A new study is urging fashion brands, textile manufacturers and policymakers to accelerate decarbonisation to ensure a more resilient and cost-effective fashion supply chain.

The report titled ‘Low-Carbon Thermal Energy Roadmap for the Textile Industry’ provides a roadmap on the transition to low carbon thermal energy in five key fashion sourcing regions – China, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

During a live panel discussion, the Apparel Impact Institute (Aii)’s climate portfolio director, Pauline Op de Beeck, explains this was a piece of work that Aii commissioned with its climate solutions portfolio grant funding to identify the technologies to focus on and to create industry alignment on knowledge and how to move forward on this path.

It is the second of two reports with the first assessing low-carbon thermal energy technologies and sources. While, this latest report conducts a quantitative assessment and develops a roadmap for adopting low-carbon technologies and energy sources in a typical wet-processing textile plant in the five key sourcing regions. 

Taken together, Aii hopes the reports present detailed insights on alternatives to fossil fuels, especially coal, in the global fashion industry and lay out specific options as well as offer roadmaps to achieve net zero emissions. 

She describes 2025 as a “critical juncture” as it’s halfway to 2030 when most brands have targets ahead of a longer term transition. 

She states: “Immediate action is needed, and it should be a just transition so there needs to be a complete overhaul of where energy comes from and how textile mills operate.” 

The report’s methodology 

Global Efficiency Intelligence’s CEO and founder Ali Hasanbeigi tells the panel’s audience the study was focused on thermal energy because that’s “the main challenge for decarbonising the textile industry”. 

He explains: “Textile plants have wet processing facilities, which include dyeing, printing, finishing and washing. We looked at those using previous studies as well the data gathered for this project to do an analysis of a typical wet processing plant across the countries with some variations.

“Then we developed a model looking at the base case technology, which was coal fired boilers to generate steam or boilers for thermal energy, and then we compared that with electrification technologies. The two technologies we considered were electric boilers and industrial options to produce steam and we also looked at natural gas and biomass as alternative fields.”

AII used its analysis to make projections up to 2040, which show what would be the energy saving using each technology and what would be the annual emissions compared to the base, what would be the emission reduction and what would be the energy costs over the lifetime of the technology.

Hasanbeigi notes: “Electrification is big part of this because that’s basically the real solution when we talk about deep decarbonisation and net zero. 

“But if you electrify, where the electricity comes from is very important, so we developed two scenarios. One is called Baseline Grid Plus Renewable Energy Procurement and the other is Ambitious Grade Plus Renewable Energy Procurement. Both scenarios assume the grid is decarbonising by a certain year, which is the target of each of these countries for reaching net zero.

“The typical textile plant would procure a certain percentage of renewable electricity to mix with the grid. However, these five countries are not in the same place. 

“China, India, Vietnam currently have corporate RE Procurement with for example, power purchase agreements (PPA) so they are in a more advanced place. While, Indonesia, for instance is lagging in terms of regulatory infrastructure, so we had more conservative assumptions for it.”

Key report findings on how to decarbonise fashion

The report shows that emission reductions can be achieved for all electrification technologies, pathways, and countries by 2035. 

In particular, heat pumps, due to their high levels of efficiency, could deliver emissions and cost savings in every geography by 2030. 

Starting in 2030, electric steam boilers could reduce CO2 emissions in China, India, and Vietnam relative to coal-fired boilers when grid electricity is paired with an equal share of procured Renewable Energy. 

However, without a higher share of directly procured Renewable Energy, Indonesia’s very high grid emissions factor could lead to electric boilers actually increasing CO2 emissions in 2030. 

Similarly, in Bangladesh, electrification does not offer near-term emissions benefits because the primary boiler fuel is natural gas, which has a lower direct emissions factor if not procuring Renewable Energy.

Results for electric hot oil boilers are similar, but slightly lower in magnitude.

Since electric boilers have less efficiency gains than heat pumps, they will

not deliver cost savings until 2035 in China, India, and Vietnam, and until

2040 in Bangladesh and Indonesia. 

Across all countries, electrification with steam-generating heat pumps leads to greater efficiency gains and energy savings than converting to electric steam or hot oil boilers.

