What Happens When It’s Too Hot to Make Fashion?

Summary

Summary of "What Happens When It’s Too Hot to Make Fashion?"

The Business of Fashion Podcast – December 26, 2024

In the compelling episode titled "What Happens When It’s Too Hot to Make Fashion?" from The Business of Fashion Podcast, host Imran Ahmed explores the escalating crisis of extreme heat and its profound implications for the global fashion industry. The discussion brings together a panel of experts—Laurie Parsons from Royal Holloway, University of London; Abhirami Sivaloganathan, Country Coordinator of Asia Floor Wage Alliance in Sri Lanka; and Betobina, Founder and CEO of supply chain consultancy Far Farm in Brazil—alongside BoF's chief sustainability correspondent, Sarah Kent.

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1. Introduction and Context

Imran Ahmed opens the conversation by addressing the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and their disproportionate impact on developing nations. He highlights how the fashion industry's extensive global supply chains, which heavily rely on resources and labor from countries near the equator, are particularly vulnerable to climate crises. Recent heatwaves in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Africa, Asia, and Europe—each recording their warmest Julys since 1850—serve as a stark backdrop for the discussion (00:04).

Notable Quote:

Laurie Parsons (01:20): “I think what's at stake is the productivity of the industry, the health of the workers and absolutely, as more and more of these stories come out, the reputation of an industry.”

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2. Impact of Extreme Heat on Garment Workers

Laurie Parsons emphasizes the dual threats posed by extreme heat: reduced industry productivity and declining worker health. The panel discusses how soaring temperatures lead to unsafe working conditions, forcing workers to continue laboring despite the risks. Abhirami Sivaloganathan shares harrowing accounts from South Asia, where garment workers endure debilitating heat without adequate breaks or access to water, exacerbating health issues and wage instability (01:37).

Notable Quote:

Abhirami Sivaloganathan (01:37): “The freedom of association should need to be ensured where the members or the factory workers should be able to talk to be part of the union to fight for their rights with the factories management.”

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3. Infrastructure and Health Issues in Factories

The panel delves into the insufficient infrastructure of garment factories in Southeast and South Asia, which are ill-equipped to handle rising temperatures. Laurie Parsons presents data showing that in Cambodia, factory temperatures frequently exceed 35°C, far above the legally mandated 32°C in Vietnam. The lack of systematic temperature monitoring exacerbates the problem, leaving workers vulnerable to heat stress (05:04).

Notable Quote:

Laurie Parsons (05:37): “In Cambodia, that is exceeded in these kind of months almost 100% of the time, and in 20% of the cases it's 35 degrees inside in about a third of the cases hotter inside than outside.”

She further explains the physiological impacts, noting that sustained exposure to temperatures above 38°C can cause immediate health issues, likening it to the exhaustion from a strenuous 5k run in a stuffy gym (06:08).

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4. Economic Implications for the Fashion Industry

Sarah Kent steers the conversation toward the economic repercussions of heat-induced worker stress. Laurie Parsons reveals that garment workers operating under heat stress exceeding 38°C experience a 30% decline in productivity. This significant loss underscores not only a humanitarian crisis but also a financial one for the fashion industry, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable solutions (12:31).

Notable Quote:

Laurie Parsons (12:31): “Garment workers working in heat stress above 38 degrees of their core temperature are 30% less productive. If you think about that economically, that's massive. That's a third of the wage that you're paying to that worker lost because you haven't been able to keep it cool.”

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5. Supply Chain Resilience and Raw Materials

Betobina shifts the focus to the raw material side, particularly agriculture in Brazil. She discusses how climate change disrupts the delicate balance of regenerative farming practices essential for producing materials like cotton. Unpredictable rainfall patterns and extreme weather events diminish crop yields, plunging smallholder farmers into economic hardship. Betobina criticizes the fashion industry's failure to recognize its integral role in these agricultural challenges, advocating for a unified ecosystem approach where brands acknowledge their interdependence with raw material producers (07:39).

Notable Quote:

Betobina (15:22): “This supply chain needs to be built. And private companies, fashion brands, have this role and opportunity to be the one creating these new supply chains.”

