Ep. 147: Frameworks for circular textile design

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Ep. 147: Frameworks for circular textile design

WTiN speaks with Mark Sumner, textiles programme lead at WRAP in the first of a two-part episode about policy and regulations driving circularity and durability in textiles.

WTiN: Hello and welcome to WTIN's podcast, all about the regulations and legislation the textile and apparel industry needs to know. I'm Abi WTIN's Features Editor and your podcast host. In this series we speak to the experts who are navigating and aiding navigation in this complex arena. From digital product passports and ESPR to exports and international trade, brands and manufacturers have a lot to keep on top of. So, each month we speak to the experts about what the textile industry should be focusing on and the tools available to them.

We have a special two-part episode with Mark Sumner, Textile's Programme Lead at WRAP. WRAP is a global environmental action NGO transforming product and food systems to create circular living. WRAP has delivered programmes that reduce CO2 and waste. It catalyses action from policymakers, businesses and NGOs to create a circular economy. In this first episode Mark speaks about WRAP's work in the textile industry and the development of its roadmap to circularity, plus its textiles pact which is supporting the industry in its transition. Mark speaks about the regulations driving change and delves into how effective they really are.

Hi Mark, thank you for joining me today on WTTN's Textile Innovation Podcast. Please could you tell me a bit about your background in textiles and what led you to WRAP?

Sumner: Hi Abigail and thanks for the opportunity to have a chat with you about textiles today. I've been doing textiles since 1993, which makes me feel very, very old. So I started doing a PhD in textile engineering a long time ago. When I finished that, I then worked for Marks & Spencer as a fabric technologist in the heady days when M&S was the largest retailer in the UK. I had a great time there and learned an awful lot about the textile industry in terms of supply chain.

But after 10 years of doing fabric technology, I then became their sustainability specialist. Then I started learning some new stuff about the textile industry. One of the things that really confused me about textiles and retail was consumers. And after working in retail for about 16 years, I decided I would go to some research on consumer behavior. So I became a lecturer at the University of Leeds and focused on sustainable fashion. And my focus really was to understand consumers, but I ended up doing all sorts of wild and wacky projects, microfibers, modern slavery, continuing a lot of the work that I was doing on sustainability as well. But I had a really deep dive on that consumer piece and understanding why consumers do what appear to be completely irrational things when it comes to fashion. And then after 10 years at Leeds University, I had the great opportunity came up at WRAP to be the textile program lead, which is all about delivering within the UK, the UK textiles pact, but as well as that UK work, grabbing international work and expanding our expertise and knowledge to drive the system transformation that we're aiming to achieve within our approach at WRAP.

WTiN: That's fantastic. Amazing experience at both Martin Spencer's and Leeds University. I feel like I could probably do a whole podcast episode speaking to you about consumers.

Sumner: I think we could. Maybe one day we should.

WTiN: But for now, could you tell me more about your role in WRAP and what work the organisation does in the textile space?

Sumner: Yeah, so WRAP focuses on system transformation. What we're trying to achieve with all of the work that we do across our food packaging and our textile work is understand how we can actually transform the system, transition from the current linear model to a model that is more sustainable, more circular. And essentially, as program lead, working with my colleagues across the WRAP family, we're looking at how we deliver that systems transformation. And systems transformation is very complex, and it's particularly complicated for textiles, bearing in mind the sheer scale of textiles, the diversity of textiles and also that very intimate relationship that people have with their clothes is layered on top of these very big global sort of trade and policy levers that are going on at the moment. So that systems transformation is really critical to us and the way that we deliver that systems transformation is to be thinking about the role, responsibility of business, thinking about, and that's in terms of brands and retailers, but it's also in terms of the reuse and recycling sector, and includes charities as well, all of these organizations that operate as businesses, but it's also thinking about policy, both UK policy and very important, as we see ESPR and other policies in Europe developing, how policies provide a framework, and importantly, thinking about people. So we have that mix of understanding that system dynamic, and ultimately, what we want to be able to do with the systems transformation is to decouple growth. So businesses should be allowed to grow, but decouple that growth from environmental and social impact, social harm. And the way that we do that systems transformation is to be looking at the full life cycle, where the materials come from, manufacturing processes, retail, use phase, and end of life. And looking at that full life cycle, making sure that what we're not doing is shifting the burden of impact from one part of that lifecycle to another part. So at a high level that's what we're about, that systems transformation, decoupling growth and making sure that everyone benefits from all of these changes rather than just one part of that value chain. That is a lot that you are doing, a big task. Yeah, very challenging, very complex and of course we're talking about global actors in all of this, so yes, it does make me sweat a little bit at night thinking, oh my good, how are we going to do this? But we've got some plans.

