In April 2024, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region signed a major agreement with the textile industry to support its transition toward a more virtuous and sustainable economy.
With a total budget of €512,000 for the 2024–2026 period, this agreement brings together three key players: UNITEX AuRA, IFTH and Techtera.
A look back at the major achievements of this partnership, organised around four complementary strategies:
Area 1 – Raising awareness among, training, and mobilising companies
The agreement mobilised the entire regional textile industry around the challenges of the ecological transition, drawing on positive initiatives for raising awareness, fostering innovation, and supporting businesses.
Techtera facilitated the ReBORN Club — a forum for discussing the circular economy — by organising workshops focused on bio-based materials, recycled materials, textile end-of-life, and decarbonisation, as well as site visits. At the same time, companies were encouraged to engage in collective initiatives, such as the Business Convention for the Climate and “Carbon Footprint & Climate Strategy” programmes.
A training programme, entitled: “Corporate Social Responsibility: Trajectory for the Textile Sector” was proposed by Unitex and Afnor. Meanwhile, the “Textiles of Tomorrow” event has become a key gathering for circular innovation.
2 – Better understand and add value to post-production textile materials
Among its major achievements, Techtera spearheaded an unprecedented mapping of production offcuts and dormant stocks, raising awareness among 126 companies and conducting 70 resource mapping exercises. This work — complemented by feedback workshops and a practical guide on recovery pathways for industrial textile waste, developed by the partners of the agreement for the benefit of waste holders — forms an essential foundation for developing new recovery value chains.
3 – Develop eco-design and prevent waste
Industries involved are also strongly committed to developing eco-design through collaborative workshops and webinars tailored to businesses: “Eco-design: Challenges and Best Practices for the Textile Industry” and “Eco-design: Support and Financing Solutions.”
4 – Accelerate energy and water conservation
Finally, several initiatives have been undertaken to accelerate energy and water conservation, including the organisation of a business convention on decarbonisation, the distribution of an energy efficiency guide, environmental regulatory monitoring, and innovation workshops.
These initiatives provide companies with positive tools to strengthen their environmental performance while improving their competitiveness.
This momentum continues with new initiatives in support of the circular economy.
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