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6. Barriers to Addressing Heat Stress

Abhirami highlights a critical barrier: the lack of recognition and awareness of heat stress among workers and industry stakeholders. Workers often prioritize immediate concerns like wages and safety over environmental conditions, making it difficult to address heat stress effectively. Additionally, Laurie Parsons points out the absence of systematic data collection on factory temperatures, which hinders the industry's ability to grasp the severity of the issue (05:37).

Notable Quote:

Abhirami Sivaloganathan (09:22): “Workers are not able to even talk about it. That is the major issue that we don't able to find the solution.”

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7. Proposed Solutions

The panel proposes several solutions to mitigate the impact of extreme heat:

• Innovative Supply Chain Development: Betobina advocates for collaborative efforts involving philanthropic capital, supportive public policies, and internal corporate initiatives focused on sustainability and innovation to rebuild resilient supply chains (15:22).

• Empowerment through Collective Bargaining: Abhirami stresses the importance of securing freedom of association for workers, enabling them to organize and negotiate for safer working conditions and fair wages (16:34).

• Enhanced Monitoring and Adaptation: Laurie Parsons underscores the need for systematic temperature monitoring in factories and the integration of adaptation strategies into sustainability policies (18:27).

Notable Quote:

Betobina (15:22): “If you bring these things together and develop as an innovative project to start this new supply chain... private companies, fashion brands, have this role and opportunity to be the one creating these new supply chains.”

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8. Mitigation vs. Adaptation Policies

Laurie Parsons distinguishes between mitigation (reducing carbon emissions) and adaptation (adjusting to climate impacts). She criticizes the fashion industry's sustainability policies for predominantly focusing on mitigation while neglecting adaptation measures essential for protecting workers currently facing extreme heat (18:27).

Notable Quote:

Laurie Parsons (18:27): “There is an infinitesimally small amount of sustainability policies in this industry that actually focus on that other half, actually what is happening with the workers.”

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9. Conclusion – Risks of Inaction

In closing, Laurie Parsons warns of the severe consequences if the fashion industry fails to address extreme heat. She highlights the compounded threats to industry productivity, worker health, and the industry's global reputation as conditions worsen (19:34). The episode underscores that without immediate and comprehensive action, the fashion sector faces not only ethical and humanitarian crises but also significant economic setbacks.

Notable Quote:

Laurie Parsons (19:34): “As more and more of these stories come out, the reputation of an industry... is becoming increasingly, purely by these atmospheric changes, exploitative of workers who can't cope with these conditions anymore.”

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Final Thoughts

This episode serves as a critical examination of the intersection between climate change and the fashion industry, shedding light on the urgent need for systemic changes to protect vulnerable workers and ensure sustainable production practices. By highlighting both the human and economic costs of inaction, the podcast calls on industry leaders, brands, and policymakers to collaborate in forging resilient and ethical supply chains capable of withstanding the growing challenges posed by extreme heat.

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Notable Quotes:

• Laurie Parsons (01:20): “I think what's at stake is the productivity of the industry, the health of the workers and absolutely, as more and more of these stories come out, the reputation of an industry.”

• Abhirami Sivaloganathan (01:37): “The freedom of association should need to be ensured where the members or the factory workers should be able to talk to be part of the union to fight for their rights with the factories management.”

• Laurie Parsons (06:08): “The workers are sitting down. They're just sitting down. 38 degrees is where I get to after a 5k run in a stuffy gym."

• Laurie Parsons (12:31): “Garment workers working in heat stress above 38 degrees of their core temperature are 30% less productive. If you think about that economically, that's massive. That's a third of the wage that you're paying to that worker lost because you haven't been able to keep it cool.”

• Abhirami Sivaloganathan (09:22): “Workers are not able to even talk about it. That is the major issue that we don't able to find the solution.”

• Betobina (15:22): “If you bring these things together and develop as an innovative project to start this new supply chain... private companies, fashion brands, have this role and opportunity to be the one creating these new supply chains.”

• Laurie Parsons (18:27): “There is an infinitesimally small amount of sustainability policies in this industry that actually focus on that other half, actually what is happening with the workers.”