WTiN: And one of the plans is, I believe, WRAP has developed a roadmap for the transition to circularity. Could you please tell me what prompted this and how you have used, obviously you touched on regulations there as well, like how you've used EU and UK policy to inform that roadmap?

Sumner: Yeah, so we, within our work, we always use roadmaps to guide us and help our stakeholders understand our role and their role. When we did WRAP 2020, we had a roadmap. And when we launched Textiles 2030 back in 2021, we had a roadmap then. But we've actually redeveloped that roadmap, called it the roadmap for the Textiles Pact. And rather than waiting until the end of Textiles 2030, roadmap, called it the roadmap for the textiles pact.

And rather than waiting until the end of textiles 2030, we recognize there were a lot of changes going on across the sector and across the business landscape, particularly big changes in terms of market dynamics. We've seen an increase in volatility. So increasing uncertainty for everyone that's involved in the industry. We're seeing downturn occurring at all sorts of different parts of the industry and in different geographies. And we can see how fragile supply chains are. If we look now at what's going on in the Gulf, we can see almost immediately how supply chains are being affected by that localized dispute that's going on there. Changing market dynamics was a really important thing for us to get our heads around to understand what does that mean in terms of our work. Understanding post-consumer textiles as well, what we've seen is a growing volume of used textiles going into the used textiles market. And at the same time as that volume increasing, the resale value of those materials is being reduced.

So that has put an enormous strain on the post-consumer textile landscape, both the commercial organizations and charities. And also including, by the way, thinking about the Global South and where used textiles are exported to. We're also seeing a lot more development around policy. So European policy, really important in terms of laying out a framework. We're starting to see that become much clearer in terms of the direction of travel for policy. And we're hoping that we're going to see the UK policy announcements coming through for textiles within the next month, couple of months, hopefully. And then the fourth driver that really sparked the need for this new roadmap was the fact that we could see innovation gaps. People have been talking about fibre-to-fibre technologies for many years. And we were hoping back in 2021, when we put our original roadmap together, that that fibre-to-fibre technology would have been turned into commercially viable opportunities. But we haven't seen that happen. We also haven't seen the development of offtake agreements to manage that supply and demand around used textiles and the recycling technologies. And we haven't seen enough development of sorting innovations. So market dynamics, post-consumer textiles landscape, changes in policy and innovation gaps, all of those things were coming to a fore. And as a result of looking at that and really understanding what that meant, we redeveloped our roadmap. So we took our 2021 roadmap and we've redeveloped it, tweaked it, twisted it, in some cases made some very major changes to it. So it's now fit for purpose to take us through to our 2030 targets.

WTiN: Fantastic, that is such a lot there and I will link as well to the roadmap in the description. And I just want to focus on policy for a minute. So obviously you touched on it quite a bit there. What do you and RAP want actors, like you said, you have global actors that you speak with within the textile industry. What do you want them to understand about policy and how they can effectively use that?

Sumner: A really challenging thing about policy, particularly for textiles, is we are talking about a truly global industry. But what's been really interesting over the past, I guess, 18 months, is seeing the alignment around a lot of the European frameworks and regulations. When we're talking to actors around the world, and we're all looking to that European policy to see how textiles and how textiles policy can be used to reduce the environmental harm that's associated with the industry. Now, we think policy is really important. It plays a really important part in terms of setting our framework, so people understand where the priorities are, where the focus should be. It also is really good in terms of establishing what the minimum standards should be for different aspects. So, for example, thinking about how eco-modulated EPR can be driving minimum standards, looking at how ESPR and DPP approaches can also drive those minimum standards and give the industry a framework to work around.

