Looking for the 2019 SDG Insights report? A link to its former PDF address may have brought you here. We have not recovered the exact PDF. This guide uses separate primary sources to explore the textile industry’s connections to the Sustainable Development Goals. It is not the original report or a reproduction of its findings.
Read impacts across the value chain
UNEP’s 2020 Global Stocktaking examines environmental and social impacts across textile production and use. Its 2023 Global Roadmap describes opportunities for action and collaboration. Read them alongside the goals to connect a textile decision with the stages and people it affects.
The OECD garment and footwear guidance explains how businesses can identify and address adverse impacts in their operations and supply chains. It is a guide to due diligence, rather than a certificate for a material or garment.
Follow a textile decision through the goals
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are a framework of 17 goals and 169 targets. A claim such as “this garment supports the SDGs” is too broad to evaluate. Name the decision, the relevant target, the people and places affected, and the evidence of an outcome. These starting points connect the framework to common textile questions:
| Goal | Question for a textile supply chain | Evidence to seek |
|---|---|---|
| SDG 8: Decent work | How are working conditions protected for people making, processing, and handling textiles? | Worker coverage, wages and hours, health and safety, and credible ways for workers to raise concerns. |
| SDG 9: Industry and innovation | Does a change in equipment or process improve production in practice? | A defined baseline, site-level measurements, and whether the improvement can be maintained. |
| SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production | Do material choices, product life, and waste systems reduce resource use? | Input and waste quantities, useful product life, and what happens after collection. |
| SDG 13: Climate action | Do climate claims include the parts of the textile value chain where impacts occur? | Emissions boundaries, energy sources, the reporting period, and measured change. |
| SDG 17: Partnerships | Can brands, suppliers, workers, and public bodies act on shared problems together? | Who participates, what each party is responsible for, and what the collaboration has delivered. |
These are questions to investigate, not findings attributed to the missing PDF. Our guides go deeper on decent work, responsible production and consumption, and climate action.
How to assess a claimed SDG contribution
- Choose a target. Start with the official UN target rather than a goal icon alone.
- Locate the activity. Specify the material, facility, supply-chain stage, geography, and reporting period.
- Check the measure. Separate a policy or commitment from an action, and an action from a measured social or environmental result.
- Look for tradeoffs. Ask whether a gain at one stage shifts costs, emissions, waste, or risk to another group or place.
- Trace the source. Record the original publication, method, and date before repeating any statistic.
Source desk
- UNEP: Global Stocktaking of the Textile Value Chain (2020)
Environmental and social impacts across production and use. - UNEP: A Global Roadmap for Textiles (2023)
Actions and collaboration for a more sustainable and circular textile value chain. - OECD: Due Diligence Guidance for Garment and Footwear Supply Chains (2018)
A framework for identifying and addressing adverse impacts. - United Nations: Sustainable Development Goals
Official goals and targets used in the questions above.
Read each source for its scope, date and methods. These publications provide context for the questions above; they do not reproduce the missing 2019 report.