SDGs as a global compass for sustainable transformation
29 Apr 2025
The 17 SDGs offer the textile industry more than just guidance: they serve as a strategic lever for innovation, sustainability and competitiveness – helping businesses position themselves for the future amid growing regulatory pressure.
It was a milestone for the global sustainability agenda: in 2015, all 193 member states of the United Nations adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs for short. They are based on a holistic approach summarised by the five overarching goals of the 2030 Agenda: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership.
Ever since then, the SDGs have served as a global compass for businesses, countries and institutions in their efforts to strengthen environmental protection, fight poverty, create decent working conditions and ensure prosperity for all by 2030.
The SDGs as a competitive advantage
The SDGs are of course not legally binding. However, as a unified orientation framework with internationally recognised goals, they enable individual sustainability and social efforts to be compared across national borders. For companies in the globally intertwined textile and fashion industry, the SDGs are a valuable comparative tool for measuring their progress in environmental and social standards at the global level. While some large textile companies now produce their own SDG reports in which they document their sustainability activities, the Goals also function as a practical guide for small and medium-sized enterprises. Not only can these companies use the SDGs to systematically integrate environmental and social goals into their business strategy, but they can also develop new, sustainable business models and tap into competitive advantages this way. Due to their diversified supply chains, textile companies face unique challenges when implementing the SDGs. However, the SDGs can also function as strategic leverage for textile sustainability innovations, such as developing sustainable materials, establishing new recycling and circular processes or creating better working conditions.
‘The SDGs serve as a comprehensive blueprint and important catalyst for fast-tracking solutions to the interlinked challenges of economic growth, environmental degradation and social inequality. The textile industry has a key part to play in achieving these global targets.’
‘The industry can drive forward the implementation of the SDGs by establishing partnerships with the United Nations and other global players, promoting sustainable innovations and supporting cross-sector collaborations.’
‘At Lenzing, we turn sustainability into a competitive advantage by placing it firmly at the heart of our business strategy. This integrated approach, together with our clearly defined goals, allows us to accelerate and support the sustainable development of society. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide us with a strategic framework to drive sustainability forward in a targeted and measurable way. In doing so, we actively contribute to the advancement of the SDGs.‘
New role through regulation
As requirements for circularity and sustainability become stricter and more extensive, the role of the SDGs is actually changing. With EU directives such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), for example, mandatory reporting obligations that go beyond voluntary obligations are being prioritised. The CSRD, which has been introduced gradually since 2024, will initially only affect companies that meet specific criteria from 2025 onwards, such as more than 250 employees and more than 40 million euros in revenue. However, although small and medium-sized textile companies are not (yet) directly affected by the new reporting obligations, they will still need to supply an increasing amount of sustainability data and evidence as suppliers to companies that are subject to the mandatory reporting obligations. In addition, the textile industry is increasingly coming under the spotlight as a high-risk industry thanks to the German Supply Chain Act (LkSG) introduced in 2023 and the planned EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). Despite this increasing regulation, the SDGs will still play an important role in the textile industry as a compass for the globally consistent implementation of textile-related sustainability activities.
Key learnings
Global orientation towards the SDGs The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted in 2015, are intended to serve both countries and companies as a global compass for environmental protection, the fight against poverty and decent working conditions until 2030.
Competitive advantages through sustainability Companies, particularly those in the textile industry, can use the SDGs to integrate environmental and social goals into their own business strategies.
‘Texpertise Econogy’ Insights
The ‘Texpertise Econogy’ Insights provide answers to questions such as: which SDGs are particularly relevant to the industry? What are the top 5 transparency standards? How are natural and synthetic fibres faring in relation to one other? Which process standards are most widespread? Where does the industry currently stand when it comes to textile recycling?
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SDGs in the home textile industry
All over the world encouraging examples can be found of how the principle of individual responsibility and voluntary action can function in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the home-textile industry.
