Editorial

Promoting sustainability in the textile and clothing industry Editorial With a turnover of 19 billion euros and 120,000 employees, the textile and clothing industry is one of the most important consumer goods sectors in Germany. The industry is highly global-ised: In Germany, 90 % of the clothing purchased are imported products. Challenges to sustainability exist along the entire value chain. The Federal Environment Agency recently found that producers currently cultivate less than 1 % of the total cotton pro-duction in the world according to verifiable guidelines for organic farming. High water con-sumption, strong water pollution, high energy consumption and the use of hazardous chemi-cals in textile finishing are essential areas of action in the field of environmental standards.

Adequate social standards regarding work safety, improvement of qualifications and wages are further problems on the road to sustainability. In some developing countries the textile sector is the most important economic domain. In Myanmar, for instance, a prospering textile industry is the precondition for the development of other economic fields sectors. Together with local business membership associations as well as German and local companies, we strive to establish or improve compliance with social and environmental standards in several projects conducted in, especially, Southeast Europe and Asia. We showcase some of those projects in our current issue of sequaForum.

Gebhard Weiss, Managing Director