Text from the Indicator Report 2022
The Partnership for Sustainable Textiles was established in October 2014 in response to fatal accidents in textile factories. The indicator shows the number of members of the Textiles Partnership. Being a multi-stakeholder initiative, the Textiles Partnership has more than just business enterprises in its ranks. On the basis of jointly defined Partnership objectives, each company, by joining the Textiles Partnership, pledges to implement measures for continuous improvement of conditions and for compliance with social and environmental objectives of the Partnership throughout the company’s supply chain.
In its founding year of 2014, 59 members joined the Textiles Partnership, including 26 companies. The end of 2016 saw membership reach its peak, having more than trebled to 188, including 133 companies. Since the introduction of the compulsory plans of action (Roadmaps) in 2017, however, there have been expulsions and several withdrawals from the Textiles Partnership. On the one hand, some members were expelled for non-fulfilment of their reporting obligations. On the other hand, some members withdrew, citing compliance costs or insufficient relevance. Thus, total membership stood at 123 at the end of December 2021. Of the original 59 founding members that joined in the period from October to December 2014, there were still 26 in the Partnership at the end of December 2021, whereby the Federal Government counts as one member instead of three in comparison to 2014. Over that five-year period there was an overall downward trend in the number of members.
At the end of December 2021, 69 out of 123 members (56 %) were classified as companies; eight of them did not have their registered office in Germany. The Textiles Partnership consisted of 85 companies out of the 136 members in the preceding year. This decline reflects, that companies who are member in Textiles Partnership were obliged in 2020 for implementation of due diligence along the supply chain. This includes the analysis and prioritisation of social and ecological risks in the supply chain as well as the derivation of targets and measures for mitigation or reduction of these risks. Member companies have to report about the status of implementation of due diligence every other year. If a company is a member of the Textiles Partnership, this does not necessarily mean that its main economic activity is in the field of textiles and/or clothing manufacture. According to the statistical business register of the Federal Statistical Office in 2020, only about two thirds of 61 member companies operated primarily in the manufacture, wholesaling or retailing of textiles and/or clothing. Their aggregate turnover in 2020 amounted to 16.1 billion euros. According to the trade statistics of the Federal Statistical Office, total retail turnover for the whole of 2020 amounted to 635.2 billion euros, while total wholesale turnover came to 1,363.0 billion euros. About 4.1 % of these amounts were earned by companies primarily assigned to the wholesale and retail sector through sales of clothing, textiles and curtains, excluding footwear, leather goods and carpets.