• Laurie Parsons (19:34): “As more and more of these stories come out, the reputation of an industry... is becoming increasingly, purely by these atmospheric changes, exploitative of workers who can't cope with these conditions anymore.”

Transcript

[Laurie Parsons]

Foreign.

[Imran Ahmed]

Hi, this is Imran Ahmed, Founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion. Welcome to the BOF podcast. It's Friday, December 27th. In recent years, extreme weather events have become commonplace catastrophes. And in a post colonial fashion system, developing nations often bear the brunt of climate crises. For fashion and its complex global supply chains which disproportionately depend on resources and labor from these countries near the equator, one of the most urgent issues is extreme heat. In April, the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh and India all experienced merciless and sometimes deadly temperatures which shuttered workplaces and schools. According to the U.S. national Centers for Environmental Information, Africa, Asia and Europe all logged their warmest Julys since global records began in 1850. To examine what this means for fashion, BoF's chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent convened a panel of global experts at BoF Voices 2024. From Royal Holloway at the University of London, Laurie Parsons, who focuses on the garment industry and climate vulnerability.

[Laurie Parsons]

I think what's at stake is the productivity of the industry, the health of the workers and absolutely, as more and more of these stories come out, the reputation of an industry.

[Imran Ahmed]

From Sri Lanka, Abhirami Sivaloganathan, Country Coordinator of Asia Floor Wage Alliance.

[Abhirami Sivaloganathan]

The freedom of association should need to be ensured where the members or the factory workers should be able to talk to be part of the union to fight for their rights with the factories management.

[Imran Ahmed]

And from Brazil, Betobina, the founder and CEO of supply chain consultancy Far Farm.

[Betobina]

Thinking as a supply chain, as an ecosystem, you can bring philanthropic capital, you can bring public policies and you can think internally. That's not a job from the buyer or the supplier, that's a job from innovation, from marketing, from sustainability.

[Imran Ahmed]

Here are Beto, abhi, Rami and Laurie together with Sarah Kent on the BOF podcast.

[Sarah Kent]

So I found a really interesting in the session about the state of fashion this morning to hear that sustainability had moved down the agenda for CEOs because as Imran just outlined, actually the real tangible impacts of climate change are being felt right now across the value chain and that's having real life consequences for the industry today. And Abby, you know you and I were talking about this in the spring when there was record breaking heat waves across South Asia and you were telling me what people were experiencing in the factories and how that was affecting people working in the industry. What were you hearing?

[Abhirami Sivaloganathan]

Yeah. So Asia, including Southeast Asia and in South Asia, most of the garment factories are not shaped or not. The infrastructure of those factories are not adequate enough to handle the heat waves. Right. So back this Spring, Specifically in India, 52 Celsius was the heat of temperature in 74 years of history. So during the time, mainly in North India, most of the factories faced significant issues because of the heat waves. Most of the garment workers felt sick, but forced to work, forced not to take leaves, and then they had wage issues. Most importantly, they could not even able to take water break because of the higher heat waves. So these are the issues that garment workers faced during the high heat waves in India. In Bangladesh, most of the pregnant women, they faced health issues, could not able to even have normal deliveries just because they asked to work in the high heat stress and they were not even able to take off. So the problem that we heard from South Asia, mainly the garment factories, mainly, you know, like in the industry zones, they fail to accept the fact workers start falling sick just because of the heat waves and then threats and then acknowledge the fact, you know, like the government workers need a break. So I mean, that's what something that we were talking about in the spring.

[Sarah Kent]

And it's something as basic as just giving people a chance to get up and have water or go to the bathroom that's not catered to. I think, you know, it's, it's interesting because there's often a perspective. These are countries where it always gets hot. But obviously these heat waves are becoming more common and more extreme. And Laurie, you've actually been monitoring this, you've been taking temperatures in factories in Cambodia. How hot is it getting? What are we talking about?

[Laurie Parsons]

As you say, it's amazing that this has slipped down the agenda because we've had record breaking temperatures, not just this year, earlier this year, but also the year before throughout Southeast Asia. And you know, the agenda, who it hasn't slipped down for is the workers themselves who are saying, you know, it's never been this hot before. We've never experienced heat like this before. And that's a consistent thing that's being said, massive health impacts of that. And if we actually measure what's happening in factories, it's really quite serious. I mean, there's no clear maximum temperature for a factory in Cambodia, it's not set. But In Vietnam it's 32 degrees.

