International Experts Head to Chemnitz for First Sustainable Textile School

Over 30 international specialists from across the textile industry will gather in Chemnitz in eastern Germany from 18-20 September 2017, for the ‘premiere’ of the Sustainable Textile School.

Over three days, experts from the research community and industry will share their knowledge about how various businesses across the textile value chain can be transformed towards a sustainable approach. To foster knowledge transfer and train future generations of textile experts, researchers and practitioners will have the opportunity for fruitful exchange, and students will have the chance to participate through special sponsorship.

The initiative is the brainchild of Chemnitz University of Technology and Gherzi Textil Organisation, who will cooperate with many international, national and regional partners to bring the idea to fruition. Sustainability in the textile industry has increased in relevance for consumers in recent years and will become an important criteria and competitive advantage for manufacturers in the textiles industry, the partners say.

In response, Gherzi and TU Chemnitz aim to bring to life a Sustainable Textile School, where the attention of students and professionals would be further drawn to the subject with instruction from experts.

“The sustainability discussion in the textile chain has progressed far in the last decade. This important subject has moved even farther into the consumers’ focus through the media presence of the Greenpeace organisation and movies such as The True Cost in the past few years,” a spokesperson for The Sustainable Textile School said. “Most of the brand manufacturers have by now decided to take up the subject and use it for their own purposes in the meantime, not only to develop further sales and unique selling points, but also to design their global supply chains cost-efficiently, productively and sustainably,”.

“TU Chemnitz and Gherzi group believe that this trend is no longer stoppable and will certainly become the decisive factor for the innovative and cost-oriented textile industry.”

The assessment gave rise to the plan to develop an series of events for international professionals and students from the textile chain in the next few years that is to become a central place for innovation and further training in the area of sustainability for the textile industry. The focus is on a Sustainable Textile School that will enable professionals and students from all branches of the industry to have a close look at all value-added stages under the focus of sustainability and to derive the resulting tasks in a company.