So we're really supportive of policy, but we do recognize that policy is not comprehensive in the sense that policy cannot address every single problem that the industry is facing. So policy can provide a framework, but there are gonna be areas where policy just isn't suitable, or we just don't know how policy can resolve some of the issues that are out there. It's also interesting to recognize that policy is not an aspiration. And what I mean by that is, it is very good at laying out baseline, very good at laying out the minimum standards. But in terms of our aspiration, where do we think we should be going from a moral ethical point of view? How far and how quickly do we think we can get in terms of driving environmental performance for the industry and social performance.

Those are driven not by policy, they are driven by aspirations that individual organisations may have, or collaborations and initiatives like WRAP, RUN, that provide the opportunity to say, that's what the framework is around policy. This is how far we think we can actually move the dial to achieve the targets that we know we need to achieve to be compliant with the Paris Agreement, to be compliant with brand and retailers in terms of their own targets, and also to align with, you know, some of the challenges that we're hearing from society as well.

WTiN: That's really interesting. And you just touched upon it then, but is there anything more that you could add about what some of the limitations with global regulation policies are, maybe not just in the EU and the UK, but further afield?

Sumner: So we know that if I take a step back just from textiles and just talk about global policies, global policies are really difficult to create because you need to get agreement across sovereign states. They're very difficult to implement and very difficult to actually monitor and police, because essentially you're talking about all of these different sovereign states. Laid on top of that, part of the limitation for textiles is we have a very interesting split in terms of the value chain. Global north countries, where there are very strong policies, is very much about consumption.And there's been a lot of focus on how the Global North policies can resolve consumption, some of the challenges associated with consumption. The Global South is traditionally much more about manufacturing and focusing on how manufacturing can drive economic growth. So we have this challenge here of global north, global south, and trying to understand how you can get alignment. And this fundamentally goes back to what I talked about earlier in terms of the WRAP approach around systems transformation, is how you create policy without shifting the burden from one part of the life cycle to another. So for example, if we said in the UK around post-consumer textiles, we're not allowed to destroy used textiles.

There is a potential that that policy could lead to unintended consequences where everyone exports their textiles, whether it's usable or whether it's waste, to other countries to avoid noncompliance with policy. So we have these localized policies that may lead to a shift in that burden, moving the problem from one part, one geography to another geography, as well as recognizing, and this is the important thing I think that lots of people forget about textiles. Textiles employs millions of people, whether that's in a cotton field, whether that's in a spinning mill, or whether that's in a retail shop on the high street, and also recognizing it creates lots of jobs and opportunities in terms of reuse markets in places like Ghana, for example. So policy has to take into account all of these different connections, and that's really difficult. And, you know, this is for policymakers trying to navigate their way through all of this, all of the challenges for the industry. It is hugely complex, bearing in mind it's probably only one sector they're thinking about amongst all the other sectors they have to focus on.

WTiN: Now it is absolutely huge and I really liked how you described those differences of priorities there between the global north and the global south. But diving a little bit deeper, there is like you said there's so many challenges in terms of circularity and sustainability. So diving a bit deeper into WRAP and your systems transformation and the roadmap you've created, how does that address some of the industry's challenges and move those conversations forward?

Sumner: Underlying a lot of the work that we do at WRAP is evidence. So we have been building for a very long time an evidence base to understand where the impacts are and how those impacts are connected across the whole of the life cycle. an evidence base to understand where the impacts are and how those impacts are connected across the whole of the life cycle.

Again, reflecting that systems approach. So we're using evidence to inform us in terms of what we should be focusing on. And with the data that we have and with the evidence, we do modeling. And for our roadmap, we spent an enormous amount of time, which probably isn't clear in the document itself, it's only 20 pages, but we spent an enormous amount of time modelling different activities and different approaches to addressing the big issues around climate, around water and around waste, textiles waste.

