The requisite need for a better understanding of ESG requirements in the textile and apparel space has been growing. The need has been growing not only because of expectations from the Western markets, EU and USA, but with the recent SEBI and RBI guidelines it is now relevant for the listed textile companies and the supply chain partners of those companies. With a long value chain, the implications for the input suppliers are also growing.
Recognizing the importance of this, CITI has initiated the ESG webinar series. The first two webinars were to understand; why the industry now needs to understand them and follow the ESG norms and the opportunities therein. Today’s webinar on “ESG Reporting Frameworks”, the third in the series was focused more on the reporting frameworks and reporting requirements with the view to give the industry a perspective on the various reporting frameworks that are presently available.
The webinar detailed the frameworks under Global Reporting Initiative, UN Global Compact, National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct, Business Responsibility and Sustainable Reporting, etc.
The presentation was made by Shankar Venkateswaran, Managing Partner, Sustainability Integration and Co-founder of Ecube.
ECube as a knowledge partner for today’s webinar emphasized on understanding various reporting frameworks and also the relevance of these frameworks for the different kinds of requirements that the industry may have for reporting, based on the region they work with, the buyers they work with, and the products they are working on.
Observations were made by industry representatives like TRIBURG, NEW TIMES GROUP, wherein NEW TIMES GROUP highlighted the concerns of the users specifically with regard to the plethora of requirements and the cost requirements as there is still no clarity on how the cost has to be shared between the buyers and the users. Triburg, as a facilitator to several exporting unit also highlighted the challenges they observed of the suppliers .
CITI will continue to hold these workshops to dive deeper into the various aspects of sustainability ESG requirements and reporting frameworks with the objective of capacity building of the Textile and Apparel industry, especially the MSME sector. We invite suggestions from the industry on the areas they need further discussions on.
