Ruth MacGilp, Fashion Campaign Manager
2025.02.11
Would you rather burn a big coal fire to boil water for your cup of tea, or flip a switch on an electric kettle?
At a much larger scale, textile manufacturers are facing this choice. To heat water to high temperatures and create large quantities of steam in order to dye and process fabrics, fuels including coal, gas and biomass are burned onsite. But a much cleaner alternative exists — electrification, and it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and even energy bills.
What is electrification?
Electrification can be applicable to a wide range of sectors, including transport (think electric cars) as well as heavy industries like steel and cement.
In this context, we are referring to using electricity to power thermal processes in the textile supply chain, instead of the traditional fuel combustion approach. These processes are those that require hot water and steam, including sizing, washing, drying, desizing, scouring, mercerizing, bleaching, dyeing, printing and heat setting.
The majority of manufacturers globally have traditionally powered these processes by burning fossil fuels, with some switching to biomass — burning organic matter for fuel — in recent years. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Textile factories can now transition away from combustion and towards technologies including industrial heat pumps, electric boilers, and thermal storage solutions.
How and why should fashion electrify?
Primarily, electrification is a method of decarbonization in the fashion industry, enabling suppliers to reduce their direct emissions (scope 1 and 2), and therefore enabling fashion brands to reduce their indirect emissions (scope 3) — where, incidentally, the majority of the industry’s emissions come from. This is because burning fossil fuels for these processes is very carbon intensive and highly polluting, as well as energy inefficient. In other words, you have to buy, store and burn a lot of fuel for a relatively small amount of water or steam, with a lot of energy released as waste heat.
The most effective way to decarbonize textile manufacturing is to target the largest source of fashion’s emissions — material production and manufacturing (Tier 2) — through transitioning from fossil fuel-powered processes to low-carbon thermal processes. Electrification is a highly efficient solution for this: it produces low-carbon thermal energy; it requires minimal onsite infrastructure adjustments; and it can be economically competitive with conventional technologies across various countries and contexts. Heat pumps in particular have emerged as a decarbonization solution that can provide cost savings, energy savings, and emissions savings due to their very high energy efficiency.
“Electrifying manufacturing processes, especially Tier 2 where thermal energy constitutes most energy use, is critical for fashion companies to decarbonise their supply chains….Switching production to renewable electricity across the fashion supply chain constitutes up to 65% of potential GHG emission reductions by 2030 under current decarbonisation scenarios.”
– NewClimate Institute, Evolution of Corporate Climate Targets
In fact, a new free tool from Global Efficiency Intelligence enables fashion brands and suppliers to calculate the potential energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and cost savings (both upfront CapEx and ongoing OpEx) of transitioning from fossil fuel-based heating to electric solutions like industrial heat pumps, electric steam boilers, and electric thermal oil boilers in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam. The tool even provides a step-by-step guide for implementation, including databases of commercially available heat pump and electric boiler manufacturers.
Fashion is not a ‘hard to abate’ sector: its production requires relatively low temperatures compared to heavy industries. So there is a clear opportunity to accelerate the transition away from burning fossil fuels and towards 100% electricity as soon as possible. This transition will be accelerated even further by first optimizing for energy efficiency, and investing in dry processing systems that don’t require water and steam production, to reduce energy consumption and waste. This will make electrification quicker, cheaper and more efficient.
But here’s the important part: these newly electrified processes need to be powered by wind and solar in order to significantly reduce emissions and clean up electricity grids. So how do we make this happen? Ultimately, manufacturing facilities can cover all of their energy needs with clean, renewable electricity by installing onsite solar panels and purchasing offsite renewables via Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to operate their electric machinery. In order to speed up this transition, brands must provide financial support for their suppliers (who often operate on razor-thin margins) to invest in the upfront costs of switching to renewable energy. This will, in turn, enable brands to meet their public climate targets, reduce legal and reputational risks, and build long term energy stability and security for their supply chain.
“If brands are willing to support the short-term increases in energy prices faced by their suppliers, then it’s also an increasingly practical replacement for coal, fossil gas and most sources of biomass – for the sake of what remains of the world’s natural forests, I hope this happens quickly, and that other energy-heavy industries can make similar positive changes.”
– Peter Ford, Policy Lead at EnergyLab Cambodia (ex-H&M), Mongabay
Last year, Fashion Revolution’s What Fuels Fashion report found that less than 0.5% of brands had a time-bound target for electrifying energy-intensive manufacturing processes.
In this year’s report, brands will be scored on their plans to electrify supply chain manufacturing processes — and hopefully, results will reflect the growing movement for electrifying fashion, which includes brands like Patagonia and New Balance supporting research into electrification; H&M investing in innovative thermal heat storage; brands like Canada Goose, Mango and Levi’s referring to electrification in their climate strategies; and funding for pilot programmes being supported by PVH, Target and more.
We support the What Fuels Fashion campaign’s demand for brands to join the move towards 100% electric and 100% renewable across all energy sources by 2040. To get there, we’re asking brands to share strong targets and credible strategies — including financial support and policy advocacy — for a full phaseout of coal, gas and biomass for all thermal processes, paired with investment in electrification technologies and sourcing high quality, local and additional renewable energy in the supply chain.
For more information about the campaign and why it matters, register here for Fuelling Fashion Decarbonisation: Towards a Just Transition in Fashion Supply Chains, a free webinar hosted by Action Speaks Louder and Fashion Revolution with speakers from EnergyTag, TrendAsia and Crescent Bahuman Ltd.
