Sustainability Assessment in The Textile and Apparel Industry: A Review of Recent Studies

Abstract This study was carried out to present general concept and overview of sustainability assessment of textile industry. Textile and apparel industries generate environmental harm at all stages of production from raw material cultivation to disposal of finished goods. Large amounts of chemical loads, high amount of water usage, high energy consumption, air emission, solid waste and odour formation are the major environmental challenge in textile industries. There is a need to assess the performance of textile industry while considering the three facets of sustainability to achieve a sustainable production. Five keywords such as sustainable development, sustainable manufacturing, sustainability assessment, textile industry and triple bottom line were used to investigate and find recent and related studies. The studies were critically reviewed and evaluated at different assessment levels, source and weight of indicators and boundaries of sustainability assessment. Furthermore, the reviewed findings were critically discussed along with their strengths and weaknesses. The reviewed studies revealed that most sustainability evaluations were conducted on sector, product and process/work cell levels in the textile and apparel industry. However, it is necessary to emphasize more on company assessment level to accomplish the three pillars of sustainability objectives. Environmental dimension measurement in textile industry had been fairly developed and standardized. However, from economic and social perspectives, only cost analysis, employee’s welfare and safety were mostly considered in all the reviewed studies. Hence, more investigation and validation must be performed on social and economic indicators in textile industries.