Femnet e.V.

Solar systems on the stadium roof, less garbage with reusable dishes, the bratwurst from the organic farmer around the corner - in recent years, the commitment of professional sports to more sustainability has increased sharply. However, measures on purchasing practices and in particular on sustainable textile procurement have so far been rare.

Against this background, the study addresses the question of whether and how sustainable procurement of merchandising and team sportswear is feasible in professional sports. It analyses whether textiles are already purchased from a social and ecological point of view and records the challenges faced by clubs and associations. With a few exceptions, clubs of the respective first leagues as well as the top and league associations from football, handball, basketball and ice hockey were considered.

The feasibility study on sustainable textile procurement in professional sports was carried out by FEMNET on behalf of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

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More and more textiles are produced worldwide, with serious consequences for the environment. A possible solution: a circular textile industry with functioning recycling processes and corresponding infrastructures. The research project ‘DiTex - Digital technologies as enablers of a resource-efficient circular B2B textile industry’ is testing a circular textile industry in the business customer segment, i.e. in the area of business-to-business (B2B), in the character of a feasibility study. This is based on the assessment that enormous volumes of identical textiles are in circulation in the commercial context of workwear and flat linen (bedding, towels) and that the logistics are well organised and established in the individual facilities via fixed dispensing and return points. The participants in this project network consider it particularly possible to combine a resource-efficient ecological use of materials with a service-based business model geared towards frequent use cycles in this largely closed B2B textile industry, which uses digital technologies smartly. DiTex wants to be a testing platform for this.

This Integrative Research Report (IB) provides as complete a documentation of the results of the DiTex work as possible after two out of a total of three years of project duration. All research and verification results achieved by summer 2021 in work packages (WP) 1 and 2 are documented, evaluated and interpreted in this report.

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This 27-page working paper is based on the research report ‘Out-of-court complaint mechanisms along global supply chains - Recommendations for institutionalisation, implementation and procedural design’ published in September 2021 on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. It provides companies and corporate responsibility initiatives with concrete recommendations for the institutionalisation, implementation, design of procedures and the establishment of complaint mechanisms.

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With a huge range of outrageously cheap articles and offensive appearances on social networks, online clothing retailer Shein ranks industry greats such as H&M and Zara in favor of young women's money and feelings. As glaring as the brand appears, so opaque remains the company behind it. A search for traces – down to the winding alleys of the Chinese million-dollar city of Guangzhou, where thousands of workers sew up to twelve hours a day the fabric from which the teen dreams are made.

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Production of our clothing requires resources, whether the parts are made of cotton fiber or synthetic. Cotton cultivation in particular consumes an enormous amount of water. Numerous chemicals are used in the processing. All of this happens mainly in emerging and developing countries, because our clothing is hardly ever made in Germany. This case study examines and describes the global environmental impact of our clothing.

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