Summary
Details
- Global
The OECD Garment Guidance applies to brands, retailers, manufacturers, and other enterprises of all sizes operating anywhere in garment and footwear supply chains. While voluntary for companies, it is government-backed and used as a baseline for supply-chain expectations.
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Introduction
Published by the OECD in 2018, the OECD Garment Guidance translates the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises’ due diligence expectations into a sector-specific playbook for garments and footwear. It is structured around a due diligence cycle: embed responsible business conduct in management systems, identify harms, cease/prevent/mitigate harms, track implementation, communicate, and support remediation when appropriate.
Alongside modules on common labour and integrity risks, it includes dedicated environmental modules addressing hazardous chemicals, water consumption/pollution, and GHG emissions, reflecting the sector’s key environmental impact hotspots (e.g., wet processing, tanneries, cotton, synthetics).
Environmental and climate reporting under the OECD Garment Guidance
The Guidance addresses many topics (notably labour and human rights), but its environment-related content (Modules 8 -10) has direct data and disclosure implications for companies managing textile impacts.
A built-in expectation to communicate: One core step is “Communicate”, which points companies to apply disclosure and communication recommendations across OECD topics—meaning environmental performance becomes part of what firms are expected to explain externally.
Climate measurement and reporting: The GHG module explicitly encourages enterprises to use credible approaches to measure, reduce, monitor and report emissions in their own operations and supply chains.
Chemicals reporting readiness: The hazardous chemicals module steers companies toward building an inventory of chemicals used (risk-based), identifying higher-risk processes and countries, and using supplier assessments that may include tests and certificates. These create a practical need for structured chemical-management data and supplier documentation.
Water footprint transparency: The water module flags where water risks concentrate (e.g. cotton growing, tanneries, dyeing/finishing), pushing companies toward scoping and prioritising these hotspots—often translating into requests for facility-level water use, wastewater controls, and discharge performance information.
Current status and future outlook
The OECD Council adopted a Recommendation (17 May 2017) to promote observance of the Guidance, calling on adhering governments (and, where relevant, National Contact Points) to actively promote and disseminate it. The Guidance was later published as an OECD report.
The OECD also positions it as the only government-backed due diligence guidance tailored to garment and footwear supply chains and continues to expand supporting tools (e.g., a due diligence checker) and sector convenings (OECD forum), which keeps it influential as supply-chain due diligence expectations tighten globally.
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