IGPN - International Green Purchasing Network

April 17, 2024

Driving Sustainability in China's Textile Industry: A Collaborative Approach to Ecolabeling and Sustainable Procurement

The "Sustainability in the Textile Value Chain Promoting Ecolabel and Sustainable Public Procurement in China" project is a small-scale initiative spanning one and a half years, from 2024 to 2026. It's supported by UNEP and is contributing to the broader objectives of the project "Greening Supply and Demand: Advancing Eco-Labels and Sustainable Public Procurement for Climate and Biodiversity Protection (EcoAdvance)" jointly implemented by GIZ, United Nations Environment Programme, Öko-Institut funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The primary goal is to foster more sustainable consumption and production patterns by leveraging ecolabelling and sustainable public procurement policies.

In this initiative, the expected outputs to be achieved:

Ÿ Facilitating the sustainable transition for textile industry with specific focus on climate change and biodiversity impact, through the development of textile product technical specifications. The technical specifications will be developed under the CEC LOGO certification and will be based on China Environmental Labeling standards . The criteria will be based on a life cycle approach (from cradle-to-grave), look at human health, climate change, biodiversity, pollution impacts and will include social aspects along the value chain.

Ÿ Promote sustainable procurement (business to business) along the value chain for textile products in China by using the developed sustainability criteria;

Ÿ Promote sustainable public procurement for textile products in China by using the developed sustainability criteria.

The initiative will entail various activities, including literature review and standard research, developing technical specifications for the textile product category, promoting the application of these specifications, and facilitating knowledge sharing. China Environmental United Certification Center (CEC) will collaborate with key stakeholders such as associations, companies, laboratories, testing institutions, and research institutes within the textile industry.

Background:
“Greening Supply and demand: Advancing Eco-Labels and Sustainable Public Procurement for climate and biodiversity protection (EcoAdvance)” aims to advance more sustainable patterns of consumption and production through employing the policy tools of ecolabelling and sustainable public procurement. The project is implemented in 5 Latin American countries (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico) and has also a global outreach component to foster worldwide knowledge exchange.

China Environmental United Certification Center (CEC) is an organization affiliated to Environmental Development Center (EDC) of Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China (MEE). It is a state-owned, legal entity of independent third-party certification body leading in environmental protection, energy saving and low carbon areas. Internationally, CEC was awarded the Clean Development Mechanism Designated Operational Entity by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, holds the secretariat of the International Green Purchasing Network (IGPN) since 2018, a board member of the Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN) and is closely cooperating with ecolabel programs in 13 countries and regions, is the Co-lead of the One Planet Network Sustainable Public Procurement Programme since 2019 on behalf of EDC.

Learn more at UNEP One Planet Network Knowledge Center.

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