Using that modelling, we were able to identify what the hotspots were and where the key areas of activity lay in terms of getting that rapid and deep change that's needed across the industry. And we focused on four areas, essentially. The first is really focusing on how we embed circular design into businesses operations. So circular design has been talked about for many, many years. But what we've been talking about is how do you demonstrate to a business, the business case for circular design. So we've been looking at that circular design process, looking at durability, looking at recycle content, looking at recyclability, looking at repair, looking at all those options to see how that design of product gets built into the operational side of what businesses are doing. The second thing that we're focusing on is demonstrating the circular business models, the shift from linear to circular, can actually decouple growth from harm. We've been demonstrating, and over the next few months actually, we will be publishing quite a lot of work that we've done in circular business models with case studies showing how different organizations have driven their revenue and have engaged much more closely and much more intimately with their consumers by the use of circular business models. So that demonstration that circular business models are business models is the second demonstration that circular business models are business models is the second part of our work. The third part is looking at how we can use collective action to resolve some of the really big challenges for the reuse and recycling sector. We know in the UK that the reuse and recycling sector is under enormous pressure because of the growth in volume and the reduction in resale value. It has been seen, those challenges have been seen across the globe, by the way, as well, it's not just in the UK.

But what we are developing is that knowledge and that expertise to show that through collective action, by working in collaboration with organizations like RAP, where we pull together all these different stakeholders, we can actually really unpack this very complex system of post-consumer textiles to identify where investment is needed, where action is needed by brands and retailers, and how we can support commercial and charity reuse operations. And then the fourth component is leaning into collaboration to support decarbonization of the value chain. Now, this is, again, this is nothing new. Decarbonization of the supply chain has been talked about a lot for many years. Where we're looking at now is using the roadmap to align with others. So we have a clearer picture about how we focus on decarbonisation, how we measure and verify actions taken around decarbonisation and help organisations who may are new to this whole situation to navigate their way through what is very, very complex and data heavy challenges. So those four areas are where we're really focusing our work and that's reflected in how we've presented the roadmap.

WTiN: I'm very much looking forward as well to the case studies you mentioned that are going to be coming out. I think that will be fantastic for people to the industry to see how real action and how it's worked. And that's really interesting. What you said about decarbonisation, because it's not just the roadmap circularity that WRAP has created for the textile industry. You've also launched a footprint tool, which we'll speak more about in our second episode. But you've also launched the UK's Textile Path last year. I mean, you've already told us so much, but could you tell listeners more about this and how it complements what you have just discussed there in terms of the Roadmap?

Sumner: Yeah, so as I said before, we've been working in textiles for many, many years. Our SCAP 2020 initiative was the starting point for many of the stakeholders in the UK to understand what we need to do around textiles to minimize the environmental footprint. That was then, the successor to that was the Textiles 2030 roadmap that was launched in 2021. We redeveloped the roadmap and we rebranded our work as the UK Textiles Pact last year. And the whole idea of rebranding and having the roadmap coming out at the same time is to demonstrate and to show to everyone, we recognize that as a key player within the textiles transition, we also need to change the way that we operate. So Textiles Pact is a reflection of the fact that we are looking at this in a very different way now. The Textiles Pact is a fantastic group of organizations that support us and help us move the dial in terms of that decoupling of growth from impacts. So within the Textiles Pact, we have brands and retailers. So we have some of the UK's largest brands and retailers within the pact. And we also have some really interesting, innovative, small niche brands in the pact as well. So the brand and retailer community is really strong. And what I really like about working with the pact members, particularly the brand of retailers, is they demonstrate collaboration. We as WRAP create this pre-competitive space, and most of our signatories recognize that as an opportunity to share new challenges, but also new solutions to move the dial, to help the whole of the UK industry move forward. We also have within our signature base what we call our R&R community. So that's the reuse and recycling community. And again, what we've got here is, you know, a great set of organisations, some big, some small. We have commercial, we have charities. And the really great thing about the R&R sector is they're absolutely passionate about the sector and making the sector as productive and as healthy as possible. And there are a lot of challenges at the moment in terms of what's happening in that sector. We also have, as a sort of our third group within our textile pact is experts and affiliates. So we work closely with organizations like UKFT and BRC. We also work closely with other trade organizations. We work closely with universities, recognizing that universities can provide a really interesting opportunity for innovation and for exploration around solutions. And we also have a group of people that are essentially really good experts in textiles that we can use the sounding boards and we can use to check in, in terms of where we're going in terms of direction. So the Textiles Pact as an organization has a very diverse family, a very diverse group of people within it, which provides us with a bit of a challenge trying to keep everyone aligned and allowing everyone to have their say. But I hope they would agree that we do a reasonable job at that as part of the Textiles Pact.

