Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) has introduced a new measurement tool aimed at bringing sharper clarity to how energy use and emissions are evaluated across fashion’s supply base. Unveiled today, the Energy and Carbon Benchmark is designed to help reduce the sector’s disproportionate climate impact by enabling more granular, process-level comparisons—separating factories that run a single production stage from those that combine multiple processing activities on one site. Aii says this distinction is critical for creating consistent metrics and accelerating collective progress toward decarbonisation.
The launch comes as Aii’s tracking shows the industry is moving in the wrong direction. According to its 2025 annual progress update, apparel sector emissions rose by nearly 8% in 2023 compared with the prior year, accounting for close to 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Aii described the increase as the first significant jump since it began monitoring the industry, arguing it reinforces the need for a unified approach that covers the full value chain rather than isolated, company-by-company initiatives.
Aii positions the Energy and Carbon Benchmark as a practical way to identify where emissions are concentrated and where interventions will have the greatest impact. The tool provides independent, transparent data to evaluate production performance across textile suppliers, generating tailored benchmarks based on factors such as energy sources, material inputs and specific processes. It can map total factory energy use and emissions profiles, break down performance by department, and track progress over time—while also allowing comparisons across facilities, regions and operating models.
Jimmy Summers, VP of Environment, Health, Safety, & Sustainability at Elevate Textiles, said the tool will help suppliers and brands align around measurable improvement pathways. “This benchmarking tool helps suppliers to objectively determine where they are in their sustainability journey, which in turn can support further cost-effective interventions, resulting in more effective energy solutions, improved efficiency, and decreased emissions. By communicating supplier performance to brands, Aii’s tool will help the industry to further recognize the importance of suppliers in apparel’s net-zero journey, resulting in additional and effective support and momentum for supplier decarbonization,” said Summers.
Aii says the tool is also intended to shift behaviour by making supplier performance easier to interpret—and therefore harder to ignore—when brands set climate targets or allocate resources. By bringing supply-chain performance into sharper focus, the institute expects the Benchmark to encourage investment in supplier-level decarbonisation and strengthen incentives for improvement.
The tool was tested in a pilot in late 2025, with participation from brands including H&M Group, Inditex, AEO Inc, Gap, Target, J.Crew Group and PVH, as well as suppliers such as Elevate and KPI Mills. Aii said engagement is expanding across key apparel-producing regions as more stakeholders look for comparable, reliable metrics.
Henrik Sundberg, Climate Impact Lead with H&M Group, said the Benchmark addresses a long-standing gap in the industry’s decarbonisation efforts. “When it comes to industry decarbonization efforts, fashion historically hasn’t been able to clearly define what ‘good’ energy efficiency looks like. Aii’s Benchmark, created in partnership with the apparel sector, establishes those baselines backed by data. The Benchmark is a meaningful tool that accelerates brand and supplier decarbonization with transparency and clarity,” said Sundberg.
Inditex also highlighted the value of process-level precision. “By establishing highly granular, process-level benchmarks, this tool provides factories with a transparent and robust way to measure performance based on their production reality. It creates a common, science-aligned reference framework that supports consistent decision-making across the value chain and helps accelerate meaningful emissions reductions across the sector,” said Ana Maceiras, Head of Value Chain for Sustainability at Inditex.
Kurt Kipka, Aii’s chief impact officer, said the institute’s goal is to make performance tracking routine across the supply base and enable better-aligned incentives from brands and financiers. “This methodology provides a structured, quantitative and yet simple way for the fashion industry to assess energy use and carbon reduction opportunities. Ultimately, we hope that one day all suppliers, no matter how big or small, see the business value in tracking and communicating their carbon performance using this Benchmark. And in doing so, brands and financial institutions can respond accordingly with commitments and financial incentives to reward top performers and appropriately support those suppliers with significant improvement opportunities,” said Kipka.
Aii said the Benchmark builds on existing tools and datasets, drawing on verified energy performance data from sources such as the Higg Index, technical experts and direct mill assessments. The methodology also incorporates foundational knowledge contributed by Phil Patterson, a member of Aii’s Climate Solutions Portfolio Advisory Council. Aii added that development followed an open, expert-led process with manufacturers and industry partners to ensure the tool reflects real operating conditions rather than theoretical assumptions.