[Sarah Kent]

Now during this period, that's legally mandated.

[Laurie Parsons]

What the factory, that's legally mandated in Vietnam, in some of the countries it isn't. But like if you take that as a guide, in Cambodia, that is exceeded in these kind of months almost 100% of the time, and in 20% of the cases it's 35 degrees inside in about A third of the cases hotter inside than outside. So you're really doing something wrong. If that is the case.

[Sarah Kent]

Laura, can you just contextualize what that means for the human body? If you're working consistently in a 35 degree conditions, what does that do to you?

[Laurie Parsons]

Right, yeah. So what my work tries to do is to move beyond just looking at the temperature in the room and actually understand what goes on in the human body. So the human body's very adaptable to different climates. But what we don't realize is that we actually have to do a lot of work to maintain what's actually a very kind of fragile, slim line of acceptable temperature. So when it gets cold, we put on a jumper. When it's cold, we go into it. When it's too hot, we go into a breezy place, for example, and that keeps our body temperature consistently between 36.5 and 37.5 degrees. Always. If it goes above 37.5 or above 38, then we've got problems. We start to immediately have health problems in a very short time. So what I've tried to look at is what percentage of these garment workers are going above that 38 degree threshold and thus immediately beginning to have real health problems. And the results really show how severe this is during these times. If we look at months like March this year in 2024, we saw at any one time 25% of workers are experiencing heat stress over 38 degrees. So to give you an idea of what that means, these are just. The workers are sitting down. They're just sitting down. 38 degrees is where I get to after a 5k run in a stuffy gym. So this is the extent of the kind of things we're putting the bodies of the workers in our supply chains through.

[Sarah Kent]

And so the minute you've got anyone who might have already been ill, who was pregnant, that's a huge amount of stress to put the body under. Betty, you operate in a slightly different part of the supply chain. You work with farmers, you're at the raw material level. How are you seeing this play out at that part of the value chain? Sure.

[Betobina]

I work with smallholder farmers in Brazil, and also I'm really proud to do this work. If you see myself here, it's not just beto. I represent 500,000 family farmers living under $100 a month. And I'm really proud to be here talking on their behalf. What I'm seeing on agriculture, these communities are doing the type of agriculture we need in the world. They really depend and collaborate with nature. But nature is changing and specifically it's changing on the season. For example, in cotton it takes from 120 days to 150 days from planting to harvesting. In the beginning, you need to have a lot of rain when your harvest needs to be dry. But the season is changing so much so are not having a lot of rain in the beginning or having too much rain when you're harvesting. So these families, they're already really humble communities are not being able to produce cotton enough and then they get less money and then all these vicious cycles get worse and worse.

[Sarah Kent]

And so essentially it's becoming harder to grow the raw materials that are needed for the fashion industry to operate and.

[Betobina]

Especially becoming harder to work with raw materials. They're doing the type of agriculture truly regenerative that we need and not the conventional type of agriculture that that took us where we are right now.

[Sarah Kent]

So essentially the agriculture that could prove a solution is becoming harder to do because of the way the climate is changing. One of the things that really struck me, Abby, when we were talking is there's obviously a huge human impact, huge human cost, but there's also a manufacturing cost. If people are sick, they, they cannot work as well as they can. When they're healthy, they're not as productive. And there's been a lot of studies on this. When you talk to the workers, what do they say about how they're able to do their jobs when it gets this on?