In a typical textile wet-processing facility, AII estimates that steam-generating heat pumps can reduce energy by 48 GWh per year relative to conventional steam boilers, while electric steam boilers can offer energy savings of 18 GWh per year.

As Hasanbeigi explains: “Electrification in all cases reduces annual emissions significantly, depending on the percentage of renewable use. And then as you move forward, as we use more renewable energy we substantially reduce emissions in certain scenarios. If we assume 100% renewable use in 2030 you get to basically net zero emissions in 2030. 

Industrial heat pumps because they’re extremely efficient can give significant emission reductions even though the electricity is not 100% renewable. 

Actually, you can still use fairly carbon intensive electricity, and you get emissions lower than coal. 

Electric boilers also have good efficiency, 99% efficiency compared to the conventional boiler, but they are not as efficient as a heat pump, so they still give an emissions reduction, but it’s a lower emission reduction compared to the heat pump.

He continues: “To wrap up, we need a cost analysis, both for energy costs of each of these technologies per unit of production, and also lifecycle costs, which we call levelised costs. 

“If you look at lifetime costs, the heat pump can be more economical, but if you look at the short term, we’re using a payback period because heat pumps have a higher capital cost so they cannot be competitive with some of the conventional technologies.” 

What can fashion brands and suppliers do to aid decarbonisation? 

Op de Beeck is keen to highlight the report also calls for policy advocacy and for the wider fashion market to ramp up the availability of corporate renewable electricity. 

She explains this is a key enabling factor for textile mills to be able to electrify and “electrification is the only technology compatible with net zero, which is why natural gas and biomass can be considered as alternative fuels”.

The overall conclusion, she states, is “if we’re looking at the long term and the achievement of net zero – be that in 2040, or 2050, depending on the brand – this can only be achieved by electrifying operations, and those operations must be using renewable electricity”.

Op de Beeck notes the report offers recommendations for policymakers, financial institutions and utilities, but she’s keen to focus on fashion brands and garment manufacturers during the live panel discussion.

“There is a lot of work that needs to happen in the next five years, even for a longer term transition, and that’s because there is still some piloting to be done. So although, as Aii presented, steam generating heat pumps have the potential to deliver huge emissions and cost savings and are proven technologies in other sectors, there are actually not yet very many case studies at all in our sector. 

“So we really encourage [fashion] brands to work with their suppliers to find projects that can be piloted, and those will need to be grant funded because of the kind of capital expenditure of those technologies and the risk to be a first mover.” 

She adds that to prepare a textile mill for electrification, there is work that can be done to reduce the overall thermal load of a facility: “The less thermal energy you need to begin with, the less renewable electricity you need to then procure, therefore improving the business case for electrification.”

She recommends brands engage and collaborate with suppliers on reducing their thermal load and start to make commitments on renewable electricity procurement. 

AII advises brands to audit this and for suppliers to prove the provenance of the biomass to make sure that it is really sustainable and delivering emissions reductions.

The recommendation for garment manufacturers is to implement renewable energy options and encourage collaboration between suppliers and brands, whether that’s with technical and financial support, business commitments or having that market signal that this is the direction of travel. 

She points out it’s important for there to be an alignment between fashion brands and manufacturers to ensure the direction of travel is unified and follows the same targets and definitions.

She says much of that will start with brand leadership to communicate the direction of travel in the supply chain, and to provide the necessary technical and financial support for mills to implement change. 

Biggest takeaway for both brands and suppliers?

Hasanbeigi believes the most important takeaway is that the renewable energy technologies listed in the study are commercially available today, so the industry does not have to wait until 2030 to electrify and decarbonise. But, he adds: “We need pilots and first movers and we need to support the first movers. Between now and 2030 I’m hoping we’ll have 10 or more of these pilots in different countries, so people can see the technology is working.” 

What should brands do now to drive this transition at scale?

H&M’s senior sustainability manager Kim Hellström tells the audience fashion brands need to start with what’s easy and not focus on the impossible. 

He asserts there’s nothing easier or cheaper for brands than renewable electricity and implementing it within the supply chain, but the tendency is always to focus on other more complex things. 

“To avoid creating operational costs we need to change the behaviour of our suppliers and within our own organisations.” 

He vouches for everyone getting their hands dirty to promote this change with projects, pilots and eventually across wider society.