Round Tables

Bringing together stakeholders is a powerful way to inspire change.

One of the most effective ways to bring about change is for stakeholders to come together and discuss ways to make progress. Our round tables help the sector to develop a shared understanding of its core sustainability issues, create alignment on goals and actions, boost commitment from major players, and measure progress.

Explore

We host round tables for a growing number of fibers and materials.

Organic Cotton Round Table

The Organic Cotton Round Table is a global platform that supports and brings together the organic cotton community.

Sustainable Cotton Round Table

The Sustainable Cotton Round Table works to increase the uptake of cotton with improved environmental and social sustainability outcomes.

Recycled Polyester Round Table

The Recycled Polyester Round Table is a multi-stakeholder network working to increase the uptake of recycled polyester.

Biosynthetics Round Table

The Biosynthetics Round Table focuses on synthetic materials made wholly or partly from natural, renewable feedstocks.

Manmade Cellulosics Round Table

The MMCF Round Table exists to advance more sustainable manmade cellulosic fibers such as those made from recycled or regenerative sources.

Animal Fibers Round Table

The Animal Fibers Round Table brings together industry members working across wool, mohair, alpaca, cashmere, and yak.

Leather Round Table

The Leather Round Table is helping to build a leather industry that protects and restores the environment, reduces its climate impact, and improves lives.

Textile Exchange Round Table Working Groups

In 2022 Textile Exchange introduced a new round table governance strategy that put an emphasis on pivoting the round tables towards being more action oriented to help us deliver on our ambitious Climate+ strategy. Recognizing the role that our community plays in developing a shared understanding of the industry’s sustainability issues, barriers, and opportunities, our working groups aim to bring together key stakeholders to tackle a specific set of challenges under an agreed agenda by:

Leveraging industry expertise by bringing together key stakeholders to gather data, work on research, and develop resources that enable continuous improvement or scale solutions to maximize impact.
Creating alignment on definitions and goals to encourage key industry players to work towards finding common ways to drive and measure progress.
Developing innovative projects that drive action towards the achievement of our Climate+ goals.

HOW IT WORKS

Creating conversations that span the supply chain

Pre-competitive communities

Our round tables build collaborative, pre-competitive communities made up of voices and perspectives from source to store.

woman using sewing machine on red material.

Industry alignment

We create alignment on goals and encourage key industry players to work towards them, finding common ways to measure progress.

Collaborative initiatives

We leverage industry expertise by bringing stakeholders from different sectors together to work on research, resource development, and pilot projects.

Global and regional

Our round tables operate at both global and regional levels, including quarterly meetings and working groups.

Goals

We’re focusing our conversations on Climate+.

Our round tables are orientated towards our Climate+ goal of driving a 45% reduction in the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that come from producing fibers and raw materials by 2030 while boosting beneficial outcomes for soil health, water, and biodiversity. We encourage our members to adopt it as a direction of travel over the next decade.

Discover Climate+

Get Involved

Our communities stay connected year round.

Annual summits

Round table summits are held each year alongside our annual conference and are designed to be interactive and work-oriented while remaining open and inclusive.

Virtual sessions

Round tables meet virtually on a quarterly basis for active sessions where participants work on finding solutions to industry needs and identifying opportunities for driving impact.

Working groups

Each round table has a number of working groups comprising a dedicated group of people who agree to meet regularly to tackle a specific set of challenges under an agreed agenda.

Online community

Each round table group has a dedicated community on The Hub to keep the conversation moving outside of meetings, facilitating further connection between industry leaders to share knowledge and drive change.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a question not answered here, get in touch with us directly, and we’ll be happy to answer it for you

Do I have to be a member to participate in Round Tables?

Membership is recommended but not required to participate in our Round Table Groups.