[Abhirami Sivaloganathan]

So first one thing is important. Not even workers, including the suppliers in the government supply chains, they don't recognize heat stress as an issue. That is the most important thing. It's really fancy to listen. Sustainable development, just transition, it's okay to throw all these words, but then people itself, who are the victims, they don't recognize it as a problem. And then they don't want to even talk about it as the workers. If they come and say like, oh, I have stress because of the heat, I have fever, I'm sick. They are worried about losing the wages. They have multiple issues to talk about. They have issues with gender based violence wages and then they have freedom of association issues. Who is going to sit and talk about heat waves and then heat stress? They don't even recognize it, right? So that is the major issue that the garment industry in global south face these days. So first people need to, the workers need to recognize. So I remember talking to workers from Pakistan and Bangladesh. They're like, oh, do you know what's happening in Bangladesh? We don't need to talk about that. We don't even have wages. The government is falling apart, flood is coming. But then wait, we need to talk about our own earnings, not about something that someone's interest. So this sort of the outcome that we have been hearing, and it's really hard for us to say that this is a circle, you know, like heat waves, just transition related to the wages, harassment inside the factories, everything interconnected, but workers are not able to even talk about it. That is the major issue that we don't able to find the solution.

[Sarah Kent]

So the people who are being most impacted aren't recognizing it or aren't connecting all of these dots, which I think is interesting to the point that we started with where the industry too doesn't seem to be recognizing the risks they face. And you know, Laurie, I'm curious, from your perspective, why do you think that these dots aren't being connected? Why is there not an understanding that if it's 35 degrees in a factory, that that is a problem?

[Laurie Parsons]

Well, you can't connect the dots if there is no dot. And this is the problem. There's just not the data. Until very recently, this has just not been seen as a serious problem by the industry. It's not been sort of on the radar of factory management programs. So even when you're inspecting factories and you've got your checklist of things to look through, it's just not there, Heat. And as a result of that, the number of factories that actually have thermometers is shockingly low. And if they do have a thermometer, they might have one, which is almost useless. If they do have one, they're not going to record the data in any systematic way, certainly not upload it and make it public. But actually in Cambodia is a little bit of an exception to that because they had the influence of the UN's Better Factories program, which has actually done systematic assessments of heat. The problem is, when you actually do the research, if you have an industry which is in no way set up to cope with heat, then the results are so bad you almost want to ignore them. So with the Better Factories program, if they look throughout the entire year, about 70% of factories fail. The only ones that don't fail, the ones that happen to be tested in the coolest part of the year. And as I've said in March and April is 100% of factories fail. So the news is not good.

[Sarah Kent]

So you can game the system, though, to a degree.

[Laurie Parsons]

Well, if you get lucky in terms.

[Sarah Kent]

Of the economic impact for the industry. You know, we were talking a Little bit about productivity declines. What are you seeing in terms of what this means, not just for human impacts, but for economic impacts?

[Laurie Parsons]

Yeah, well, as we've said, the human impacts are massive. You know, huge proportions of workers are experiencing really significant impacts. Over 50% of workers say they experience headaches, dizziness, as just a result of doing their job. But the economic impacts are also really significant. We find, for example, across the sector as a whole, garment workers working in heat stress above 38 degrees of their core temperature are 30% less productive. If you think about that economically, that's massive. That's a third of the wage that you're paying to that worker lost because you haven't been able to keep it cool. So there's an economic as well as a human incentive to really tackle this issue seriously.

[Sarah Kent]

One of the things I found really interesting when I was reporting on the heat wave in South Asia over the spring was that it got so hot the machine stopped working. We were talking about this earlier, you know, you think the mechanization is going to fix this? It's not. Laurie, I think you were saying that machines are more delicate than humans.

[Laurie Parsons]

Yeah. No. In Cambodia, it's been a big narrative. Always when you have the wage negotiations, the factories are saying, well, you know, we'll just mechanize your job. If you keep doing these negotiations, you keep, keep pushing for better conditions. We'll get the machines in. Was just like, good luck with the conditions inside those factories because the machines will just shut down. They can't work at that temperature. It's only the humans that can do it. And again, the physical cost, they bear it, but it is lasting.

[Sarah Kent]

But one of the things I'm always curious about when it comes to the raw material side of things is that this is sort of where you would expect to see the impact play out first. You know, you can't grow the costume because you've got to irrigate now. Or the huge floods in Pakistan a few years ago wiped out a massive amount of the country's cotton crop. And yet there seems to be a huge amount of resilience in global supply chains. How long do you think that could last?