WTiN: I'm sure you do. And just before we end this episode, leading on from that, it would be great if you could tell us what conversations you're hoping to have this year at WRAP with all of the organisations that you've just mentioned.

Sumner: One of the important things that we're doing this year, more than we have done previous years, is taking the demonstration, taking the evidence that we have from the UK and sharing that wider and in particular focusing on different markets in the European Union and also in the US. We're very proud of the work that's happened within the UK Techstars Pact. It's demonstrated some really key values, and we want to be able to share that with other organisations internationally as our international footprint grows. That's one of the conversations. An important conversation as part of that is the policy conversation. It's really understanding what the policymakers' objectives are and helping them understand what the policy makers' objectives are, and helping them understand what the evidence base is, and helping them understand how the system dynamics operate. Because I'm absolutely sure that the policy makers also want to avoid changing the system and shifting the burden from one place to another. So we think having conversations with policy is really important, and we're already engaged in a number of European policy conversations. We also need to continue the conversations with brands and retailers and with commercial operators within the R&R sector to embed some of the new knowledge and new expertise and new toolkits that are available, but also to be looking at how progress is going, looking at reporting of progress and to challenge where we can progress and how can we actually accelerate developments in certain areas.

So particularly, and I know we'll talk about this in the second episode, you know, big focus on accelerating work around durability, but also accelerating work in how we can resolve some of the challenges within the reuse and recycling sector and thinking about how we can use some new technologies to help the shift to circularity. So those are some of the critical conversations we're having, and around that we know that BRAC doesn't have all of the answers, as much as I would like to say that we do. We just don't. Textiles is far too complicated for that. And our roadmap is one of a number of roadmaps that are out there. So, one of the things that we – one of the conversations that we really do need to have and we will continue to have as time goes on is talking to other organizations about direction and how we can learn from them and how we can work in collaboration to achieve what are very significantly challenging targets for the textile industry for 2030 and the Paris Agreement. So I'm hoping over the next year, we have those conversations and we can start turning those conversations into real action on the ground.

WTiN: Amazing, thank you, Mark. And then my final question just to round off this episode, is what advice would you give to brands, retailers, manufacturers, and even consumers regarding building circularity and textiles? And I know that is quite a big question. We've touched upon so much and delved into how complex it is, but if there is one piece of advice you could give to everybody, what would that be?

Sumner: I'm going to give you two if I'm allowed to Abigail. So the first one obviously is come and talk to WRAP even if you're not part of the UK Techstars pact or if you're in the European market or in the US. come and talk to us because I believe we have lots of solutions for people out there. But I'm also very conscious of the fact that without having the conversations, we don't know whether we can help people or not. But come and talk to us, that's the first thing. The second thing is really focus on systems transformation. Really understand where you sit within the system and recognize that you create ripples out from your activities, both upstream and downstream. And the actions that you take can have unintended consequences. Now, these are very, very complex networks of supply chains, a very complex network of engagement with consumers. So really understanding your position within that system is critical.

And again, come and talk to WRAP. We can help you navigate some of the system dynamics. When it comes to consumers, that's a really interesting question in terms of what advice to give to consumers. I'm really clear that clothing and fashion in particular is a very intimate individual but also cultural activity that we all engage in. And I think individuals should not feel guilty about engaging in fashion. However, what I would say to consumers is when you're buying product, look at the brand that you're buying from. Are they part of the UK Textiles Pact? If they are, you know they're doing the work to improve the sustainability of their product. But also be thinking about what you do with your product, how you wash it, how you care for it, can you extend the life of it? And then finally, when you've fallen out of love with your clothing, and we all do that, don't we, remember that someone else can fall in love with that garment. So think about where you dispose of that garment in terms of donating it to charity or providing a second life for it by donating it to someone else wear.

WTiN: That's great. Thank you so much, Mark. And I look forward to welcoming you back on the second episode.

Sumner: Thanks very much for chatting.

WTiN: Thank you so much for listening. If you have any questions or want to learn more, you can follow us on LinkedIn at World Textile Information Network, or you can contact me directly at content at WTIM.com. If you are interested in sponsoring an episode of the podcast, please email sales at WTAN.com. of the podcast, please email sales at WTAN.com. Thank you, and we'll see you next time.