, to highlight the need for the garment industry to better protect the wellbeing of its workers, particularly women, who make up the majority of workers. is emphasized. Labor force.
Loreniuk and his colleagues’ research, for example, found that more than half of Cambodian workers are facing extreme heat and flooding due to climate change, impacting their incomes and health.
Cornell University and other researchers say in a paper published in January that if they fail to adapt to growing threats, major fashion-supplying countries will lose 68% of their apparel export revenues by 2050, increasing the risk of 860% of their apparel export revenues. He said it could potentially eliminate 10,000 jobs.
Studies like this are helping quantify the potential costs of failing the global fashion industry to adapt to climate change.
But such extensive research needs to be translated into location-specific, factory-level data to help apparel companies take action, which is what Dhaka’s BRAC University is doing.
The company’s “Mapped in Bangladesh” project collects and maps factory data on environmental sustainability, labor standards and disaster risk, said Matin Saad Abdullah, the project’s technical director.
New international regulations, such as the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Due Diligence Directive, aim to hold global brands accountable for climate change and labor risks in their supply chains, ensuring accurate and objective data. is key to helping businesses comply, he said. .
“We provide very detailed data on brands’ supply chains, which is independently collected and verified,” he said.
Data from this project is used by industry and government for everything from exploring renewable energy potential in factories to mapping flood risks, helping to drive investment in the right places. That’s possible, Abdullah said.
worker experience
Researchers say one key part of determining the impact of growing climate risks is listening to factory workers themselves.
For example, Nasrin (40), who runs a clothing factory in Ghazipur, a suburb of Dhaka, points out that unusually heavy rains sometimes clog roads with muddy water, making it difficult to walk to work, while the summer heat gets worse. He said it has become increasingly difficult to commute to work. I can’t stand it at home.
Organizations such as Global Worker Dialogue (GWD) aim to collect such stories and inform the decisions of brands sourcing clothing from countries such as Bangladesh and Cambodia.
GWD executive director Guy Stuart said most businesses understood that installing cooling systems to keep their factories tolerable was a good investment.
But they may not understand the risks workers with limited income face outside the factory from heat and other threats that can affect productivity, he says.
“Protecting home-based workers is a really difficult challenge,” Stuart said.
Many low-income factory workers live in cramped, crowded, hot rooms, a reality that is often hidden from regulators, consumers, and investors interested in industry issues.
“If we want to successfully adapt to climate change, we must create avenues for workers to articulate their needs, come to the negotiating table and voice their concerns,” Stuart said.
From data to action
Some manufacturers are working to factor new available data, including employee perspectives, into their decision-making.
Last year, workers at Team Group’s factory in Savar, near Dhaka, pointed out that 40% of the factory’s workers arrived through flooded sidewalks during heavy rains, leading to lateness and absenteeism among workers.
The company then paid for the construction of bridges at difficult points, making commuting safer and more secure, said Team Group’s Hossain.
“If you don’t retain your workers, you can’t sustain your business,” he pointed out.
But addressing the larger threats facing factories and workers will require coordinated efforts and spending, GWD’s Stuart said.
He believes, for example, that governments can invest in climate-resilient homes and roads, and that the apparel industry pays enough taxes to support such changes, while buyers ensure that suppliers and workers are paid decent wages. He said he could help ensure that the amount was paid.
He added that mobilizing sufficient resources to address the climate crisis depends on industry and government having reliable information about climate change and how to manage it, and ensuring that appropriate regulation is in place. He also pointed out that the introduction of
“I think good wishes are essential for new-age entrepreneurs. What’s important is how to convince them with the right data,” Hossain said.
(Reporting by Md. Tahmid Zami; Editing by Laurie Goering and Clar Ni Chonghaile)