[Betobina]

I think my feeling is that especially in the. In the smallholder farmers, they recognize what's happening and they understand. I feel that the fashion industry has not recognized yet the problems. One important thing for me is that when you think about supply chain, this shouldn't be called externalities. Some consultancy companies call it something that is out of the business, but should be something that is part of the business and the brand. If you're a fashion brand buying cotton, you're part of the agricultural industry. If you're buying leather, you're part of the beef industry buying viscose, you're part of the forestry industry, you're complicit with these industries. So you need to start to recognize that this is part of your business. So I think it would take as long as we understand that we are all this ecosystem and it's integrated and feel responsible about it and share those risks. Exactly.

[Sarah Kent]

So what are the solutions? Beto, I'm going to start with you. What could be done better? What could change?

[Betobina]

On one side, brands need to be committed as a catalyst to develop these new supply chains. On the other side, it's really expensive. They cannot do by themselves. But thinking as a supply chain, as an ecosystem, you can bring philanthropic capital, you can bring public policies, and you can think internally. That's not a job from the buyer or the supplier. That's a job from innovation, from marketing, from sustainability. If you bring these things together and develop as an innovative project to start this new supply chain, especially with smallholder farmer, they're doing the type of agriculture that we deserve, that could be amazing for everyone. Marketing teams could get their content, sustainability could get the data, research and develop, could get like new materials and then you can build a supply chain. But that's the point. This supply chain needs to be built. And private companies, fashion brands, has this role and opportunity to be the one creating these new supply chains.

[Sarah Kent]

This idea of collective action, but also really operating in new and different ways. And I think it's a little bit of a different story on the manufacturing level because there are things that can be done today that can really make a difference to address Heat and Abby, I'm curious to hear from you what those are.

[Abhirami Sivaloganathan]

Any guess? Right. The collective bargaining power the worker should have in the ground level, the factory level or the plant level. How is possible? The freedom of association should need to be ensured where the members or the factory workers should be able to talk, to be part of the union, to advocate to fight for their rights with the factories, management, even the biggest players is the fashion brands. Right. First of all, the workers should need to recognize it's a problem, it's a nature problem. They should be able to talk to whom they need to talk, they need to talk to the unions who should be part of it. And then as a collective, they should be able to talk to the supplier and of course able to talk to the fashion brands. So the fundamental Tool of freedom of association is not yet guaranteed in global south countries, especially in garment industry. The union busting is the famous term compared to even just transition in South Asian countries. So we need to ensure that that is something where workers should be able to talk. Okay, I feel sick. This is a problem. I need to find a solution. I need to talk to the factory management for that. They need to have sort of a collective bargaining power which is not ensured. So from my perspective, the freedom of association should be ensured to have a collective bargaining power to talk about this.

[Sarah Kent]

Which is really interesting because that's a solution that's been talked about in relation to many, many different challenges that the industry has faced. Laurie, when we were talking earlier, you sort of drew this distinction between the issue of mitigation and adaptation. I wonder if you could unpack that a little bit.

[Laurie Parsons]

Yeah, I think this is really important. So almost every brand, every garment apparel company has a sustainability policy of some sort. But almost all of them are focused on what, from the perspective of climate science, is only one half of this debate. So in climate science, we have the mitigation side. That's decarbonization, reducing our carbon emissions and the adaptation side. That's what we actually do for the populations that are affected by climate change. There is an infinitesimally small amount of sustainability policies in this industry that actually focus on that other half, actually what is happening with the workers. So if you have your sustainability policy and you're proud of it, it doesn't feature that bit you're missing so much. And that is hugely important moving forward as we realize just what a big issue heat is.

[Sarah Kent]

And especially because this is happening now, you know, you can try and bring down emissions in the future, but you have to adapt today. And I just want to close by asking, you know, if we fail at this, if what we're seeing this year continues, what does that mean? What's at stake? And Laurie, I'm going to give you the last word because we've got no time left.

[Laurie Parsons]

Well, I think what's at stake is the productivity of the industry, the health of the workers. And absolutely, as more and more of these stories come out, the reputation of an industry which, as these conditions worsen, is becoming increasingly, purely by these atmospheric changes, exploitative of workers who can't cope with these conditions anymore.

[Sarah Kent]

Thank you all so much.

[Imran Ahmed]

The BoF podcast is edited and produced by Olivia Davies and Eric Brea.

[Laurie Parsons]

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