Textile Exchange on its shift to an action-based membership model to drive accountability
As the gap between sustainability goals and industry reality grows, Textile Exchange is shifting from a focus on guidance to one of shared accountability. In an interview with FashionUnited, Sarah Needham, chief engagement and partnerships officer, and Beth Jensen, chief impact officer, discuss the organisation's new action-oriented membership structure, designed to bridge the divide between ambition and measurable impact.
From unifying global standards to supporting raw material producers at the start of the supply chain, they explore how standardised data and collective action are helping brands navigate emerging regulations and drive a high-tech transition toward preferred production systems.
When deciding to shift to a more action-oriented membership structure, what industry gaps or frustrations did Textile Exchange recognise that made it clear the organisation needed to move beyond engagement and towards accountability?
Sarah Needham: Membership has always been central to Textile Exchange’s impact. We have built a global community of over 700 members across the supply chain and supported them with resources, data, connection, events, and expertise. But as the gap between ambition and reality has widened, it’s clear that guidance alone is no longer enough.
The shift to a more action-oriented membership structure reflects the need for deeper engagement and greater accountability. We want to support members to make measurable, credible contributions to industry-wide goals, in an effort to drive beneficial outcomes for climate, nature, people and animals. Practically, that means clearer expectations around increasing both supply and demand for materials from preferred production systems and aligning members around a shared pathway toward system-level change.
The new Action and Community cohort structure introduces clearer pathways for different types of organisations. How do you expect this structure to change how brands, suppliers, and other stakeholders collaborate across the value chain?
Needham: The two-cohort structure reflects the distinct needs and goals of different types of organisations working within the industry, while creating clearer, more purposeful pathways for collaboration.
The Action Cohort brings together brands, retailers, suppliers, and Tier 4 stakeholders who directly source or produce raw materials and want a clear direction to meet targets. It is designed for those already taking steps toward sourcing or producing through systems that verify best practices and scaling preferred production systems. These members commit to taking tangible action on sourcing and production, moving from reporting on progress to implementing verified best practices and helping to scale preferred production systems.
A key shift here is bringing both ends of the supply chain together to work through shared challenges via collective action, helping to build alignment, trust and systemic solutions.
The Community Cohort supports organisations whose work sits outside of direct sourcing or production, such as academics, non-profits, solution providers, and Tier 1–3 supply chain partners. This cohort provides space to build expertise, share insights, and exchange best practices, ensuring knowledge and learning continue to follow across the wider system.
Together, these cohorts are designed to strengthen collaboration by clarifying roles, aligning actions and connecting organisations around shared goals.
Recent progress tracking acknowledges that the industry is not currently on track to reach its 45 percent GHG emissions reduction target. What role do you see Textile Exchange playing in closing the gap between sustainability ambition and measurable impact?
Beth Jensen: Textile Exchange's mission is to transform how we produce, choose, and reuse materials to benefit people and places at the source. Our role in closing the gap between ambition and progress has three core parts: setting clear direction, convening for action, and enabling and reporting on credible progress, through mechanisms such as our Materials Benchmark and Materials Market Report.
The Materials Market Report is an annual global authority on fibre and materials production volumes that informs alignment with a 1.5°C climate pathway. The Materials Benchmark is the sector’s largest peer-to-peer comparison framework.
Together, these programmes track the progress of brands and suppliers in sustainable sourcing, providing the standardised data and accountability necessary to reach the Climate+ target of a 45 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Textile Exchange has developed a set of actions and aggregate targets for six priority fibre and raw material production systems: cotton, wool, bovine leather, polyester, nylon, and manmade cellulosic fibres (MMCFs). The aggregate targets are set for 2030 and 2035, providing a clear direction of travel for the industry. These targets are grounded in extensive data analysis and research, mapping against voluntary and regulatory frameworks, and extensive stakeholder engagement.
They are aligned with Textile Exchange’s Preferred Production System principles, and are designed to support the achievement of the industry’s overarching climate and nature impact goals. Brand and retailer members will set their own meaningful goals aligned to the aggregate targets.
Textile Exchange has transitioned its industry framework from "preferred materials" to "preferred production systems," moving toward a more holistic, outcomes-driven approach. This evolution focuses on Tier 4 raw material development, defining preferred systems as those that deliver measurable reductions in environmental impact while increasing benefits for climate, nature, and people compared to conventional methods.
By providing high-level principles for cropping, animal, forestry, and recycling systems, this new guidance intends to avoid a rigid list of materials in favor of a transformative management model. These updated definitions will now underpin all Textile Exchange resources, including the Materials Market Report and the Fiber and Materials Matrix, replacing the previous 2023 guidance.
Textile Exchange also convenes its global membership to support organisations’ progress against climate and nature impact goals. For those organisations already reporting and sourcing or producing through verified production systems, and for Textile Exchange’s strategic partner organisations, there will be an opportunity to co-create the “Lead” step of the Action Cohort membership pathway.
Through coordinated collective action in this step, members will benefit from pooled resources and equitable decision-making, bringing together funding, expertise, and networks. With the right structures in place, members will be supported to take decisive actions that contribute to system-wide transformation beyond what any one organisation can deliver alone.
Finally, we support progress through Textile Exchange’s tools, standards, reports and guidance, while tracking progress via mechanisms such as the Materials Benchmark and Materials Market Report.
