The European Commission has outlined 10 best practices for textile entities to transition toward sustainability, circularity, digitalization, resilience and social responsibility.
The third edition of its “Report on Best Practices of the EU Textiles Ecosystem” highlights how innovation and European production capabilities can facilitate the resilience and strategic autonomy of the textile industry. The 10 examples noted in the report span several European countries, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Romania, and represent a broad range of stakeholders, including large industrial companies and nonprofit organizations.
“These practices address multiple areas of the transition pathway,” the report said. “They center on sustainable competitiveness, research and innovation, and infrastructure development, while also dealing with skills, governance and investment.”
The report highlights Italian company Pulvera, which transforms textile production scraps into fiber-based composite materials, creating applications for the furniture and automobile sectors. Report authors noted that “the company demonstrates how industrial symbiosis can turn textile waste into new business opportunities.”
United Repair Center in the Netherlands combines scalable business-to-business garment repair with an inclusive employment model that creates skill-developing opportunities for people facing barriers to the labor market. “It shows how environmental and social objectives can be embedded in the same circular business model,” the report said.
The European Outdoor Group’s Carbon Reduction Project brings European brands together around shared suppliers, providing facilities with technical support to measure emissions, develop reduction plans and implement concrete decarbonization measures. The initiative “demonstrates the potential of pre-competitive collaboration to address emissions in global textile supply chains,” according to the report.
Dutch sustainable furniture manufacturer Planq and Kvadrat Really—a Danish company that transforms textile waste into table tops—have worked together to incorporate discarded textiles into durable surfaces, panels and furniture components. “These companies illustrate the potential for cross-sector collaboration to reduce reliance on virgin materials and create value from waste streams,” the report noted.
Romanian initiatives Humana People to People and Viitor Plus focus on consumer engagement, using education, awareness campaigns and practical tools to further circular transition. These initiatives encourage reuse, repair and responsible consumption while helping consumers identify opportunities to keep textiles in circulation longer.
Bulgarian textile manufacturer E. Miroglio has transformed its process by investing in modern technologies, certified materials, traceability systems, resource efficiency, lifecycle assessments and environmental monitoring.
Italian leather companies Sicit and Ilsa have worked together to recover collagen-rich residues from tanning processes, converting them into bio-based products such as fertilizers and biostimulants, “creating value from materials that would otherwise be treated as waste.”
Initiatives developed by research institutes and companies such as DITF Denkendorf in Germany, Danish fashion-tech startup Rodinia Generation and German fashion company and microfactory OMIMAI have demonstrated how digitalization can support more local, flexible and on-demand manufacturing. The three entities connect digital design directly with production to shift toward a “design-sell-make” model to address overproduction and long supply chains.
And Belgian technical textiles company Sioen Industries has demonstrated the power of a predominantly European production base in strengthening the resilience of supply chains. The vertically integrated company serves multiple sectors, including defense and security, public safety, maritime applications, energy and infrastructure, while also pursuing initiatives that address circularity and product traceability. In 2024, Sioen partnered with textile eco-design and end-of-life waste management firm Resortec to create workwear that uses heat-dissolvable sewing threads that make it possible to easily disassemble garments at the end of life.
“Taken together, these examples show how the transition of the textiles ecosystem is increasingly moving from ambition to implementation,” the report said. “They demonstrate practical pathways for reducing environmental impacts, creating value from waste, developing viable circular business models, using digitalization to rethink production, and strengthening the resilience of the European textiles ecosystem.”
The report noted that by sharing these examples, the goal is to show other companies how to implement similar initiatives that will advance the transition to a more circular textile economy in Europe.
“By highlighting these practices, the report aims to serve as both a reference and an inspiration for stakeholders across the textiles value chain, supporting knowledge-sharing and the replication of successful solutions,” the report said.
