Introduction

The report argues that the global fashion system contributes significantly to climate and ecological pressures and social shortfalls, driven by rapid production, reliance on virgin resources and entrenched labour inequalities. It frames the need for transformation through twelve identified hot spots that exceed planetary boundaries or undermine social foundations, including excessive virgin material use, unsafe workplaces, poverty wages, discrimination, trade union repression, and unsustainable fibre agriculture. The report draws on the “doughnut” model to show how fashion’s current operating system drives overshoot in six of nine planetary boundaries and contributes to widespread human rights gaps. These challenges persist despite growing sustainability discourse, as small improvements often fail to offset overall growth in production and fibre use.

Fashion’s hot spots

Mapping fashion’s impacts to the doughnut framework, the report highlights key drivers of ecological overshoot: fossil-fuel-based energy use, livestock-related emissions, chemical pollution, land conversion, and water stress. Fibre production reached 113 million tonnes in 2021 and is projected to rise to 149 million tonnes by 2030. Intensive cotton and forestry systems contribute to biodiversity loss, pesticide exposure and altered nitrogen and phosphorus cycles. Socially, low wage levels, precarious employment, long working hours, unsafe workplaces, gender-based violence, discrimination and limits on freedom of association remain systemic. Child labour and forced labour risks persist in cotton and livestock sectors, while low wages erode access to food, housing, health and education. Hot spots underline interconnected socio-ecological risks, guiding the priority areas requiring transformation.

Transformation targets for fashion

The authors outline thirty-three time-bound targets aligned with long-term aims for a just fashion system within planetary boundaries. The baseline year for material reductions is 2022, and 2019 for GHG emissions. Key quantitative targets include:

• Reduce virgin material use and overproduction: 40% reduction in virgin material input by 2030, including a 60% cut in fossil-fuel-based materials and 10% reduction in natural virgin fibres; at least 15% fibre-to-fibre recycled content in new garments.
• Slow down fashion and reduce waste: Doubling the actual wear-life of garments to achieve the same use-value with half the resource input.
• Pay living wages: Ensure workers receive living wages, which the report positions as a fundamental right.
• Ensure decent working hours: Limit excessive hours and support collective bargaining to address overwork.
• Protect trade union rights: Uphold freedom of association and expand enforceable agreements such as the Dindigul Agreement.
• End discrimination and gender-based violence: Implement binding workplace agreements on prevention and remediation of GBVH and promote ratification of ILO Convention 190.
• Guarantee safe and healthy workplaces: Strengthen occupational health and safety standards, including heat-safety protocols and compliance mechanisms.
• Provide secure employment relationships and social protection: Reduce informality and support social security contributions to improve resilience.
• Foster an agro-ecological transition: Zero deforestation for fibre crops; shift 50% of natural fibre production to agroecological systems; phase out all highly hazardous pesticides and reduce other agrochemical use by 75%; establish living-income reference prices for cotton in at least 50% of sourcing.
• Mitigate GHG emissions: Reduce fashion’s emissions in alignment with 1.5°C pathways, accounting for energy use, agriculture and waste-stage emissions.
• End fashion’s addiction to plastics: Phase down fossil-fuel-based synthetics and improve recycling infrastructure.
• Ensure sustainable water and chemical use: Reduce hazardous chemical exposure and address water contamination in fibre agriculture and wet-processing stages.

The report notes that achieving these targets requires regulatory action, business commitments (e.g., long-term sourcing contracts, higher material premiums for agroecological fibres), and transparent methodologies. Transformation targets are political and must be debated and refined.

Pathways for change: shifting paradigms

The report identifies four paradigm shifts needed to implement the targets:

Material shift: Reduce consumption of virgin materials and support circularity through durability, reparability and recyclability.

Labour and knowledge shift: Revalue labour by prioritising skill, time and quality; strengthen job security; enable co-determination; and provide opportunities for learning and development.

Shifting value distribution: Address extreme inequality by reallocating economic value towards workers and producers, including through regulation, living-income mechanisms and fair pricing.

Power shift: Democratise company ownership and decision-making, promote worker co-ownership models, strengthen labour laws, require due diligence and transparency, and ensure that costs currently externalised are internalised through policy. Behavioural change must move beyond individual consumption to include challenging marketing norms and enabling citizens, workers and producers to influence systemic outcomes.

Conclusion

The report argues that the fashion system requires fundamental restructuring to operate within planetary boundaries and social foundations. The proposed targets and paradigm shifts provide a framework for systemic change, inviting further refinement and collective action across value chains, regulatory systems and civil society.