Impact data is an important backbone to the progress we want to see. Textile Exchange’s work on impact data is guided by its “LCA+” approach, which acknowledges that Life Cycle Assessment data can be a useful tool for understanding the impact of materials and production systems, but that for a truly holistic view of impact, other areas outside of what is covered by traditional LCA methodology (such as biodiversity, soil health, human rights and livelihoods, and animal welfare) should also be addressed.
Textile Exchange is developing seven LCA studies across different material categories, which will include “LCA+” content where possible. These studies will help increase the availability and quality of LCA data available to the industry, enabling more accurate modelling and progress tracking of GHG emissions and other impacts. The first of these studies, Life Cycle Assessment for Cotton, was released on March 26. Textile Exchange also released Ensuring Integrity in the Use of Life Cycle Assessment Data in 2025, which provides a foundational understanding of how LCA data should and should not be used.
Earlier this year, Textile Exchange launched the first in a new series of seven Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies to provide the fashion industry with high-quality, consistent environmental impact data. Using an expanded “LCA+” approach, these reports look to move beyond carbon metrics to include critical factors such as soil health, biodiversity, and social impacts.
The initial study focuses on cotton and identifies field emissions from synthetic fertilizers as a primary environmental hotspot. By closing critical data gaps for priority fibres including polyester, nylon, wool, and leather through 2027, this initiative enables brands to make more informed sourcing decisions and accurately track progress toward their greenhouse gas reduction goals.
Textile Exchange introduces first LCA study on cotton’s environmental impact
We hope to help move the industry beyond isolated efforts toward coordinated action and achieve beneficial outcomes that no single organisation could achieve alone.
A key focus of the new strategy is Tier 4: farmers and raw material producers at the start of the supply chain. Why is it so important to shift attention to this level now, and how will the new structure better support them?
Needham: Tier 4 stakeholders—raw material producers—are critical to delivering beneficial outcomes for climate, nature, people and animals. Yet they often carry a disproportionate share of the cost and risk when transitioning to preferred production systems.
In bringing the two ends of the supply chain together, the Action Cohort in particular gives Tier 4 members the opportunity to share their perspectives, challenges, experiences, and needs. This will help brands and retailers to shape their own sourcing strategies to better support Tier 4 to make the transition to preferred production systems.
The aim is to ensure that transformation at the start of the supply chain is not only expected, but enabled.
The upcoming Materials Matter Standard aims to unify and simplify the standards landscape. In practical terms, how will this make it easier for brands and producers to adopt preferred production systems?
Jensen: The Materials Matter Standard unifies and harmonises Textile Exchange’s current standards, creating a more consistent and streamlined approach to certification across a variety of material production systems. The Materials Matter Standard, and other standards that include credible verification mechanisms, provide a straightforward way to adopt and scale verified best practices.
Textile Exchange is also emphasising partnerships with existing certification and material programmes. Why is collaboration, rather than building entirely new systems, the right approach for accelerating industry change?
Needham: We recognise that there are already credible systems and programs in place, which brands and suppliers are actively using. Textile Exchange’s approach is to align with the existing ecosystem where possible to avoid duplication, lower barriers to adoption, and avoid further fragmentation across the industry.
Fashion brands are operating in a challenging climate, with geopolitical instability, ESG pushback in some markets, and stricter regulations emerging in others. How is Textile Exchange helping its members navigate this complexity while still progressing on climate and nature goals?
Jensen: Textile Exchange’s new membership structure, particularly the Action Cohort, is designed specifically to support members through these types of challenges. The pathways to preferred production systems include a series of step-wise recommended actions and aggregate targets, providing a shared direction of travel for the industry towards sourcing and producing fibres and materials from preferred production systems. Collective action opportunities will be designed to address challenges that no individual company can solve alone and which are barriers to further transitions to preferred production systems.
Underpinning the Action Cohort are the reports, research, and impact data offered by Textile Exchange, including our forthcoming Life Cycle Assessment reports which provide updated and/or new impact data for key raw material and fibre categories, and our work on developing and implementing an approach to setting and measuring nature-related impact across the industry.
Looking ahead to 2030, what would success look like for Textile Exchange under this new strategy, and what kind of transformation do you hope to see across the fashion and textile industry as a result?
Needham: Our membership community represents leading, influential organisations from across the fashion, textile, and apparel industry. In guiding our members along a shared pathway and vision, we have the opportunity to create collective change that is more impactful than what each of our members can achieve alone.
Success for our new membership structure is a clear shift in the trajectory of our members’ material sourcing and production, making demonstrable progress towards preferred production systems that show clear beneficial outcomes for people, animals, climate, and nature.
Collective action projects, as part of the “Lead” step, are ongoing and leading to beneficial outcomes in the landscape. The achievement of the aggregate targets would involve Action cohort members making more informed raw materials production and sourcing decisions in line with the preferred production system principles and pathways. Action cohort members’ involvement would bring actors in the space together to support the regeneration and transformation of the production systems towards beneficial outcomes and impacts for climate and nature.
By 2030, we would like to see the Materials Matter System widely adopted as a practical, scalable system that supports the shift from fragmented approaches to systemic change, where preferred production systems become the norm across the industry.
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