The Global Open Database Program For Sustainable Textile Materials (ECOM) Conducts Research In Shengze, A Famous Textile Town

From July 9 to 12, 2024, the Sustainable Textile Materials Global Open Database Program (ECOM) promoted by the Social Responsibility Office of the China Textile Industry Federation carried out an updated survey on the material environmental footprint data of key textile enterprises in Shengze, Jiangsu Province. ECOM plan aims to build an open global textile life cycle database, promote the research and application of sustainable textile materials, and provide important data support for the green and low-carbon transformation of the textile industry.

On the morning of July 9, the "2024 Climate Training Camp for Chinese Textile and Garment Enterprises (Shengze Special Session)" hosted by the Social Responsibility Office of the China Textile Industry Federation and organized by China Textile Information Center and Shengze Town Economic Development and Reform Bureau was held in Shengze Administrative Service Center. This activity. Yan Yan, Vice President of China Textile Industry Federation and Director of Social Responsibility Office, Zhang Jianhua, Deputy Director of Wujiang High tech Zone Management Committee and Director of China Oriental Silk Market Management Committee, attended and delivered speeches. Representatives of more than 80 enterprises in Shengze gathered together to introduce and communicate in detail ECOM-TEX sustainable materials database and LCAplus full life cycle evaluation platform, It also introduces the focus on carbon neutral factories and carbon neutral product standards and creation to jointly explore the sustainable development of the textile industry. After the climate training camp, the expert team of China Textile Information Center carried out several weeks of field research and training on the environmental footprint of key enterprises.

　　 01 Leader's speech

　　 Director Zhang Jianhua In his speech, he pointed out that thanks to the strong support of the China Textile Industry Federation, Shengze has made remarkable achievements in green and low-carbon climate action in the textile industry, and is at the forefront of the industry. Since the "double carbon" goal was proposed, Shengze has been actively responding to the national strategy and is one of the earliest textile industry clusters. In recent years, Shengze has released a white paper on climate action in the textile industry, set up a sustainable innovation office, and launched a carbon footprint baseline measurement project for textile products. Director Zhang Jianhua hopes that Shengze enterprises can use the platform of the training camp to update their ideas, adhere to green and low-carbon development, focus on technological innovation, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, strengthen management, achieve coordinated development, and inject new impetus into the transformation and upgrading of Shengze silk textile industry.

　　 Yan Yan, Vice President In his speech, he stressed the importance of climate change. As a globalized industry, the textile and clothing industry has always been at the forefront of the times. The textile industry plays an important role in every stage of development from the planned economy to the market economy, and from the domestic market to the international market. China Textile Industry Federation and Shengze jointly held a climate training camp for Chinese textile and clothing enterprises, aiming to deepen the practice of the "double carbon" goal and promote Shengze's textile industry to move towards green and low-carbon development. The event called on Shengze enterprises to actively participate in promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the textile industry. As the leader of modern industrial clusters, Shengze Town has always been at the forefront of reform and made outstanding contributions to the development of the industry. Facing global challenges, the textile industry needs to rethink its strategic positioning and propose innovative solutions to common problems.

　　 02 Agenda

The event agenda includes several special lectures and trainings. Meeting by Hu Kehua, Deputy Director of Social Responsibility Office of China Textile Industry Federation Director Hu first introduced the latest progress of climate action, focusing on sharing the details of ECOM. The plan aims to establish ECOM-TEX database to support the construction of environmental footprint accounting and emission factor database through high-quality data. Give priority to the measurement data with traceability to guide the traceability and verification of carbon footprint data, and comprehensively build a sustainable materials database for the textile and clothing industry, provide industry support services in specific fields, and connect and supplement with the national database.

In the activity, Assistant Researcher of Sustainable Development Cooperation Department of China Textile Information Center Qi Yihan This paper deeply analyzes the background, core content and comparison with existing standards of carbon neutral plant standards, and details the key links and practical strategies that enterprises should pay attention to in building carbon neutral plants. She pointed out that the existing international standards have a wide range and only make zero one judgment, which is difficult to implement. At the same time, although the direction of domestic standards is clear, the emission characteristics and emission reduction paths of different industries are different, and the textile industry lacks special standards. Therefore, the development of carbon neutral factory standards in the textile industry not only fills the industry gap, but also improves enterprise participation by breaking the zero one judgment.

