Globally the fashion industry employs over 75 million people worldwide and turns over more than $2.5 trillion USD each year. Fashion production accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions, 20% of global industrial wastewater pollution with the equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes burned or dumped in a landfill every second. The production of fast fashion also raises human rights concerns with the majority of textile workers being female and or migrants who are paid poverty wages and forced to work long hours while being exposed to dangerous chemicals and unsatisfactory working conditions in breach of international labour standards.
The social and environmental issues associated with this industry are being addressed through innovative supply chain regulation. Supply chain regulation is shifting responsibility to brands and retailers to show due diligence across their supply chains. Examples of supply chain regulation include:
- Modern Slavery regulation targeting the working conditions of garment workers;
- Textile Extended Producer Responsibility Schemes or Textile Product Stewardship schemes requiring fashion brands and retailers to play a role in recycling of textile waste and the introduction of eco-design standards;
- Due Diligence regulation of the EU and OECD – requiring larger businesses to demonstrate upstream and downstream due diligence for both sustainability and labour issues across their supply chains.
- Decarbonisation and Just Transition regulation – requiring a range of industries to reduce emissions across their operations.
In 2022, Professor Rowena Maguire along with Professor Alice Payne edited an open access journal special edition on Fashion Justice. This special edition explores both the social and environmental justice issues associated with the textile sector with leading scholars from across the globe.
Chief Investigators
- Professor Rowena Maguire
- Professor Amanda Kennedy
- Associate Professor Erin O’Brien
- Associate Professor Bree Hurst
- Justine Coneybeer
- Paige Street
- Ally Clark
Partner Investigators
Project funding/grants
Professor Maguire has led and collaborated on a number of interdisciplinary funded projects exploring ways to address the social and environmental risks of global textile supply chains including:
- Cotton Research Development Corporation, Strategies for Improving Labour Conditions within the Australian Cotton Value Chain (2019-2022)
- Australian Retailers Association, Sustainability Policy Impacts: Investigating international approaches in fostering a circular economy for textiles (2021-2022)
- Australian Fashion Council, National Clothing Product Stewardship Scheme – Building the evidence base for scheme design (2022-2023)
- United Nations Environment Program, Legal Division: Textile Permitting Systems (2023 – 2024)
Project outputs
Media
- Maguire, Rowena & O’Brien, Erin (2023) Seven Steps to ‘clean up’ cotton industry. QUT Media, 2023.
- Maguire, Rowena & Coneybeer, Justine (2023) Labour price, not target retail price, should determine garment price for a living wage. QUT News, 29 March 2023.
Policy submissions / Briefing papers
- O’Brien, Erin, Coneybeer, Justine, Chapple, Ellie, Ahmed, Shakoor, Bora, Adriana, McCredie, Bronwyn, et al. (2022) Submission to the Review of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act 2018.
- Coneybeer, Justine & Maguire, Rowena (2022) Evading responsibility: Living Wage Methodologies and Initiatives in the Fashion Industry. QUT Centre for Justice Briefing Papers, December 2022.
- Coneybeer, Justine, Boersma, Martijn, Bolger, Sarah, Kallio, Karina, Maguire, Rowena, O’Brien, Erin, et al. (2023) Human Rights Regulatory Frameworks. The Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC), Australia.
- Street, Paige, Bolger, Sarah, Payne, Alice, Boersma, Martijn, Coneybeer, Justine, Josserand, Emmanuel, et al. (2022) The Effects of COVID-19 on the Textile and Apparel Value Chain. QUT Centre for Justice Briefing Papers, 29, 22 August 2022.
- Payne, Alice, Boersma, Martijn, Rissanen, Timo, Maguire, Rowena, O’Brien, Erin, Bolger, Sarah, et al. (2022) Strategies for improving labour conditions within the Australian cotton value chain. The Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC), Australia.
Academic publications
- Coneybeer, Justine & Maguire, Rowena (2022) Evading Responsibility: A Structural Critique of Living Wage Initiatives and Methodologies. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 11(2), pp. 15-29.
- Payne, Alice, Maguire, Rowena, & Kennedy, Amanda (2022) Fashion Justice. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 11(2), i-ix.