Then, researcher of Sustainable Development Cooperation Department of China Textile Information Center Sun Lirong How to build carbon neutral textile products is introduced. Combining actual cases and data, she explained in detail the development background, development ideas and implementation significance of the series of standards of T/CNTAC 188-2023 Technical Specification for Carbon neutral Textiles Evaluation and T/CNTAC 189-2023 Technical Specification for Carbon Label Evaluation of Textiles. The former specifies the evaluation methods and requirements for carbon neutral textiles, while the latter provides the evaluation standards and application guidelines for carbon labeling of textiles. It provides specific operation guide and reference for participants.

Assistant Researcher of Sustainable Development Cooperation Department of China Textile Information Center Kong Yan The application of LCAplus was trained. After seven years of accumulation, China Textile Federation has developed a digital tracking system for carbon footprint in the whole life cycle of textiles, providing the market with a scientific platform for full life cycle analysis and design of green textile products. The system provides one-stop solutions to product carbon footprint assessment, certification and label promotion, supports enterprises to carry out product carbon footprint management and supply chain carbon reduction, and has core functions such as product modeling, comparative analysis, information disclosure and database management. The highlights of the system include efficient collaboration, localized database, secure computing, green analysis and visual label transfer.

　　 03

As a famous textile town in the world, Shengze is famous at home and abroad for its rich production experience and strong industrial foundation, and has a complete textile industry chain and advanced production capacity. Build a world-class climate action demonstration zone for textile industry cluster with excellent production capacity and perfect industrial chain. In 2021, Shengze, together with the Social Responsibility Office of the China Textile Federation, launched the climate innovation action project for the textile industry, jointly established the Sustainable Innovation Office, and held three climate training camps with the China Textile Federation to promote the green and low-carbon development of the textile industry. In October 2022, with the help of China Textile Federation, Shengze successfully released the White Paper on Climate Action in the Textile Industry. In 2023, Shengze will launch the Baseline Research Project on Carbon Emissions of Textile Products, maintain deep cooperation with Shengze in terms of organizational carbon emissions, product carbon emissions, supply chain carbon emissions, etc., jointly explore the best practices of energy conservation and carbon reduction, and commit to promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of the textile industry.

In the future, Shengze Town will continue to implement its low-carbon commitment with practical actions, drive the upstream and downstream of the whole industrial chain to jointly promote the concept of green manufacturing, and promote the green and sustainable development of industrial ecology. By promoting advanced low-carbon technology and management experience, the two sides will deepen cooperation, encourage more enterprises to participate in green low-carbon action, and jointly help achieve the goal of "dual carbon". Through the ECOM project, Shengze will further enhance its leadership in the green and low-carbon field and promote the sustainable development of the textile industry.

Global Open Database Program for Sustainable Textile Materials ECOM

The China Textile and Clothing Industry Life Cycle Assessment Working Group ("CNTAC-LCA Working Group" for short) was officially established at the China Textile Conference in December 2020 to guide the industry to carry out the textile product life cycle assessment and product environmental information disclosure, and give full play to the collaborative organization ability of industry organizations, Accelerate the establishment of a traceable environmental information disclosure system for green products in the whole chain from the end brand end to the raw material end, improve the ability of enterprises to deal with green trade barriers in the international market, support consumers to identify green products, and guide green consumption. At present, CNTAC-LCA Working Group has 58 institutional members, including 47 enterprises, 11 academic and technical institutions and organizational alliances, covering the whole industrial chain of fiber materials, textile chemicals, spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing processing, and clothing production, as well as brands and consumers. By July 2024, CNTAC-LCA working group has completed the carbon footprint assessment of 110 single products, involving 33 brands and 177 suppliers.

CNTAC-LCA working group will prepare the sharing and co construction plan of "ECOM-TEX Database of Sustainable Materials" (referred to as "ECOM-TEX Database") in May 2021, carry out textile materials, covering 13 kinds of raw materials - Xinjiang cotton, hemp, mulberry silk, cashmere, wool, yak hair and other natural fibers, as well as viscose fiber, spandex, polyester, nylon and other chemical fibers, Continuously update and expand in stages. In order to build and optimize the whole life cycle assessment system of textile products and the environmental footprint database, and implement the key tasks of "establishing and improving the carbon footprint management system", "building a multi party carbon footprint work pattern", "promoting international mutual trust in product carbon footprint rules", and "continuously strengthening the capacity building of product carbon footprint" in the Implementation Plan on Establishing a Carbon Footprint Management System, It is planned to establish a relatively complete textile material database in 2030 to support credible and traceable textile product environmental footprint assessment.

(Source: Social Responsibility Office of China Textile Industry Federation)